DETROIT — Toledo had the best of everything in its rubber-peeling rout of Akron in the Mid-American Conference championship game Saturday.

The best player. The best coach. The best sign in the student section.

“You can keep LeBron,” it said, referring to Akron’s famed basketball son. “We have Woodside.”

But what mattered most — all that mattered, really — is Toledo had the best team.

How long have Rockets fans been waiting to say that?

Some 15,000 of them watched the 100th edition of Toledo football not only secure the program’s first conference title since 2004 but take its place in the conversation of all-time great Rockets teams.

Yes, you read that right.

It may be hard to see the big picture through the dust in which Toledo left Akron in a 45-28 win, not to mention easy for some to minimize the caliber of the conference this season.

But when time yields perspective, only the achievement and the men behind it will be remembered.

With a victory in their postseason game — likely the Dollar General Bowl on Dec. 23 in Mobile, Ala. — the Rockets (11-2) would win 12 games for the first time since the Nixon administration and undoubtedly end the year ranked in the final Associated Press poll for the sixth time in program history. The Rockets’ perfect teams from 1969 to ‘71 came home with a number by their name, as did their teams in 1995 (No. 24) and 2001 (23).

“As much as our program has had success — and we've had a lot of it — for these guys to be able to etch their names into our program’s history, that’s [special],” coach Jason Candle said. “That's 100 years of Toledo football, and this is a team that will forever be remembered

“I told them earlier in the week, some guys, they've never finished anything in their life. You've all been there, you’re reading a book, and you get to the end, and you figure you know what happens and you close it up. But these guys finished the deal. They ran through the line one more time.”

To the end, this was a team in every sense of the word.

The word going into the year was Toledo would win the MAC as long as its defense could fog a mirror.

Which was fair enough, but a little too simplistic.

With star passer Logan Woodside back as the league’s top foreman, the Rockets’ production-line offense indeed cranked out points at the same record-setting rate as last season, despite a series of well-documented losses to the NFL and season-ending injuries. Toledo put on another balanced show at the dome, Woodside throwing for 307 yards and four touchdowns and Terry Swanson running for 180 yards and two scores.

Afterward, Akron coach Terry Bowden — who coached Auburn in another life — searched out Woodside. He reminded the fifth-year senior from Kentucky the last quarterback he faced in a league championship game was Tennessee’s Peyton Manning in the SEC in 1997.

“He's the best quarterback I've played against since then,” Bowden said. “I just think he's a difference-maker in most games.”

But he wasn’t alone. About that defense: The unit us armchair critics asked so little of delivered a lot.

A middle-of-the-pack unit for much of the season, it was more than along for the ride the last two weeks. It rode shotgun, and sometimes took the wheel.

Pay no attention to Akron’s 28 points and 396 yards. Almost all of it came in garbage time, including the Zips’ last touchdown in the final minute, which amusingly came after Toledo’s players gave Candle an icy blue Gatorade shower. A Toledo defense that allowed all of 98 yards in the first half was so good that the Rockets committed five turnovers — two interceptions and three fumbles — and still they led 38-0.

Much credit here goes to Candle and his veteran staff. For as much as predecessors Tim Beckman and Matt Campbell achieved over the past decade, the second-year coach was the first to consistently put it all together. 

That’s no small deal. Ohio State’s Urban Meyer calls the MAC the best league to “prove your coaching chops,” because, as the former Bowling Green coach said, “pretty much every team that jogs out of the tunnel is even.” Though the Rockets have the league’s most talent, the point is well taken. Parity defines the conference. 

We had a little fun last week at the expense of Akron and its fan — OK, I counted two supporters here — but the only guarantees in life are death and gratuitous official replay reviews. Better than anyone, Toledo knows the MAC plays few favorites, including in its league title game. The last three times the point spread was at least 15 points here, the underdog either won (Buffalo over No. 12 Ball State in 2008 and Miami over No. 24 Northern Illinois in 2010) or sent tremors through the dome (Ohio against No. 14 Western Michigan last year).

This time, consistency won the day, same as it had for a Rockets team that made the hard look easy much of the year. Save for a one-off clunker at Ohio, the Rockets won their last eight games by double digits, steadily building toward the top of the championship hill. 

We’d say they finally reached the top, but take it from senior cornerback Trevon Mathis. 

“There's going to be many more to come,” he said. 

Contact David Briggs at dbriggs@theblade.com, 419-724-6084, or on Twitter @DBriggsBlade.

First Published December 3, 2017, 12:38 a.m.