At this moment Troup shifts his legs. It’s hardly a noticeable movement and he probably did it without thinking, but the movement is just long enough to draw someone’s attention to one thing — the scar on his left knee which represents the three ACL surgeries he had within the span of four years.

For Troup, his journey started six years ago when he was a stand out wide receiver at Wayzata High School in Plymouth, Minnesota. It was during that time, the then 17-year-old Troup tore his left ACL during his senior year in the 2009 Minnesota high school state football playoffs.

But it didn’t stop there. A slip during a rehab exercise six months later would once again cause Troup to go under the knife.

The injuries dashed Troup’s hopes of earning a Division 1 football scholarship. However, after graduating from high school in 2010, Troup stayed diligent, which eventually led to him walking on to the MSU football program in the spring of 2011.

Throughout the next two years, Troup continued to work hard at striving to be his best, and his natural talent certainly never went unnoticed.

“Troup is awesome,” junior quarterback Tyler O’Connor said. “To be honest with you, when I showed up here, I thought the kid was on scholarship, just because he’s such a good player.”

Unfortunately for Troup, after a breakout spring in 2013 — one in which he caught a touchdown in the spring game — Troup would once again tear the same ACL in a summer workout. The injury would mean Troup would have to miss the entirety of the 2013 season, but it didn’t mean Troup’s spirit was crushed.

“I had a great support staff from my teammates, to my coaching staff and family back home that made it a lot easier,” Troup said.

Troup worked hard at getting back to where he was for the next year, and on the opening night of the 2014 season against Jacksonville State, the 6-foot-2, 218 lb. wide receiver caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from MSU quarterback Connor Cook in the first quarter. The Spartans would go on to win the game 45-7.

Now a year later, with MSU’s two leading receivers from 2014 lost to graduation — Tony Lippett and Keith Mumphery — Troup has a very real possibility at being a key player in the No. 6 Spartan football team’s success this year, something that’s a long time coming in the eyes of MSU wide receivers coach Terrence Samuel.

“His story could be totally different,” Samuel said. “Troup, had he not been injured a couple of years ago, he might have been in the rotation a long time ago ... but a tribute to him, how hard he worked to get back, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that out of a kid ... and then he comes back faster. I don’t know how he does it.”

Samuel also went on to praise Troup for being the fastest receiver on the team. That’s not the norm for fifth year walk-on wide receiver, much less one with three ACL tears. But for Samuel, it’s Troup’s personality which truly makes him shine.

“I love him a lot,” Samuel said. “Just because of his mentality ... he’s just one of those guys, what he brings into the position room, he’s just one of those guys that you feel ‘he can’t date my daughter, but I’d let him date somebody else’s daughter.’ But he’s just a wonderful person.”

Teammates also agree that Troup has a work ethic and personality that’s unlike any other.

“He’s worked his way up the ladder and obviously fought some injuries with his knees but he’s going to be one of our leading receivers this year without a doubt,” O’Connor said. “He’s already a leader in the room. He doesn’t have the experience on the field that maybe Macgarrett (Kings) or Aaron (Burbridge) or R.J. (Shelton) have, but he’s a very good leader, he’s all about the team, he’s stuck with Michigan State since he’s been here. He’s a good guy and he works very hard.”

Even as Troup has perhaps finally ascended to a play maker in MSU’s offense, and even as he goes to work to prepare for MSU’s opening game against Western Michigan, there aren’t any sort of ‘what if’s’ or ‘why me’s’ going through his mind. He wouldn’t have his story any other way.

“It’s kind of a chip on my shoulder in my own different way,” Troup said. “But it’s one that I really truly love, but it’s not a struggle at all. It’s something that I embrace and it’s something that I hold dear to my heart really, is being a walk-on and competing every day and trying to earn everything I get.”