Football Team Raises School Spirit by Trolling Social Media

by Caleb Thomas

After a win at Western Kentucky, Troy’s football account sent out a tweet that drew the attention of national media such as ESPN. “estern Kentucky now because we took the W,” reads the tweet that has since been featured on ESPN’s top college football Twitter trolls column. 

This isn’t the first time that the Troy football Twitter has garnered national attention, though. Just a week before the Western Kentucky victory, they had another tweet that was featured on ESPN. “Can’t spell MarshaLL without an L,” was the caption on this particular tweet. 

“We take pride in our trolling,” said Adam Prendergast, associate athletic director for communications and creative content. “We like to have fun, social media is supposed to be fun, and college athletics is supposed to be fun.”

From graphics to captions, creating a successful social media post can be a lengthy process at times. 

“Usually, during the game week we’ll talk about what we want to do,” said Prendergast. “We’ll get together on Tuesday or Wednesday and try to come up with an idea.”

This process can involve lots of brainstorming– sometimes it might take a few different ideas to get to the final product.

“The Western Kentucky one was number four on the drawing board,” said Prendergast. “Usually the first ten ideas we come up with don’t make it.”

Brandon Mostyn, a graduate assistant with the athletics department, was responsible for both the Western Kentucky and Marshall captions. 

“It’s really about working through it and coming up with ideas until you find the right thing to say,” said Mostyn. “It was nice to get that recognition, I enjoyed seeing my work being noticed.”

The social media team is full of creative minds, and they all work together on the final product. Whether it’s graphics, captions, or videos, there are plenty of aspects to work on.

“We got some really creative people,” said Prendergast. “It’s not just me that comes up with this.”

One of the things that makes the Troy social media so special is the lighthearted culture around it. 

“At the end of the day, it’s a college football Twitter account,” said Prendergast. “We’re not trying to take ourselves too seriously.”

“I love being a troll when it comes to this stuff.”

Make sure to follow Troy football’s Twitter @TroyTrojansFB to see the new content they release.