Coming off one of its best overall performances of the season, the University of Toledo defense has steadily improved throughout the year and is playing confident football at the most important time.
With a trip to the Mid-American Conference title game on the line on Friday, Toledo stuffed the conference’s top rusher in Western Michigan’s Jarvion Franklin and held the Broncos to just 10 points.
Now the Rockets get to face Akron on Saturday at Ford Field in Detroit in the MAC championship game.
“We’ve been awesome,” UT coach Jason Candle said. “We played a really good back on Friday, a guy who has been a model of consistency in this conference throughout his career there and has been a workhorse for them. We really did a good job of bottling him up. They have a really good offensive line, and I think to eliminate that and make them one dimensional and make a freshman quarterback beat you, that was a key thing we had to do to win the game.”
The Rockets held Franklin to 52 yards on 15 carries and limited Western Michigan to just 95 rushing yards and 275 total yards.
A performance such as the one against the Broncos may have seemed unthinkable after UT gave up 548 and 587 total yards in back-to-back games against Tulsa and Miami (Fla.) in September, or the team’s lone MAC slip-up Nov. 8 against Ohio when Toledo allowed 393 rushing yards.
“We’ve had our moments,” Candle said. “We’ve had games where we have given up big plays. We’ve had some times of adversity that we’ve had to bounce back from. There are a lot of young guys playing, but there are some seniors in there that have been through it and been able to hold it down and really get the guys refocused. It’s stepping up and rising to the moment and making plays when they have to make them.”
After the rough nonconference games, the Toledo defense proved to be one of the best during MAC play. At 20.6 points per game, the Rockets lead the MAC in scoring defense in conference games.
This has allowed the unit to play with more confidence as the season has gone along.
“The confidence comes from the preparation,” UT defensive coordinator Brian George said. “We’ve talked about as we’ve gone through the entire season that the way we prepare on a daily basis and how we prepare on a weekly basis is what determines how we play when it comes to the games. As we’ve gone through the conference season, I think we’ve done a much better job of preparing from week to week, and this week will be the same thing.”
Last season UT was fourth in the MAC in scoring defense at 25.7 points per game and sixth in scoring defense during conference play at 27.2 points per game. In the offseason, the team focused on improving those marks especially against conference opponents.
“Before the season we knew we had to tweak some things because last year we weren’t the best defense,” UT junior defensive end Ola Adeniyi said. “That was one of our goals this year, to try to work our way up and make a name for ourselves and let people know that our defense can win games.”
With a mix of youth and veteran leadership, this defense has been able to bounce back after poor performances and has been very consistent during MAC play.
“We established early in the year in camp what we wanted our defense to be,” UT sophomore safety Kahlil Robinson said. “I believe as the season has progressed we have gotten stronger. I think as a unit, defensively, we kind of have that mentality of what we want to do and everyone is locked in to that.”
Senior leaders such as Marquise Moore, Ja’Wuan Woodley, and Trevon Mathis have provided an example for how the team should approach each day of preparation.
“It’s great to have veteran leadership on your team,” George said. “I think you always feel better about going through and dealing with tumultuous times and the good and the bad, because they can both derail you pretty quickly if you don’t have good leadership that is very centered. Those guys hold not only themselves, but also the other guys accountable.
“When you get that, it takes a lot of pressure off coaching-wise. You can coach the technique and the things that need to be coached, rather than being on time and those types of things. The seniors have really set the tone daily in practice and in meetings, and that makes things go the right way when they do that.”
Contact Brian Buckey at bbuckey@theblade.com, 419-724-6110, or on Twitter @BrianBuckey.
First Published November 28, 2017, 8:30 p.m.