Jason Candle stood in front of a room full of boosters Monday at the Downtown Coaches Association luncheon and offered a frank assessment of the Toledo football season.
He answered several questions during a nine-minute Q and A, detailing the view inside the Rockets’ in-season reclamation project.
An hour later, Candle sat patiently in his office overlooking the Glass Bowl with a Blade reporter. Again, he answered questions about what’s plaguing Toledo. How has a season with great expectations dissolved into a 3-4 record and two-game Mid-American Conference losing streak?
“You have to keep perspective when times are hard,” Candle said. “It’s easy to have great perspective when things are going well, but that’s not life. That’s not college football. Every team in the country starts out with the expectation that they’re going to win a conference championship and go undefeated. A lot of variables pop up through the course of a season and you have to handle the adversity that comes your way and stay committed to the process. Your very best is what’s required each Saturday. Anything short of that, and you will get beat.”
The Rockets have rarely gotten their best this season. Maybe on defense, but not offense. As they prepare for Saturday’s game against Western Michigan, avoiding three consecutive losses and beginning the process of a turnaround is paramount. Perhaps it started in defeat, as Toledo played its best 30 minutes of football in the second half of last week’s loss at Central Michigan.
In his first career start, quarterback Dequan Finn was shaky in the first half before leading UT back from a 17-point deficit. His 18-yard touchdown run with 35 seconds left sent the game to overtime. With first-start jitters out of the way, there’s reason to believe start No. 2 will be better, putting Toledo’s offense on an upward trajectory.
“I thought our young quarterback did a great job settling in and playing efficiently,” Candle said. “Gotta figure out a way to win these close games.”
Practices have been energetic and the mood is upbeat, according to Candle. In 2019, there was locker room dissension after Toledo bottomed out during the second half of the season. A sequel will not happen in 2021, Candle said, because the leadership and bond are too strong.
The entire roster has worked overtime, watching film, lifting weights, and getting that last ounce out of the day. They’re putting to test the mantra of outworking opponents.
“We know what the situation is,” senior cornerback Samuel Womack said. “We know what we have to do. All we can do is control what we can control. We’re not watching [the scoreboard]. All we can do is win from now on.”
The frustration is apparent with each loss and the growing questions. Toledo returned a team full of starters and is one of the most veteran rosters in the country. After nearly pulling off an upset of Notre Dame in the second game, most people felt the summer predictions would come to fruition. But a cavalcade of problems unfolded in the ensuing weeks, issues that haven’t been fully corrected.
“All you can do is work,” senior running back Bryant Koback said. “Everything else is out of your control. As long as you work, hopefully, everything else falls into place and gets us to where we want to go.”
Toledo can’t win five games all at once on Saturday and rid itself of what has ailed them. Las Vegas doesn’t think the Rockets will win, period, as oddsmakers installed Western Michigan as a 2½-point favorite. Incremental success is Candle’s objective.
Eventually, it can roll over week-by-week. The trend then becomes the norm. Toledo is in search of what it recently was.
“The season is a long season,” Candle said. “It’s a long progression. You have to do a great job of highlighting the things you do well and do a good job of telling yourself the truth about the things you aren’t, and address them and fix them and press on.”
First Published October 18, 2021, 10:18 p.m.
