Nevada football player Tori Daffin did her business in the Wolf Pack locker room ahead of her team’s game in Troy on Saturday.
He traded tickets to the Wolf Pack’s away game against the Trojans. Each Nevada football player gets four free tickets per game, and Daffin traded his tickets to future games for tickets to this weekend.
“I did business with a lot of guys from Hawaii, we traded and exchanged things,” Daffin said.
And for good reason. The Wolf Pack safety grew up in Ozark, Alabama, 35 miles southeast of Troy, where Nevada will play its first road game of the season. Daffin’s parents both graduated from Troy, and the family attended a number of games at Veterans Memorial Stadium over the years.
“I’m definitely excited and pumped to be coming home,” said Daffin, who had 50 tickets transferred to him by teammates. “There’s nothing better than playing in a place you know and playing in front of your loved ones.”
Daffin expects as many as 100 family and friends to be in attendance. His parents are taking Thursday off so they can see their son and his Wolf Pack teammates when they land in Alabama around 7 p.m. local time. Nevada had scheduled that home-and-away game against Troy for September 2022 before Daffin joined the team last year. But when he first saw the game in his home state on Nevada’s schedule, Daffin’s first message was to his cousin Steve McLendon, who also grew up in Ozark before playing for Troy and played 12 seasons in the NFL as a defensive tackle from 2010-2021.
“He’s a Super Bowl winner, so I texted him and he’s actually on their wall and everything,” Daffin said. “I was like, ‘We’re going to beat his dick!’ He said, ‘Slow down.’ He was the first person I contacted.”
Daffin is excited to play in the stadium he visited so often when he was younger, cheering for Troy. Now he will try to beat the Trojans and has first-hand experience at Veterans Memorial Stadium, where Troy went 13-1 the last two seasons, including back-to-back wins in the Sun Belt Conference championship games at his home stadium.
“It’s going to be loud at Veterans Memorial Stadium,” Daffin said. “That place down there is built on a winning culture. I know they have a new coaching staff and stuff, but they have tradition. Their student section is going to be right behind us. I also have a lot of friends that are going to Troy, so I know they’re probably teasing me and stuff, so I have to make sure I stay focused.”
Daffin is the only Alabama native on Nevada’s roster, although former Wolf Pack safety Tyson Williams, who now works as an assistant for the team, is from Dothan, which is 55 miles from Troy. Daffin’s college career began at East Central Community College in Decatur, Mississippi, which is 220 miles from Troy. There he met Michael Coats Jr., who transferred to Nevada along with Dafin before last season. Coats, a starting cornerback for the Wolf Pack, is from Biloxi, Mississippi.
“There’s actually a lot of people coming,” Coats said. “Probably more than 40 people. So it feels good. I probably haven’t been home in a year, so it feels good. I’m going back to my natural habitat, so this game isn’t going to be a problem for me. I know the climate. I know what it’s going to feel like. I’m ready to come back.”
At East Central CC, Coates and Daffin played with TJ Thompson, a linebacker for Troy. That’s one of the many familiar faces the Wolf Pack duo will see when they play the Trojans on Saturday, and the two are looking to create a lifelong memory of their Southern roots.
“It’s a blessing,” Coats said. “To even be able to play on that stage, to play at home, close to home, you have your family that can come in person to watch instead of watching on TV, it’s a blessing.”
Daffin said football in the South is different. It’s a way of life. While Alabama and Auburn are the most well-known teams in the Yellowhammer State, Troy also has a successful history, winning national titles in the NAIA and Division II before moving to the FCS and then the FBS. In the FBS era (since 2001), the Trojans have won eight Sun Belt titles and are ranked 19th in the nation in 2022 with 23 wins over the last two seasons (Nevada had four during that span).
“In the South, football in general is serious business,” Daffin said. “It’s something we love. Mike and I always tell the guys during our practices to take the right weight because that’s the SEC gang. The guys in the South will do that too. I know they’re a Group 5 program too, but it gets physical and they’ll fly around. If you don’t have your helmet on tight enough, they’ll smack you in the face.”
Daffin, a backup who frequently plays on special teams and could get more play on defense Saturday as Nevada gears up to brave the expected heat and humidity, was recruited by Troy but never received a scholarship, paving the way for him to start at the junior college level. He’s not upset about never getting an offer from Troy, but would savor a win against the Trojans.
“That would mean a lot to me,” Daffin said. “I grew up close to them, was recruited by them, talked to them and they didn’t pull the trigger. I definitely want to go down there and walk out there while the crowd is quiet.”
Although his parents are graduates of Troy University, Daffin said his family have been Tennessee fans since he was a kid, so there’s no doubt who the Daffins will be cheering for when the Wolf Pack takes the field on Saturday.
“They will cheer us on,” Daffin said.
