Toledo gets to work in role as title favorite
No one in the Toledo delegation was slapping backs or trading high-fives when it was revealed that reporters from around the Mid-American Conference picked the Rockets to win the championship this season.
Toledo almost always is in the title conversation, but the team has not raised the trophy at Ford Field in Detroit since 2004.
There is quiet confidence, though, with a solid returning core of quarterback Logan Woodside, game-changing receiver Cody Thompson and linebacker Ja’Wuan Woodley of Hartley.
“Each year presents new challenges and every team is different, but there is still one primary goal in mind — to win a conference championship,” second-year coach Jason Candle said. “A lot of work has to be put in to get to that point. It’s a day-to-day approach.”
Toledo had the credentials to win a league title last season, when it finished 9-4. But Western Michigan was special and went unbeaten in the regular season, its lone loss in a 13-1 campaign coming against Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl.
Ohio also is looking for more after getting a share of the East Division championship, but losing the conference championship game to Western Michigan and to Troy in the Dollar General Bowl. The Bobcats haven’t won a MAC title since 1968.
“I’m never one to guess on those type things,” coach Frank Solich said of preseason predictions. “But I like the makeup of our team and what they are all about with regard to leadership.”
Keys to getting back to the title game should hinge on sophomore Quinton Maxwell becoming the first quarterback since Tyler Tettleton (2011 to ’13) to be a game-changer.
Miami did not represent the East in the conference championship game because of a 17-7 loss to Ohio in week 5, but coach Chuck Martin said that game went a long way in turning the team around. The RedHawks finished 6-7 after starting 0-5.
“When I got here it was a huge rivalry, but nobody thought we really had a chance to beat them the first year and they probably were accurate,” said Martin, in his fourth season. “Last year we had a chance to beat them, and we had a fourth-team quarterback on the field and were without our top three receivers. We matched them mentally.”
Miami returns 17 starters, including inspirational quarterback Gus Ragland.
Bowling Green’s streak of playing in bowl games ended at four years and in the MAC title game at three years under first-year coach Mike Jinks last season, but the Falcons did win their final three games to finish 4-8.
Akron dipped to 5-7 after finishing 8-5 and recording its first-ever bowl victory in 2015, beating Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Fifteen starters are back.