Ohio State’s final nonconference matchup of the 2022 regular season approaches this weekend.
The Buckeyes host 2-0 Toledo from the MAC on Saturday night at Ohio Stadium in a contest that should continue to allow Ohio State to build momentum before its Big Ten schedule begins.
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TOLEDO ROCKETS |
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2-0 ROSTER / SCHEDULE |
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7 P.M. – SATURDAY, SEPT. 18 OHIO STADIUM COLUMBUS, OHIO |
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FOX FOX SPORTS |
The scarlet and gray are heavy favorites to hand the Rockets their first loss of the season after season-opening victories over Long Island and Massachusetts over the past couple of weeks. However, high-profile upsets haven’t been hard to come by in college football as of late.
Here are five things to know about Toledo before it tries to spring one of its own against the Buckeyes on the road.
Hasn’t had a losing season in 13 years
Already off to a 2-0 start in 2022, Toledo hasn’t turned in a final season record below .500 since 2009.
That impressive stretch spans three different head coaches, with Tim Beckman, Matt Campbell and current Rockets’ head coach Jason Candle all having undeniable success with the program over the past 10-plus years. That trio took Toledo to nine bowl game appearances from 2010-21, with four wins.
In Candle’s second full year with the program in 2017, the new Toledo head coach led the Rockets to an 11-3 record and a MAC championship – their first in 13 years. Toledo ended up getting worked by Appalachian State in the Dollar General Bowl, but its win total was tied for its highest since the 1970s.
Candle, a first-time head coach at Toledo when he took over the reins at the end of the 2015 season, has a .635 winning percentage two games into his seventh season with the Rockets. Candle was named the MAC Coach of the Year by his conference in 2017 and has led the Rockets to four bowl game appearances – five if you include the final game of the 2015 season.
Not always dominant in the MAC, Toledo’s been consistently successful for over a decade.
Buckeye ties at linebacker
One of Toledo’s best defensive players was a Buckeye at this time last year.
Dallas Gant, a four-star prospect out of St. John’s Jesuit in Toledo back in 2018, thought he would have his chance to shine at linebacker for the Buckeyes in his fourth season with the program. That never truly happened, though, as Gant saw limited time across the first three games of the 2021 season and entered the transfer portal midseason, ultimately winding up back home to close out his college career.
Gant has already been plenty impactful for the Rockets since the start of the season, as the 6-foot-3 linebacker’s 20 total tackles through two weeks are twice as many as he had in scarlet and gray last year. Gant finished with 11 tackles to lead the Toledo defense in the season opener against Long Island. He followed up his debut with a nine-tackle performance against Massachusetts this past weekend.
Impressively, 16 of Gant’s total tackles are credited as solo, and he also has a forced fumble, a pass breakup and a half tackle for loss to his credit. Gant ranks in the top 40 players in the country in tackles so far, and he’s a vital part of a defense that’s been stifling to start the season.
Second-best pass defense
Granted, Toledo’s first two opponents were Long Island and UMass. But facts are facts, and the numbers indicate the Rockets have played some of the most stifling defense in the country over the first two weeks.
Toledo gave up a total of 10 points combined in its opening pair of contests, tied for second-best in America with an average of five points allowed per game so far this year. The Rockets have been particularly suffocating against the pass, allowing an average of 58 yards per game to their first two opponents. That’s good for No. 2 in the nation.
In total defense, Toledo ranks fourth best in FBS college football – 19 spots ahead of Ohio State’s own. If there’s a statistical weakness for the Rockets’ defense, it would be in the run game, where they rank just 64th in the country with an average of 125.5 yards given up to opposing offenses on the ground.
Of course, Toledo takes on an exponentially more talented offense than it’s faced so far this weekend. Even an Ohio State unit that had a slow start to the year against Notre Dame still ranks top-40 in total offense and top-30 in both passing yards per game and average yards per carry on the ground.
0-3 all-time against Ohio State
Ohio State and Toledo have squared off three times before, with the Buckeyes getting the better of the Rockets on all three occasions.
The two teams last played one another in 2011, when the Luke Fickell-led Buckeyes barely squeaked out a 27-22 win that raised serious concerns about what Ohio State would be capable of immediately post-Jim Tressel. The Buckeyes actually trailed in the second half before a Carlos Hyde touchdown gave Ohio State a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Playing in Cleveland two years prior, the Buckeyes blanked Toledo, 38-0, as Terrelle Pryor put up 372 total yards and four total touchdowns before all was said and done.
In the first-ever matchup between the two programs, John Cooper’s 1998 Buckeyes blew past Toledo in a 49-0 rout in Columbus that marked the second of 11 wins during a nearly perfect season. Joe Germaine threw three touchdown passes, Michael Wiley ran for 151 yards and two scores and the result was never in doubt.
Lost last four games against ranked teams
Toledo’s recent track record against ranked opponents is far from spotless. In fact, the Rockets have lost their last four matchups against AP Top-25 opposition, with all of those coming during the Candle era.
Toledo made things interesting in their last such outing, nearly knocking off then-No. 8 Notre Dame in Week 2 a year ago, but wound up losing by three points in South Bend. The Rockets were blown out in back-to-back seasons by ranked Miami (FL) teams in 2017 and 2018 and also suffered a 20-point defeat to ranked MAC foe Western Michigan the year before.
This Saturday, Toledo takes on a team that should be better than any of the ones we just listed, which is why the Buckeyes are favored to put a 34-point beating on the Rockets in Columbus this weekend.
