After what amounted to a lost 2024 season, Troy quarterback Goose Crowder is back healthy and ready to make an impact this fall.

Crowder started four of the Trojans’ first five games last season, but was knocked out of two with head injuries and played in a total of only 11 quarters before being shut down in late October. The former Gardendale High School star — who passed for 542 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions in his limited action — took a medical redshirt year and returned in the spring with two years of eligibility remaining.

Crowder represented Troy at Sun Belt Conference Media Days in New Orleans on Tuesday, along with head coach Gerad Parker and linebacker Devin Lafayette. He said he’s happy being “back to where I need to be” after the difficulties of 2024.

“I took it one day at a time,” Crowder said. “After it had been decided that my season was going to be discontinued, I had the realization that I could sit around and sulk and feel sorry for myself and think ‘why me?’ or I could find a way to try to contribute toward the team and find a new way to make an impact in the locker room.

“I think that’s what I did. It made it really easy with all the guys in the locker room and the staff that we had, that I still felt connected.”

A three-star recruit in the Class of 2021, Crowder played his first two college seasons at West Virginia. Parker was the Mountaineers’ offensive coordinator his freshman year, with current Troy OC Sean Reagan serving as quarterbacks coach in 2022.

Crowder had already transferred to Troy — he was the Trojans’ holder in 2023 — by the time Parker and Reagan were hired prior to last season. The opportunity to work closely together again didn’t materialize in the way either party imagined, but 2025 offers a second chance.

“We are very, very happy to know that he’s back and healthy,” Parker said. “Our team believes in Goose. Our staff believes in Goose and knows what his capabilities are, and we’re anxious to see him do that.”

Troy began last season with a 1-7 record, but actually improved as the season went along. With Tucker Kilcrease and later Matthew Caldwell (who transferred to Texas in the offseason) taking the majority of quarterback snaps, the Trojans won three of their final four games.

But Crowder has been considered the unquestioned starter when he’s been healthy. He said he spent part of the spring working on techniques designed to help him avoid further head injuries in the future.

“Coach Parker put a big emphasis on, knowing ‘the party’s over,’ going down, when it’s appropriate to slide and when to dive and stuff,” Crowder said. “Just practicing that and continuing to just bank reps, kind of learning how to fall really and just protecting yourself and putting an emphasis on me being able to play all 12 games.”

Crowder — whose first name is actually Will — took his nickname from Anthony Edwards’ sidekick character in the classic 1986 Tom Cruise blockbuster Top Gun. He was obsessed with the film and “planes and jets and everything,” he said, so much so that his brother started calling him “Goose.”

Crowder chuckled when reminded things didn’t exactly turn out well for Goose in Top Gun (spoiler alert: he dies about midway through the film). But after a year spent mostly on the sidelines, Troy’s Goose appears ready for a starring role.

“He’s a veteran now and he handles himself like a vet,” Parker said. “His body looks different. He has really trained in the head and neck area. He has trained his body in trimming body fat. He’s just prepared and developed in such a way that he’s never done before.

“And I’ve told everybody today, I think the biggest piece is he is the leader. He’s the leader of our locker room; he has won over our locker room. I think a great quarterback has to do that. It’s not just about offense and defense. You have to be the leader of the locker room.”

Troy opens the 2025 season at home Aug. 30 vs. Nicholls, with kickoff set for 6 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Stadium.