DETROIT —
At Mid-American Conference Media Day, the Toledo Rockets vocalized their intention of looking to return to the standard the program had set in previous years.
Since head coach Jason Candle took over the reins from Matt Campbell, the Rockets have registered three seasons with nine wins or more but most importantly, they were crowned MAC Champions in 2017.
Last season, Toledo had a setback. The Rockets finished with a 7-6 record which was their worst season since 2013. Now, they are looking to turn the page.
“You have to turn the page,” Candle told WTOL Tuesday afternoon. “I think the first workout in January, you could kind of get a sense of what the heartbeat and the pulse was of the locker room and organization is. What I got back in January was a very motivated and very determined group of guys.”
Candle credits senior leadership as one of the main reasons the Rockets have a determined mindset to make last season a hiccup and no recurrence.
“[There is a] great group of seniors leaders, very similar to our team a couple years ago,” he said.
One of those senior leaders is offensive lineman Bryce Harris, a team captain of two years. Harris was second-team All-MAC last season as the starting center and was nominated for the 2019 Rimington Award as the nation’s top lineman. Last season was one Harris does not want to mirror.
“Looking back, I think it was rough. We had pretty good optimism last year,” Harris told WTOL. “During spring ball and winter workouts, we took the negatives and turned it into positives. We tried to learn from our mistakes from last year."
Harris leads an offensive line group that includes two returning starters with at least two years of experience. One of them is Mitch Berg, a Toledo St. John’s Jesuit graduate who is predicted to be the team’s left tackle on the team’s preseason depth chart. Berg accompanies a group that Candle felt was the heart and soul of the team.
“At times, when we were at our best last year, we won at the line of scrimmage. At the times that we weren’t, we didn’t. It is still a game that is won in the trenches,” he said. “‘Have you ever heard a coach after the game say we out finessed them or ran faster than they did?’ It is a physical game and you have to be really good in the trenches. I think that is where we are probably at our best right now.”
Like any other team in football, the quarterback is the position that ignites the engine of the whole team. Senior Mitchell Guadagni is penciled in to be the team’s starting passer in 2019, his second season as a collegiate starter.
In 2018, Guadagni’s season was cut short due to a shoulder injury. However, when he played, Guadagni led the MAC in passing efficiency and was fourth in the nation in yards per completion.
He replaced NFL draft pick, Logan Woodside, last season — A tall-task. However, Candle felt Guadagni grew as the season went on and his best football is still ahead of him.
“Mitch has started a few football games for us. He has some valuable experience,” he said. “The sad thing and the tough thing for me was that he was probably playing his best football when he got hurt last year. The first half against Western Michigan was the best half of tape in his career so far.”
Even though Guadagni did not finish the season out, he is not treating this one any differently. It is his job to lose and he is keeping the same mindset.
The Rockets were picked to finish first in the West in the MAC preseason poll. They received 15 first-place votes and were six votes away from being named the sole champion of the conference.
“One, we did not deserve that. We have not done anything to deserve this quite yet,” Candle said when acknowledging the honor. “Two, on a serious note, this is a validation of the work we have done in the off-season.
“It is a group of guys that have a sour taste in their mouths with how the season ended last year. They are willing to put their individual success aside and mold as a team and understand where our shortcomings were last year and change it.”
Toledo opens up the season at Kentucky on Saturday, Aug. 31 at noon.
