By Kevin Eckleberry

Times-News

The Troup Tigers shrugged off a slow start to dismantle Ridgeland 59-24 on Friday night in their season opener at Callaway Stadium.

The Tigers were trailing 7-0 when they scored their first touchdown in the closing moments of the first quarter, and they didn’t look back.

With senior quarterback Kobe Hudson leading the way with a remarkable night, Troup scored seven offensive touchdowns and also got a kick return for a score by Trey Williams.

Hudson, an all-state player last season, had three touchdown passes and three scoring runs.

Williams had a scoring run in addition to his kick return for a touchdown, and Troup also scored two points on a safety late in the game.

The game was still somewhat in doubt early in the fourth quarter when Ridgeland kicked a field goal to get within 12, but Troup scored the final 23 points to win going away.

While happy to see his team open with a win, Troup head coach Tanner Glisson is hopeful the execution will improve as the season goes along.

Next up for Troup is Thursday’s road game against the Columbus Blue Devils.

“We were just not crisp,” Glisson said. “They came out in some stuff we had not seen. We thought they were going to be in spread, and they came out in two tights and tried to keep the ball away and milk the clock.”

Glisson added that “we came out and the stadium was dead, we were dead, and had a hard time getting a foothold. And then we had some big penalties. We had three touchdowns called back. You just can’t shoot yourself in the foot like that and get momentum. So lucky for us we’re talented enough to overcome that, but we won’t do that for long. We’ve got to get much better.”

It helped that Troup had Hudson on its side.

Hudson, showing off the form that allowed him to amass nearly 5,000 combined yards rushing and passing last season, was in on six scoring plays against Ridgeland.

Hudson threw touchdown passes of 44 and 37 yards to Mark-Anthony Dixon, and he tossed an 80-yard scoring strike to Zy Varner.

Hudson also had touchdown runs in the second half covering 10, 55 and 12 yards.

One of Hudson’s most impressive plays came late in the game with Troup trying to put Ridgeland away.

Hudson dropped back to pass and was under duress, and after changing directions a couple of times he threw a 39-yard strike to Varner for a completion.

Four plays later, Hudson’s 12-yard keeper and the Isaac Andrews extra point gave Troup a 50-24 lead.

Varner knows that with a quarterback of Hudson’s ability a play is never over.

“We know how our quarterback plays,” Varner said. 

“He can scramble, and he can throw it. That’s what he’s capable of doing.”