University of Toledo football coach Jason Candle loves when the calendar flips to November, and this season is no exception.
With a team that is still in contention in the Mid-American Conference West division, the three remaining games this month will decide the fate of the Rockets when it comes to MAC title game aspirations.
“It's the best time of the year by far,” Candle said. “This is what you play for and this is when it gets really competitive. It's when you really find out where your program is at and what you are about. I'm excited to watch our guys go. This isn't non-conference football anymore. This is conference games. This is the last home game and then we have to go play two on the road. We have a couple tough games here ahead of us and this one to start out with. We have to take this thing one at a time and play with great effort and I think we'll be in a position to be where we want to be.”
The final three game stretch begins with a home game against Northern Illinois on Wednesday followed by road contests at Buffalo and Central Michigan to close out the season.
The Rockets (6-3, 3-2 MAC) are coming off two straight home wins — a 37-34 overtime win over Eastern Michigan and a 35-33 win over Kent State. Those wins helped Toledo bounce back from back-to-back road losses to Bowling Green and Ball State.
Toledo is tied with Ball State at 3-2 in the conference and is a half-game behind Central Michigan and Western Michigan, which are both 4-2 in the MAC. The Rockets would need help from Ball State, but would hold the tiebreaker over Western Michigan because of a 31-24 win over the Broncos on Oct. 5.
With all the scenarios that might play out over the next three weeks, Toledo is choosing to keep the focus inward in controlling what they can each week.
“We are a week-to-week deal right now,” Candle said. “Our goal last week was to go 1-0, and this week it’s the same. We're still a work in progress ourselves, so to sit around and worry about what everyone else is doing is crazy for us. We have a very tough stretch of football games here. We are going to play the top three defenses statistically in our conference the next three weeks. We play both the teams that were in the conference championship game last year [Northern Illinois and Buffalo] and a team in Central Michigan that is playing as good as anybody. We have three tough weeks ahead of us, and for us to worry about anyone else but ourselves is foolish.”
In the most important stretch of the season, the Rockets are focused on staying in the moment by putting together good game plans and good practices leading up to the game at hand in a given week.
“For the rest of the season our outlook is to take it one week at a time,” senior running back Ronnie Jones said. “We can't get too ahead of ourselves. Everyone is like, 'When are you going to win a MAC championship and when are you going to do this or that?' We can't think like that because when we think like that, it's over. Every team is going to get us if we just think we are going to steamroll them. You have to take it one week at a time.”
Just like in seasons past, November will play a big role in how Toledo's season is viewed and will either be a month to remember or a month that causes heartache.
“This is what is cool about college football,” Candle said. “I've been very clear with our football team that you find out who you are in November. There are 11 months of work for this month. There's a lot of talk and assumption and speculation for one month of truth. You find out who you are and what you've got. Over the course of my time here as a coach and as an assistant coach, this month has paid dividends for us and benefited us big time and there are other years where it has left us disappointed. Each year you are playing to try to get yourself to meaningful games in November. We're here, and we're looking forward to the challenge.”
First Published November 10, 2019, 7:45 p.m.
