2018 Football Countdown : Toledo

Toledo:

Toledo finally got over the finish line last season, winning their first MAC championship since “Toledo Tom” was prowling the sidelines. It was a 14 year drought which happened during eras when CMU, NIU, and WMU all had streaks which prevented Toledo from even winning their division.

There was that one year Ball State was kind of good as well.... How’d that end again?

But even though Toledo never got to the championship game they have been a really good team for the past 8 years. They’ve been to seven Bowls, winning three. THey’ve had seven seasons with 8 or more wins, and two with 10 or more.

Series History:

Only the great Turner Gill was able to beat Toledo. In 2007, as Toledo Tom was starting to struggle, UB downed Toledo 44-34 in the middle of the season.

Outside of that UB is 0-4 against the Rockets in MAC play and lost in 1970 to the undefeted rockets who went on to beat up William & Mary in the Tangerine Bowl.

This Years Team:

Toledo has done a solid job recruiting for years, so despite some big losses they are basically reloaded.

The rockets lost two all conference offensive linemen, they lost maybe the best QB in the MAC and certainly one of the best Running Backs. They also lost several of their more prominentt defensive players.

But the upside for Toledo is that whoever get’s the job behind center will still have one of the best recruiting corps in the MAC and the Rockets have a history of good running backs with little to no fall off after one graduates.

The Matchup:

This game will key on UB’s defense.

Toledo’s wide receivers are really going to challenge UB’s defense but the key to this game may be how UB’s front seven can take advantage of the Rockets losing their all conference guards.

Whoever wins Toledo’s quarterback battle will do a lot of damage if he’s allowed to sit back in the pocket. There are just too many weapons in their receiving corps.