Four years ago, University Toledo coach Jason Candle was the Rockets' offensive coordinator when they pulled a stunner and topped No. 18 Arkansas in Little Rock.
Not many Toledo players remain from that 2015 team that slayed an SEC giant, but the Rockets get another chance to knock off an SEC squad when they travel to Lexington to take on Kentucky on Saturday at noon.
“A few players were here for that, but not many,” Candle said. “I think there is a lot of correlation in the sense of the stage maybe. These guys have played in meaningful football games here. When you go on the road you have to play well and handle the elements and play as close to mistake-free as you possibly can to have a chance to win these type of games. We're playing a tremendous opponent and they have all of our attention and all of our respect.”
Kentucky is coming off a 10-win season and a bowl victory over Penn State. It was the Wildcats' third consecutive winning season under seventh-year head coach Mark Stoops. However, the Wildcats lose star running back Benny Snell and linebacker Josh Allen to the NFL as two of the five Kentucky players selected in the NFL Draft.
With an inexperienced team, Stoops is looking at the Toledo game as a good barometer for where his team stands.
“It's good for us to play an opponent like Toledo because they're a very good football program,” Stoops said. “They're used to winning football games. They're well-coached. They have two quarterbacks that are coming back with good experience, that are good players. We'll have to play very good. If you watch the MAC, you got to have great respect for the MAC, because they're always very well-coached. They're not going to beat themselves.”
Toledo will lean on fifth-year senior quarterback Mitch Guadagni as the Rockets go up against a defense that was second in the SEC in scoring defense last season, but loses their entire starting secondary from last season.
“I think the biggest thing is just to come together when we hit adversity,” Guadagni said. “The biggest thing in any football game is how you handle that. There's going to be adversity in every football game so you have to handle it well and come together even closer and have each other's back.”
Offensively, Kentucky is led by junior quarterback Terry Wilson, who started all 13 games last season and completed 180-of-268 passes for 1,889 yards and 11 touchdowns. Also a threat in the run game, Wilson racked up 547 rushing yards and four rushing scores.
“We are going to try to keep him in the pocket and limit his plays with his legs,” Toledo junior safety Tycen Anderson said. “He's a big dual-threat. He can run around and make a lot of plays. We have to limit his playmaking and keep him in the box.”
Toledo returns 13 starters from a 7-6 team from last season. Like Kentucky, the Rockets are breaking in new starters on both sides of the ball. Sometimes going into the first game of the season it is a bit of an unknown as far as whether players can step up in new roles.
“Guys step up and seize that moment,” Candle said. “Some will handle it better than others. That's what's cool about it.”
Stoops said he doesn’t always know what to expect in the first game of the season and said his team will need to be ready to face Toledo.
“Both teams will have some new guys out there and some guys with experience,” Stoops said. “Game one is always a little bit different. But Toledo is a good football team. They're balanced offensively. They can run and throw. Extremely explosive a year ago, averaged 40 points per game. Used to winning. The defense is not going to beat themselves. They're very sound. They very clearly know who they are, what they do, and they do it well.”
In 2015, the win at Arkansas jump started a 10-win season for Toledo and the Rockets have a similar opportunity in the season opener this season.
“It's a huge opportunity any time you play a Power-5 school being from a lower Division I school,” Toledo junior cornerback Justin Clark said. “You always want to be able to prove yourself. The thing that we adopted in our cornerback room is that it doesn't matter who we are going up against, we have the same mentality and we are going in locked in and focused on doing our job. If we do that everything should take care of itself.”
First Published August 30, 2019, 6:10 p.m.
