Matt Campbell's pre-head coaching job resume read like this:

Offensive coordinator/​offensive line coach at Mount Union; offensive line coach at Bowling Green; offensive line coach, run-game coordinator, and offensive coordinator at Toledo.

Near the end of the 2011 season, just days after his 32nd birthday, he succeeded Tim Beckman as UT's head coach.

A little over two weeks ago, 36-year-old Jason Candle followed Campbell as Toledo's 27th head football coach.

Candle's resume, to that point, read thusly:

Receivers coach at Mount Union; offensive coordinator at Mount Union; slot receivers and tight ends coach, receivers coach, offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and associate head coach at Toledo.

Campbell briefly began his college playing career at a school in Pennsylvania, transferred to Mount Union, and played on three consecutive Division III national championship teams. In his two years as an assistant coach at Mount, the Purple Raiders won two more national titles.

Candle started his college career at a school in Pennsylvania, transferred to Mount Union, and played on two national title teams. In his six seasons as an assistant coach there, Mount added three national championships.

Campbell's first game as UT's head coach was a bowl game — the 2011 Military Bowl, a 42-41 win over Air Force — and he opted to coach that game from the press box for the sake of continuity in play calling.

Candle's first game as the Rockets' boss will be Tuesday night's Boca Raton Bowl against Temple. Candle says he will coach from the press box for the sake of continuity in play calling.

The more you compare the two coaches the more you realize that, give or take Campbell's short detour to Bowling Green, they are the same person.

“Well, maybe, except Matt was a big, ugly defensive end and I was a handsome, flashy receiver,” Candle quipped recently.

Well, true. Not the ugly/​handsome comparison. We won't judge. But Campbell was indeed a two-time Division III All-American as a defensive end. In his two seasons at Mount, Candle led the Raiders with 57 catches for 1,037 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Candle is from Salem, Ohio, and he attended West Branch High School in the nearby village of Beloit. Campbell is from Massillon, where he played at Perry High. It is 43 miles from Salem to Massillon in eastern Ohio. Alliance, where Mount Union is located, rests somewhere between them.

Campbell and Candle. Their names even rhyme. They are the same person.

For UT, hiring a clone might not be all that bad a thing.

Before leaving recently to become head coach at Iowa State, Campbell coached exactly 50 games at Toledo and won 35 of them, which translates to seven wins in every 10 games. That .700 winning percentage is third best in UT history, but tops among coaches who held the job for more than two seasons.

Candle, however, can build on that if he proves to be more successful in big Mid-American Conference games. 

Campbell lost eight league games in his four seasons and half of them came in all four of his meetings against Northern Illinois. 

As a result, the Rockets always were sidelined short of the MAC title game.

“I want to make sure the fan base is proud of this program,” Candle said. “Matt laid an unbelievable foundation and he did it the right way. Without boring anyone with cliché coach talk, let's just say I know and understand what the standards are and what the expectations are.”

Both coaches arrived at UT almost simultaneously in 2009. Beckman hired Campbell as run-game coordinator and then approved Campbell adding a former college teammate, Candle, to his offensive staff to help guide slot receivers and tight ends.

Both credit Beckman for giving them shots at young ages and with teaching them how to hit the road and aggressively recruit.

Otherwise, both were most influenced by Larry Kehres, the legendary former coach at Mount Union who elevated both to offensive coordinator — Candle followed Campbell in that position when the latter left Mount for BG after the 2006 season — at even more tender ages.

“There are coaches at every level, from the NFL down to junior high school and everywhere in between, who had a tremendous mentor in coach Kehres,” Candle said. 

“I talk to him almost every day. He's like a father figure to me. Matt and I are cut from the same cloth in that sense.”

In so many others, as well.

At his introductory news conference, Candle was presented with a UT ball cap that sort of swallowed his head. Before starting his comments, he took a second to adjust the podium microphone, which was poised a tad too high.

“We're going to need smaller hats and lower microphones,” Candle said.

Otherwise, not much changes.

The old coach and the new coach are pretty much the same guy.

Contact Blade sports columnist Dave Hackenberg at: dhack@theblade.com or 419-724-6398.

First Published December 20, 2015, 5:20 a.m.