MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Imagine the Toledo football season as a very large hill.
Call it — I don’t know — Mount Unpleasant.
After spending the first half of the season scaling the mountain, the Rockets reportedly put on two left cleats, took turns spinning around a dizzy bat, and let gravity take it from there.
Mercifully, they reached the bottom Friday, their tumble ending in a 49-7 loss to Central Michigan that was over before Toledo got off the bus.
Rarely will you see a team appear more ready to pack in a season.
Central Michigan went 80 yards in four plays on its opening drive, and the Toledo defense remained the busiest turnstile west of Grand Central Station. Here was the Chippewas’ drive chart to open the game: Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown.
The result was the Rockets’ most lopsided conference defeat since 1960.
And — barring an invite to the Participation Bowl — it set off the most urgent offseason of Jason Candle’s tenure at Toledo.
Let there be no doubt: The Rockets football program is on the clock.
“We’re a .500 football team, and that’s not what anybody that was recruited here wanted,” Candle said. “That’s not what this coaching staff wanted. That’s certainly not what I wanted. That’s not my expectation, and our fan base deserves better than that. I get that better than anybody.
“So, yeah, it’s a very critical offseason. It’s a very critical time that our people in this organization and our people in this locker room know there is a sense of urgency to get better and maximize your ability. What you were recruited on and what your high school highlight tape shows, nobody cares anymore. This is grown-man football.”
As for the grown man in charge, none of this is to suggest Candle is on the hot seat. He isn’t.
Even if money was no object — it would cost $2.8 million to buy out the final four years of his deal — let us have some perspective.
Candle is 34-19 in four seasons and two years removed from leading the Rockets to their first Mid-American Conference title since 2004. (Say what you will about Toledo winning with Matt Campbell’s players, but Campbell never won the MAC championship. Candle did.)
It’s also fair to note Toledo this year endured more than its share of hard luck — its rotating cast of quarterbacks alone sustained four concussions — and had the youngest two-deep in the league.
In a cyclical and cannibalizing league, a couple down seasons are not the end of the world.
Candle deserves the chance to get this right.
But ...
Toledo is not paying Candle the top salary in the league to finish last in the MAC West.
He needs to get this right, and he needs to be willing to make the hard decisions necessary to do so.
Since Toledo won the MAC title, the arrow has gone only one way, the Rockets going 7-6 last year and — after five losses in their last seven games — a deeply unsatisfying 6-6 this season.
Most alarming, of course, is the defense.
We can talk about about a lot of issues, including Toledo’s need to find a quarterback. Don’t be surprised if the Rockets toss a grad transfer into the competition next year. But if Candle is to prove the last two years were more transition than trend, it will start with fixing a broken defense, which has regressed from 59th nationally in 2017 to 93rd last year to ... worse than Akron this season. Specifically, Toledo is a league-worst 123rd in the nation, allowing 475.7 yards per game.
Friday was all too familiar.
All day, Central Michigan had all day to do as it wished, beginning with a 48-yard touchdown pass that came without a Toledo defender in the same area code as either the quarterback or the receiver. The same problems played on loop, the Rockets too often appearing more out of place than a pay phone. Central finished with 552 yards.
Youth or not, there are no excuses for a Toledo team this talented on paper to look this disjointed on the field. Expect major defensive staff changes to headline what Candle pledged will be a “long, grueling offseason.”
The coach has reached his first real crossroads as the top man and there can be no more sitting back.
Toledo football is on the clock.
First Published November 29, 2019, 11:51 p.m.
