2018 College Football Team Previews: Toledo Rockets
Toledo Rockets
Location: Toledo, OH
Coach: Jason Candle (21-7) 3rd Season
Stadium: Glass Bowl (Capacity: 26,248)
CSJ Projections:
2nd: MAC (1st in West Division)
3rd: Ohio
65th: FBS
68th: Division I
2017 In A Sentence: For all of the success the Rockets has enjoyed in recent years, Jason Candle’s 2017 Rockets accomplished something that had not been done since 2004 and that is win a MAC championship–Toledo also played in bowl game its seventh out of the last eight seasons but last year were blown out by Appalachian State in the Dollar General Bowl to finish 11-3 overall.
Biggest Shoes to Fill: QB Logan Woodside is the Rockets’ career record-holder for passing yards (10,514), touchdowns (93), and efficiency rating (162.9). He had a 29-9 record there and sits 12th on the FBS career efficiency list. He was drafted in the 7th round of the NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.
Key Players: WR seniors Cody Thompson and Jon’Vea Johnson, along with junior Diontae Johnson, comprise one of the finest receiving corps iat all levels. All three have earned All-MAC honors and have caught at least 10 touchdown passes in a season, marking the first time in the history of the NCAA that a team returns three all-league wide receivers with at least 10 TD receptions. These three targets should make the transition to the new quarterback (junior Mitchell Guadagni or sophomore Eli Peters) easier.
Fearless Prediction: The Rockets possess all of the necessary ingredients with 14 returning starters and two others that are coming off injury to be the first team in the league to repeat since 2012 — with one huge question at the all-important quarterback position. But with a strong defense and enough offense, this team should be back at least to the MAC West top.
Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football is the Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
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