After big upset, opportunity knocks for Toledo football — and entire university

Bryan Blair calls it the good old days.

Reminiscing and recalling the glory of yesteryear is a favorite activity for sports fans.

At the University of Toledo, Blair — in his third year as athletic director — believes those conversations should start with the present.

The men’s basketball program has won four consecutive outright Mid-American Conference championships. The women’s basketball program has won three straight MAC titles and advanced to the second round of the 2023 NCAA tournament. And the football program has appeared in the past two MAC title games, winning in 2022.

Saturday’s landmark 41-17 win at Mississippi State thrust Toledo into the national conversation one year after an 11-game win streak landed the Rockets in the top 25 and All-American cornerback Quinyon Mitchell was drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Now is the time to be all in on this program, all in on this head coach, all in on the staff, all in on these players,” Blair said inside a small conference room at Davis Wade Stadium last Saturday. “That’s Rocket Fund, that’s fundraising, that’s ticket sales, that’s a full Glass Bowl, that’s NIL support. We need it all right now.

“Don’t wait until tomorrow. I tell people, with all our programs, we are in the good old days of Toledo athletics. This is the good old days. Let’s not look back and say, ‘Ah, I wish I could go back to 2023, 2024.’ Let’s make this last forever. That takes everybody.”

The football program and the university have arrived together at this moment. In the 12-team playoff era, undefeated or 12-1 Toledo would have a bulletproof resume. The stakes make every game the rest of the season a referendum on the Rockets, with pollsters and selection committee members searching for any blemishes.

UP NEXT

■ Who : Toledo (3-0) at Western Kentucky (2-1)

■ When : Saturday, 7 p.m.

■ TV : ESPN Plus

■ Line : Toledo by 2½.

■ Follow along : Updates and analysis will be published throughout the game at toledoblade.com .

■ Rocket Rundown: Watch our weekly video series looking ahead to the game here .

“Days like Saturday don’t happen often,” Toledo coach Jason Candle said. “And I care about what I say to our team. I don’t want them to feel like what they did on Saturday wasn’t a major deal, because it is. And I don’t want them to feel like they shouldn’t feel great about doing something in the history of our program that has only been done a couple times. That's a massive thing.

“But where we’re trying to go, what we’ve said for ourselves, what we want to do, our best moments as Rockets have not happened yet. We’ve got to buy into the things that matter, the things that will allow us to do that. And the only way to do that is continuous improvement.”

The university is at a crossroads at a momentous time in college athletics. NIL has changed the landscape. The House settlement and revenue sharing are seismic events. Further playoff expansion is inevitable, with the Group of Five’s access perhaps being closed off. And conference realignment is a never-ending game of musical chairs that could impact Toledo.

UT’s current enrollment is 14,440, down from 20,626 a decade ago. The continuous slide is partly blamed on the pandemic, changing attitudes toward higher education, and shoddy university leadership. Programs have been cut and staff eliminated, all while Bowling Green’s enrollment is surging.

At the moment, interim president Matt Schroeder — a Toledo resident and graduate of Central Catholic and UT — is tasked with finding solutions. And the career UT employee is a strong candidate to get the permanent title. Schroeder’s belief in the mission of intercollegiate athletics has provided alignment between university leadership and the athletic department that was previously missing.

“The influence that athletics not only has on the student experience, but the impact that it has on the economy of northwest Ohio, and, even more important, the brand and the reputation of the University of Toledo, you know and I know enrollment has been a struggle for us,” Schroeder said.

“We have a plan to correct that, and we will correct that over the next couple years. But in these last 10-plus years, athletics, along with our world-class research, has really been the two buoys holding up the university as we reposition from an academic side. Think about what we have. I’m just going to brag a little bit, but what we have at the University of Toledo, the success that, I think many of our folks around here take it for granted. I know our athletics department, our men and women and our coaches do not.”

Toledo has won the Cartwright Award the past three years. A committee with representatives from all 12 MAC schools selects the winner from nominations based on excellence in academics, athletics, and citizenship.

The Rockets have won the Reese Trophy -- awarded annually to the top MAC men’s athletic department -- three consecutive years. In 2023-24, they won the Reese and Jacoby (top women’s athletic department) Trophy, the first time one school has won both awards in the same year.

“The amount of hardware that we took home and just the smack-talking and the bragging rights, folks aspire to be the University of Toledo,” Schroeder said. “And not only in the MAC but other conferences. We’ve got a great tradition of not only excellence on the field but success in the classroom. We turn out some really good men and women that may not play on Sundays, but they contribute to society and grow professionally and represent the University of Toledo so well.”

Football success transformed Boise State, Central Florida, and Cincinnati, public state universities similar to Toledo. From the early-to-mid 2000s, Boise State’s enrollment increased by 18 percent, research grants and contracts were up 68 percent, foundation assets rose 59 percent, and the number of university donors increased by 131 percent.

UCF became one of the nation’s largest universities as its football program soared to new heights. Cincinnati’s athletic department revenue grew by 34 percent after it reached the College Football Playoff. Both schools parlayed their success into an invitation to the Big 12.

Northern Illinois experienced a 19.3 percent surge in applications after it qualified for the Orange Bowl in 2012. During its undefeated 2016 season, Western Michigan received $70 million in media exposure.

“This is bigger than UT football, and what I mean by that is the University of Toledo is in desperate need of increased enrollment, and the front door to the university at this moment is this football program,” said Toledo businessman Cleves Delp, who’s donated generously to UT for many years. “That’s what gives it all of its exposure. You can travel throughout the country and if you say you’re from Toledo, they say, ‘Oh yeah, the Rockets, because, of course, they watch it on TV.

“...I couldn’t be more impressed by [Schroeder]. I recently joined the UT Health board, and I want to tell you, I’ve seen him in action. I have known him. I coached him in baseball at Central Catholic. ... The combination of [Candle, Blair, and Schroeder] intersecting at this very important time in the history of the school is hopeful. The three of them are of the same mind, so to speak. I think it’s a big moment, and it’s not about UT football. This is about the survival — survival might be too strong of a word — but the future of the school.”

Nine regular-season games remain, with Saturday’s trip to Western Kentucky among the most difficult tests. The table is set for the Rockets, who are armed with a signature victory, considerable exposure, and national TV appearances to come.

Let the good times roll.

“I don’t want to sit here and minimize it,” Blair said. “It allows our fan base and our city and others to dream big. I’ve told everybody, we’re incredibly close at Toledo. We’re doing really, really good in so many things. And we need those peak moments. This is a peak moment.”