INDIANAPOLIS — Between them, they had three college scholarship offers, two recruiting stars, and one dream.
“I always wanted to be here,” Diontae Johnson told me.
Well, here they were Friday, Johnson and Cody Thompson, the two former Toledo receivers together at the NFL scouting combine.
Johnson was a two-star prospect from Florida who chose UT over Ball State; Thompson a no-star prospect with no other offers. Before this week, the biggest job interview of their lives was Thompson’s sitdown for a high school summer job sweeping floors at Huron (Ohio) Cement. He got the gig.
Now, the stakes are higher, the friends and roommates on the brink of careers in the NFL. Both project as mid to late-round draft selections.
Johnson — who so far has met with the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets — said he couldn’t help but pinch himself.
“It didn’t hit me until I got off the plane and saw all the gear for us,” he said. “Then when I met [Steelers coach Mike] Tomlin, it was like, for real, I’m here. I’m just taking everything in.”
In other words, it is just another year for Toledo.
The teammates’ hard-earned path here would make an extraordinary story ... if it wasn’t becoming so ordinary.
You seen an NFL roster lately?
The road to the league begins in many places — “You go to Ohio State to go to the pros,” quarterback Dwayne Haskins said — but more and more it is starting in Toledo too.
The Glass City has become a mini pro football factory.
After the Rockets went nine years without a draft selection, they produced four of them the past two years and could have another three — the complete pass-catching law firm of (Jon’Vea) Johnson, Johnson, and Thompson — in April.
As it is, Toledo counts a Mid-American Conference-leading 14 former players currently in the NFL, from old hands John Greco and veteran Pro Bowl punter Brett Kern to lightning-rod Browns running back Kareem Hunt and Eagles kick-blocking playoff hero Treyvon Hester.
That’s more than Miami (2), Akron (3), Ball State (3), and Bowling Green (4) have combined, and as many as or more than a dozen power-conference schools, including four in the Big Ten (Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Purdue).
Rockets coach Jason Candle compares the recent wave to the phenomenon he experienced at Mount Union, where he spent six years as a receivers coach and offensive coordinator before coming to Toledo as an assistant in 2009.
When receiver Pierre Garcon was drafted by Colts in 2008 and validated the faith, next thing you knew, NFL teams viewed the Division III powerhouse in an entirely different light. Three years later, another Purple Raiders receiver, Cecil Shorts, got the benefit of the doubt. He went in the fourth round to the Jaguars.
Same deal at Toledo.
Candle called the NFL’s presence at Toledo “night and day” from a decade ago. We see it too. Every game at the Glass Bowl, pro general managers and scouts fill half the front row of the press box.
“When Cecil Shorts’ name came out, everybody took it seriously,” Candle said. “I see a little bit of that going on here. We had a drought there for a while where nobody got picked. Then you have a few guys get picked and have some success. That brings more attention to your program, and whether it’s scouts or personnel people or coaches, when they’re watching or evaluating a particular player, they may notice the other good players around him.”
This is not to suggest Toledo has the secret sauce or a mid-major monopoly.
Look around the NFL. The MAC is everywhere. Last year, it had nine former players in the Pro Bowl: Kern and Hunt (Toledo), quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and guard Brandon Brooks (Miami), receiver Antonio Brown and offensive tackle Joe Staley (Central Michigan), defensive end Khalil Mack (Buffalo), fullback Roosevelt Nix (Kent State), and guard T.J. Lang (Eastern Michigan).
It also is fair to wonder if Toledo’s talent should translate into greater success, although let us remind: UT has the third-most wins (46) among Group of Five schools the past five years, behind Boise State (52) and Appalachian State (48).
Still, the Rockets’ pipeline is especially impressive — a credit to the recruiting eye of Candle and predecessor Matt Campbell, their player development, and a raft of proud but unheralded prospects with everything to prove.
“We know we have guys who are just as good as those players at the power five schools,” Diontae Johnson said.
He and Thompson are but the latest examples.
Want to play in the NFL? You can do better than most in Toledo.
First Published March 2, 2019, 2:07 a.m.
