DETROIT — Once upon a time, the University of Toledo played the first overtime game in college football history.
If only it had known the beautiful monster it helped spawn.
On Thursday night, the Rockets did not just win the longest bowl game in the GameAbove Sports Bowl at Ford Field.
They won one of the more off-the-rails sporting events you will ever enjoy — a six-overtime clash of attrition against Pittsburgh that was as satisfying for Toledo as it was amusing for the football nation.
Were you not entertained?
You can say these bowls don’t matter, and, certainly, a contest the day after Christmas in Detroit hangs low for the wags online.
But what is sports supposed to be if not fun?
And who had more of it than Toledo — to say nothing of millions of viewers on ESPN — on Thursday?
Nearly three decades after the Rockets won that first overtime game in the 1995 Las Vegas Bowl, their 48-46 victory was a reminder why we play and watch.
What … a … game.
To the memorable UT plays of yore — Ken Crots’ miracle kick, Nerd Up The Middle in 2001, and Gradkowski to Moore against No. 9 Pittsburgh, to name just a few — you might add any one of a half-dozen moments from a wild afternoon that turned into a crazier night.
Maybe it was the so-called fat-guy touchdown — the 58-yard Thick-Six by 311-pound defensive tackle Darius Alexander that pulled the fading Rockets within a field goal midway through the fourth quarter. (When did Alexander know he would score? “When I caught the ball,” he said.)
Or maybe it was the goat-to-hero turn of Dylan Cunanan — the walk-on freshman kicker who after an out-of-character game at Akron booted a tying 51-yard field goal in the final minutes.
Or maybe it was the overtime magic of Tucker Gleason — the quarterback who brushed aside a bum knee and two devastating turnovers to find the end zone five times in OT.
Or maybe it was the final stop as Jackson Barrow and DeShawn Holt got to Pitt freshman quarterback Julian Dugger and the Rockets spilled joyously onto the field … for real this time.
“It felt like we had to win the game three or four times,” coach Jason Candle said, “but, man oh man, really proud of our team.”
How stupidly thrilling was it all?
Three times in OT the Rockets ripped onto the field after an apparent game-winning defensive stop, and three times Ford Field workers began to wheel out the stage to be used for the trophy presentation.
Twice, they were called back — after a late defensive holding call, then after officials incorrectly ruled the Rockets had stopped Dugger short of the goalline.
“I typically try to be calm on the surface, but I probably threw my back out on the first celebration,” Toledo athletic director Bryan Blair said with a laugh. “The second celebration, I still had a good one. By the third one, I was too tired to celebrate. I can't even imagine those guys going out and playing defense repeatedly. My heart was hanging on the edge, because I knew how much it meant to this program.”
By the end, as the teams alternated 2-point conversion attempts beginning in the third overtime, Toledo coach Jason Candle was drawing up new plays with a red sharpie on a whiteboard (yes, he ruined the board).
I asked him how many 2-point plays he had left in the bag.
“I don't know if we've got any more,” Candle said, smiling. “We'll have to go back to spring practice and figure out some more.”
“I was having a blast,” he added.
So were the 20,000-plus Rockets supporters who filled a good portion of the lower bowl here, along with — if the exclamation-filled posts that shot across social media were any indication — every fan without a Panther in the fight watching at home.
Credit Toledo (8-5) for seizing its moment.
Say what you will about the Rockets’ uneven season, or a Pitt team that lost its last six games, or the reputedly bloated smorgasbord of bowl games.
But this was no small showcase.
The reality: Americans devour these games like a Golden Corral buffet.
The past two Detroit bowl games — both of which featured Bowling Green — averaged 2.28 million viewers on ESPN, and this year’s thriller figures to trounce those numbers. For context, Toledo’s three weeknight MACtion games this season drew a TOTAL audience of 817,000. Its big win at Mississippi State — lost in the crowd on a Saturday night — averaged 69,000 viewers on ESPNU.
For better or worse, this was the Toledo team the country would see this year.
And what it saw was one of the games of the college football season, won by a team that — when it counted most Thursday against an opponent from the more heralded Atlantic Coast Conference — was tough, together, and resilient.
How’s that for a final chapter?
Toledo closed the season with a pair of power-conference wins for just the second time in program history (the Rockets beat Arkansas and Iowa State in 2015).
And, for that matter, it closed with more power-conference wins than … five power-conference teams (Florida State, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, and Purdue).
Of the bigger-name pelts, Candle said: “Those are national brands.”
“But,” he added, “I think we are, too.”
First Published December 27, 2024, 3:14 a.m.
