TOLEDO, Ohio – Think Ohio football, and images of the Horseshoe and Buckeye-covered helmets come to mind. But there’s a different Top 25 team in the state now – the Toledo Rockets.
With 18 returning starters from a team that lost just once last season, Toledo expected to be ranked, although maybe not this soon.
“It’s too early to get real excited about the ranking,” quarterback Tavares Bolden said. “It’ll be a lot better feeling at the end of the season.”
The Rockets (3-0) are 25th in this week’s Associated Press poll, the earliest in any season that they have made the rankings.
It’s also a show of respect for the Mid-American Conference, which has long struggled for attention in an area dominated by the Big Ten.
The state’s dominant program, Ohio State, slipped out of the Top 25 this week following a loss to UCLA.
“It’s good to see that we can have a team in Top 25 this early in the season,” first-year coach Tom Amstutz said. “But all it does is intensify the pressure.”
The Rockets play host to Northern Illinois (2-1) on Saturday.
Toledo previously had been in the Top 25 three times since 1995, but that success came under coach Gary Pinkel, who left for Missouri in November.
Amstutz, a longtime Toledo assistant with no head coaching experience, took over and immediately took a gamble, installing a fast-break offense with no huddles and four wide receivers at times.
“This was the offense that gave me nightmares,” said Amstutz, the former defensive coordinator.
It has worked better than expected.
The Rockets have averaged 40 points per game in victories over Minnesota, Temple and Central Michigan.
Running back Chester Taylor has 11 touchdowns this year, scoring five times Saturday despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter of a 52-28 victory over Central Michigan.
Amstutz said the spread offense has made a huge difference. “He’s got bigger running lanes and less players to beat for touchdowns,” he said.
Taylor, among the nation’s leading rushers with 149.7 yards per game, has four touchdowns on plays of 40 yards or longer. He’s also taken the pressure off the rest of the offense as it learns the new system.
“He’ll take a lot of pressure off any quarterback,” Bolden said.
The key may be Bolden, though.
He has picked up the offense quickly and thrown for 541 yards so far.
The defense has been just as impressive. In the season opening win against Minnesota, they held the Golden Gophers scoreless until a fumble set up a lone touchdown.
Toledo’s lone loss last year, to Western Michigan, cost it a spot in the Mid-American Conference title game and kept it out of a bowl game.
