With high expectations again after an 11-win season and a Mid-American Conference championship in 2017, the University of Toledo football team begins its season Saturday at the Glass Bowl with a home game against the Virginia Military Institute.
UT coach Jason Candle said while the team has lofty goals, the Rockets learned last season how important the daily details were in accomplishing those far-off hopes.
“We have a day-to-day approach,” Candle said. “We have 11 clear examples last year of when we handled that well and three clear examples of when we didn’t handle that. In both cases, we earned what we got in all 14 of those opportunities we got to play football last season. Our senior class did an excellent job of showing us the way.
“We don’t talk about championships. We don’t talk a bunch of goals that we set way off into the sunset that we are going to ride off into. We have those in mind, but what tomorrow looks like is way more important than anything that we can worry about down the road.”
The first step for Toledois taking on the Keydets, a team that was 0-11 last season in the Southern Conference of the Football Championship Subdivision.
VMI, under fourth-year head coach Scott Wachenheim, returns seven starters on offense and five starters on defense.
After a long offseason, Candle and Toledo are ready take on an unfamiliar opponent. The Rockets have been picked second in the MAC West Division by the league coaches and media, just behind Northern Illinois.
“There is a little bit of the unknown there I think, like any opener,” Candle said. “You are basing everything off of last year’s film. And they didn’t have the season they maybe wanted to have last season from a win-loss standpoint. I’m sure they went back to the drawing board and will be different on offense, but they played really great defense last year. I think there is a lot they can build off of.”
As far as his team, Candle is looking forward to evaluating his talent in game competition.
“The emotion of camp kind of fades and the emotion of leading into a season has now set in,” Candle said. “I like where we are at. We’re far away from a finished product and we are certainly not a championship-caliber team yet as far as how we are projecting. But I’m happy with where we are at.”
Candle announced Monday that junior Mitch Guadagni will be the starting quarterback heading into the season after beating out sophomore Eli Peters in a spirited competition.
Guadagni takes the reins of an offense flush with playmakers on the outside and at running back.
Toledo has three receivers — Cody Thompson, Jon’Vea Johnson, and Diontae Johnson — with 1,000 career receiving yards and a single season with at least 10 touchdown catches.
At running back, sophomore Shakif Seymour returns after rushing for 702 yards and 12 scores last season. Junior Art Thompkins is back after a 629-yard, two-touchdown performance and Toledo welcomes Kentucky transfer and Springfield alum Bryant Koback, who is eligible to play this season.
“We have some incredible playmakers on our offense, especially with the offensive line we have coming back and some running backs that can protect me,” Guadagni said. “Then hopefully I can get the ball on the outside to these guys and they can make some insane plays. I’m definitely excited.”
The defense returns six starters from last season and is set up for success with an experienced secondary. Senior starter Ka’dar Hollman returns at cornerback and there are returning starters in senior Josh Teachey and junior Kahlil Robinson at safety, as well as junior DeDarallo Blue at the star position.
“We have a real good feeling,” Hollman said. “We mesh real good together. We have some vets that all played together last season. I feel like in the secondary even at the top we are good, but we also have depth.”
The leaders of this year’s Toledo team look to build on the experience gained from last year’s MAC title run.
“I think the biggest thing last year was that the group of seniors and the leaders we had on the team instilled a culture where championships are what we are here for,” senior offensive lineman Sami Kassem said. “I think that is the biggest thing this year is that all these guys with the experience of winning a MAC championship know what it takes. So that’s one of the biggest things we got from winning the MAC championship last year and hopefully we are able to repeat.”
Contact Brian Buckey at: bbuckey@theblade.com, 419-724-6110, or on Twitter @BrianBuckey.
First Published August 31, 2018, 6:00 p.m.
