DETROIT – In its first Mid-American Conference championship game since 2004, the University of Toledo football team was not going to leave anything to chance.
Pinned back at their own 3-yard line, with 1:39 showing on the first-half clock, most teams would have run out the remaining time and gladly taken a 21-point lead into the locker room.
Not this Toledo team. With time left on the clock, this Rockets’ coaching staff and this offense was not going to let a MAC championship moment go to waste.
What ensued was an eight-play, 97-yard drive that put a stamp on Toledo’s 45-28 MAC championship game win over Akron on Saturday at Ford Field.
“To be able to put yourself in that situation you have to have a lot of trust in your quarterback [Logan Woodside] and I do,” UT coach Jason Candle said. “When we were able to get ourselves out of that hole and get ourselves closer to the 30 or the 40 yard line and got towards mid field, I thought if we could take a couple calculated risks there and hit on them, we’d have a chance to go down and score. That drive really stuck out to me.”
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UT senior running back Terry Swanson started the drive with three straight runs of 18, 10, and 8 yards. Senior quarterback Logan Woodside then hit tight end Drew Rosi on a 18-yard pass play and finished off the drive with completions of 16 and 27 yards to Jon’Vea Johnson. The 27-yard TD catch from Johnson, a perfect pass from Woodside down the left sideline, gave Toledo complete control of the game with a 28-0 lead at halftime.
“First off, Terry got us going,” Woodside said of the drive. “We ran the ball really well. After Terry had a couple big runs, we took a couple shots and luckily Jon’Vea got open and I put the ball where it needed to be.”
Woodside tossed three first-half touchdown passes on the way to a 307-yard, four-TD performance and Swanson rushed 21 times for 180 yards and two touchdowns.
Diontae Johnson racked up 118 receiving yards and two TD catches, while Jon’Vea Johnson added 103 receiving yards and a TD of his own.
Shakif Seymour added a 12-yard TD catch in the third quarter and Jameson Vest converted on a 47-yard field goal.
Another key stretch in the game came with Toledo leading 7-0. The Rockets fumbled on a botched snap and on the ensuing Akron drive, the Zips had a touchdown pass called back due to an illegal formation penalty and then had to settle for a 42-yard field goal attempt from Tom O’Leary.
The kick was blocked by Toledo’s Nate Childress and Josh Teachey scooped up the ball and returned it to the Akron 34-yard line. Three plays later, Swanson rushed in for a TD, giving Toledo a 14-0 lead.
Toledo led 38-0 before Akron could get on the board on a Manny Morgan rushing touchdown with 30 seconds left in the third quarter. Freshman quarterback Kato Nelson had two touchdown passes for the Zips and third-string quarterback Robbie Kelley threw a late TD pass to complete the Akron scoring.
The win for Toledo, its first MAC championship in 13 years, was a long time coming for the team and this senior class.
“It’s definitely a long time coming, but this team just grinded all year and we had great leadership starting with coach Candle in preparing us for this moment,” Swanson said. “It’s definitely special for this city, this university, and the fans.”
This Rockets team successfully navigated a tough MAC schedule to finish 7-1 in the conference and cleared almost every hurdle in its way.
They battled injuries throughout the season, including losing three interior lineman and star senior receiver Cody Thompson.
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Candle said this is one of the best teams he has had at Toledo in staying true to the process and putting in the necessary work each day. Toledo set out this offseason to win a MAC title, and by taking a day-by-day approach to the season, they were able to accomplish that goal, capped off by a convincing win on Saturday.
“I’m just really proud of our football team for being who they said they wanted to be,” Candle said. “These guys set out on a journey back in January and like every team across the country, they want to be champions. This, coupled with the great coaching staff we have, which filtered down to the senior leaders, I’m just so proud that they were able to set the culture and what they wanted it to be. They maintained it throughout the entire year, which is really difficult to do and we are just really proud that they were able to finish it.”
Contact Brian Buckey at bbuckey@theblade.com, 419-724-6110, or on Twitter @BrianBuckey.
First Published December 2, 2017, 8:56 p.m.