They began the day in Bowling Green, then hopped into their rentals and set off on a procession up I-75.
Call it a midnight blue and gold rush.
Wielding stopwatches and notepads, an array of executives, scouts, and assistant coaches from 30 NFL teams crowded into the Fetterman Training Center on Monday afternoon for the University of Toledo’s annual pro day.
It was the place to be.
And the billboard attraction didn’t even work out.
Defensive tackle Darius Alexander had little more to prove after starring at the Senior Bowl and scouting combine.
The scene was a heartening — and timely — reminder of an age-old football truth.
You don’t have to chase the brightest spotlight to catch the attention of the NFL.
If you’re good enough, the spotlight will find you.
“That’s how it’s always been in college football,” former Toledo safety Maxen Hook said Monday after three-plus hours of runs, jumps, and drills. “People are starting to forget that. They think you have to go to a big school for them to find you. That’s not the case. If you come to a school and excel, they're going to see that.”
And, as much as ever, the NFL is seeing it at Toledo.
The Rockets under Jason Candle continue to be living proof: Make it here — in the Mid-American Conference — and you can make it anywhere.
Since 2017, they have had 10 players drafted, including Quinyon Mitchell, who just last year was picked 22nd overall by the Eagles and all he did in his rookie season was earn the league’s coolest nickname — Quinyonamo Bay, a nod to his prowess as a lockdown cornerback — and help lead Philadelphia to a Super Bowl title.
For context, one other MAC school (Western Michigan) counts more than four draft picks since ’17, and Toledo has more draftees in that span than eight Power Four programs: Arizona, Cincinnati, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, and Virginia.
Just as impressive, the pipeline keeps flowing.
Look at the dozen former Rockets here Monday.
Alexander — the 6-4, 310-pound people eater who ran a searing 4.95-second 40 at the combine — projects as a top-50 pick, with an off chance of sneaking into the first round; Hook is a likely mid to late-round selection; and receiver Jerjuan Newton and tight end Anthony Torres will either be drafted or coveted undrafted free agents.
That’s a tribute to a culture at Toledo worth celebrating.
In a free agency era in which Group of Five programs were supposed to — and often have — become farm systems for the big boys, the Rockets have endured as something of an outlier, with the value of relationships transcending straight cash.
That’s not to suggest they’re immune to the times, or are not fighting hard to build their own mid-major NIL — and revenue-sharing — war chest.
A year ago, they lost four key players to bigger deals at bigger schools: quarterback Dequan Finn (Baylor), running back Peny Boone (Louisville), Vinny Sciury (Texas Tech), and RJ Delancy (Wisconsin).
But, in all, Toledo continues to enjoy a notable degree of roster stability. This offseason, it hasn’t lost a single contributor of note with eligibility remaining, using the portal only to supplement its roster. (Prediction: Former Ohio State running back Chip Trayanum — who has turned heads in spring ball — will draw a crowd at next year’s pro day.)
Alexander is just the latest testimony to what is possible at Toledo and in the MAC.
Like Mitchell the year before, he had no shortage of interest from power programs. He could have left for a few hundred thousand extra dollars.
But he decided to play the long game.
“I wanted to finish out the right way with my brothers and … more than anything, coach Candle and the Rockets was my first offer as a freshman going into sophomore year of high school,” said Alexander, a Fort Wayne, Ind., native. “Just to stay true to them like they stayed true to me and show my love and respect is what I wanted to do. Relationships are what matters.”
He stayed right where he wanted — with the teammates and coaches who felt like family — and didn’t have to sacrifice one bit of his future to do it. (Just the opposite, given Toledo’s recent record of player development, you can argue Alexander remaining in his comfort zone helped his stock.)
He delivered an all-conference senior season — punctuated by his game-saving pick-six in Toledo’s six-overtime win over Pittsburgh in the GameAbove Sports Bowl — then became one of the talks of the Senior Bowl.
Alexander could have gone to a Big Ten or SEC school.
He made sure the spotlight found him instead.
If you’ll forgive the strained wordplay, it was a familiar midnight blueprint, which means the NFL’s gold rush on Toledo continues.
“We’ve seen what hard work and commitment to a process — and being a talented guy with great character — can do,” Candle said. “You put all that together, it doesn’t matter where you play. [NFL] guys are going to be there. They’re going to be on you. There’s a lot of people in the NFL that get paid a lot of money to find the right players and they're really air tight with their process, and our guys have benefited from that.”
First Published March 25, 2025, 12:30 a.m.
