No need to adjust your computer screens, your iPads, or your eyes. Jason Candle is still the real-life coach of the University of Toledo football team.
But Gus Duggerton’s reign as UT’s virtual football coach has grown into a viral sensation over the past few weeks.
Duggerton, a video game character, is the result of the marriage of a lack of sports as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a constant thirst for college football, and an appreciation for #MACtion football by Barstool Sports’ Dan “Big Cat” Katz, who cohosts the widely-popular sports podcast Pardon My Take that has over 540,000 Twitter followers and has earned a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts out of a pool of 68,000 reviewers.
Katz streams the NCAA Football 14 action live on the show’s Twitch channel nightly, and he typically takes one week to play out a full season.
Duggerton is the head coach of the virtual University of Toledo football team on the formerly-popular Xbox 360 game. Better known as “Coach Duggs,” Katz customized the burly character to begin as an offensive coordinator at UT, before heading off to coach on the bigger stage.
Beginning in late March, Katz created Duggerton in the game’s dynasty mode as Toledo’s offensive coordinator for the 2013 season. He then relocated to Florida State and Southern California at the same position for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, respectively. Duggs then became the head coach at Texas Tech in 2016, at Tennessee in 2017 and 2018, and then back to Toledo as head coach to kick off the 2019 season.
Katz could not be reached for comment, but Pardon My Take social media curator Jake Marsh shined light on Duggs’ lore and backstory in an interview with The Blade.
“The one storyline we are running with right now is that when he left for FSU, USC, all of these other places, is that his family never relocated with him,” Marsh said. “Now that he came back to Toledo for this season, the narrative is he missed his family and he wanted to come home for the season.”
Of course, it’s all made up.
It’s all fictional.
But at one point, Pardon My Take had more than 156,000 people tuned in for the stream last Thursday of the 2018 national championship game victory with Tennessee over Miami (Fla.), and tens of thousands watched Sunday as Duggs made his “decision” to go back home to Toledo.
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) June 22, 2020
What has been appreciative of Duggs’ run is that in the midst of a health pandemic and social unrest throughout the country, this has been a feel-good story people can get behind.
That thought came from Toledo mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, who went as far as to guarantee a key to the city to Katz and Duggerton if they win the national championship.
OK. I’m raising the stakes. If you guys pull this off, you get a key to the city! @CoachDuggs @BarstoolBigCat @PardonMyTake @ToledoBarstool
— Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz (@wadekaps) June 22, 2020
“OK. I’m raising the stakes. If you guys pull this off, you get a key to the city!,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz tweeted to Katz on Sunday after he caught wind of the situation.
The mayor doubled down on his offer on Monday, tweeting a photo of his miniature “Rocky” mascot doll holding the glass key to the city, manufactured by Libbey.
It’s made of 100% @LibbeyInc Glass — manufactured right here in the Glass City. Today mini-Rocky came to my office to check it out, but if @CoachDuggs guides @ToledoFB to the title, it will belong to him. Time for kickoff!@BarstoolBigCat @PardonMyTake @ToledoBarstool pic.twitter.com/N1GAF07eTw
— Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz (@wadekaps) June 23, 2020
“I figured that during what are truly very serious times in the city’s history with the coronavirus and the protests, that, you know what, maybe we all could use a few minutes of levity,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz said in an interview with The Blade. “So I decided to jump in with my offer, which, by the way, is a true and honest offer. If they run the table and win the national championship, there’s a key to the city with their name on it.”
Duggs has Toledo in contention to do that. The Rockets are 10-0 and ranked No. 1 unanimously in the Bowl Championship Series poll heading into the final two games of the regular season at Ball State and versus Western Michigan on Friday.
Toledo’s nearly-top-ranked offense is led by fictitious players in quarterback Cade Shippley, along with star receiver Prince Fontana and running backs Bam Bam Calloway and Bo Hammer, with fullback Brock Hemi paving the way. As of Thursday, Calloway is the No. 1 contender in the race for the virtual 2019 Heisman Trophy. Calloway is often the recipient of “Air Duggs’” signature “Shark Wheel” pass play, which entails created space for the running back on a wheel route out of the backfield.
This phenomenon isn’t just impacting the virtual world. The University of Toledo is feeling its positive effects, including its athletics’ marketing team striking a deal on co-licensing with Barstool Sports to release Duggerton t-shirts with the Rockets’ logo on it.
This might be my favorite one yet. Duggs, what a goofball.
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) June 23, 2020
Buy —> https://t.co/cGDqPhacqD pic.twitter.com/7FnNXm9kq9
UT athletics and UT football’s social media accounts have been active in posting game preview graphics and scoring updates as Katz streams the action. The university also struck a deal with Blarney Irish Pub, where if the Rockets score 50 or more points, better known as a “50 burger” by Katz, then fans who show the graphic at the restaurant receive 50 percent off their burger order before a certain expiration date.
The feedback from social media on UT’s end has also been substantial.
In data obtained by The Blade, UT athletics’ tweet of “He’s back” gathered more than 1.2 million impressions (interactions) with 140,000 people engaging, which turned out to be their most-interacted tweet of all-time. Same went for its corresponding Instagram post, which set a record for impressions and reach. UT football’s account (@ToledoFB) has gained close to 1,000 new Twitter followers, and the account has seen north of 3.8 million impressions since Sunday.
“We put out all of these tweets, and we’re engaging with fans, and we had a ton of impressions and engagement with our fanbase and also the Barstool fanbase and younger generations,” said Adam Simpson, who is the coordinator of marketing, sales, and fan experience for Toledo athletics.
“For us, it’s been amazing, and we’re lucky that we’re a part of it, but also we’re just having fun and taking advantage of what we can here.”
Said Marsh: “I think the coolest part about this is how the schools’ social media and marketing departments are treating this as the real thing. ... It’s been really awesome to see.”
Professional athletes have taken to Twitter to support Duggerton, including Los Angeles Chargers safety Derwin James, a Florida State alum, and Kansas City Super Bowl LIV MVP Patrick Mahomes, who went to Texas Tech.
It’s a win-win-win for everybody, and Katz and Duggs have a Mid-American Conference-heavy schedule the rest of the way out that could factor in multiple ways as to whether Toledo reaches the championship game. There is no College Football Playoff, so the BCS system will have to dictate. UT already has wins over ranked USC, Florida, Notre Dame, and Tennessee. The national championship game (or bowl game) is tentatively scheduled for Sunday evening.
“After [Wednesday’s] big win at Tennessee, it looks like Duggs won’t be seriously challenged until the BCS national title game,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz separately texted to The Blade on Thursday. “In other words, I really think this is going to happen!”
First Published June 25, 2020, 6:28 p.m.
