Alright, class, it’s that time of year.
Here are the midterm grades for our area college football teams:
Toledo (6-1, 3-0): It’s been a good-news, bad-news kind of start for the Rockets.
The good: They’ve won six straight games for the first time since 2015, their biggest question mark — the offensive line — has become an exclamation point, and Peny Boone has emerged as one of the best running backs in the country.
The bad: They’re not winning … impressively enough.
Do I have that right, Toledo fans?
OK, maybe we’re overgeneralizing based off a few zealous emailers (we are). And, sure, UT will have to play much better than it has the past few weeks to win at Miami (6-1, 3-0) on Saturday.
But, point is, most teams would love to have its problems.
As we wrote Saturday, while the opposing fare has been light, there’s plenty to be said for Toledo just getting the job done, week after week in an anything-can-happen league.
The Rockets have positioned themselves for a special season, and, from quarterback Dequan Finn to a veteran defense that’s so far performed beneath expectations, they have all the pieces to finish the job. Now, it’s time to put it all together.
Grade: A-
Bowling Green (3-4, 1-2): If you’d said before the season the Falcons would be 3-4, that would have seemed perfectly reasonable. Their four losses are against teams with a combined 24-3 record, and their conquests include double-digit wins at Georgia Tech and Buffalo.
Not bad.
But, while BG might have arrived at its destination, the concern is the half-baked directions it followed to get here. It’s like driving to Columbus with a stop in Pocatello, Idaho, and Niagara Falls on the way.
The Falcons remain the most erratic program in the country, world-beaters one week, unable to lace up their cleats the next. There’s no in between.
A concerning stat: As bad as the Mike Jinks era was, the Falcons lost three MAC games by at least 24 points in his two-plus seasons. Scot Loeffler has 18 such defeats in his four-plus seasons — including three last year and two already this fall, during which BG has been the fourth-most penalized team in the country.
The schedule lightens from here, with the Falcons due to play three straight one-win teams — Akron, Ball State, and Kent State — before Toledo visits the Doyt. If a BG program that continues to encourage and exasperate in equal measure can show a little consistency and string together a few wins, this grade will get a lot better.
So will the optimism on the state of the Falcons.
Grade: C-
No. 3 Ohio State (6-0, 3-0): From 2017 to 2022, the Buckeyes were one of the highest-flying programs in the sport, ranking an average of fifth in total offense.
This year, they’ve been solid but hardly elite, ranking 32nd (443 yards per game). For perspective, that’s one spot lower than they were in 2016, when the season ended in a shutout playoff loss to Clemson.
If healthy, even with the fledgling Kyle McCord at quarterback, this offense — with Marvin Harrison, Jr., and five-star sidekicks galore — has a much higher ceiling than that grinding ’16 unit. But a rebuilt offensive line — which has allowed 10 sacks and struggled to plow open space in the short-yardage run game — remains every bit the concern that fans feared.
As McCord continues to evolve, maybe the Buckeyes have the horsepower to cloak their problems up front, and maybe they can win with a D that ranks seventh nationally. Maybe not. When it comes to the national title race, we’ll learn a lot Saturday against Penn State.
Grade: B+
No. 2 Michigan (7-0, 4-0): Like with Toledo, you can say the Wolverines ain’t played nobody, and that’s true. But their level of dominance — regardless of the competition — has been staggering.
Michigan is the first team since the AP poll debuted in 1936 to score at least 30 points and allow 10 points or less in each of its first seven games. Bonkers stat: Opposing quarterbacks have thrown as many touchdown passes to Michigan this season — the Wolverines have three pick-sixes — as they have to their own team.
With dominant lines and playmakers everywhere, UM is the most complete package in the country.
“They’re the best team I’ve seen in 11 years being a head coach,” Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said last week. “I’ve never seen a football team like that, that deep. … They are truly like a boa constrictor, and they do not beat themselves.”
Maybe Fleck was in self-preservation mode after a 52-10 loss, or maybe the Wolverines are that good. We’ll find out soon enough, beginning Nov. 11 at Penn State.
Grade: A
First Published October 15, 2023, 10:16 p.m.
