The first milestone in the University of Toledo’s football recruiting surge came last December when the Rockets signed the highest-rated Mid-American Conference class in history.
Securing Zy’marion Lang in a signing day coup provided a significant boost. The four-star athlete de-committed from South Carolina, choosing the Rockets over several power conference schools. The freshman wide receiver has wowed UT coaches and teammates in practice, and his decision was the beginning of a wider trend.
In May, 2026 quarterback Bo Polston committed to Toledo over offers from Georgia, Michigan, Washington, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, California, Minnesota, and Indiana, an announcement that stunned seasoned recruiting observers.
“Honestly, it took me by complete surprise,” said Greg Smith, a national recruiting analyst for Rivals and Yahoo! Sports.
Now, it feels routine. Toledo’s 2025 class is on pace to surpass the accolades of 2024. Florida cornerback Gavin Jenkins had Big 12 offers. Florida running back Shawn Simeon picked UT over Florida State, Iowa, and Illinois, among others. Cincinnati linebacker Maddox Arnold could have committed to a Big Ten school but chose the Rockets.
Cincinnati tackle Raphael Greene is ranked among the top 100 offensive linemen in the country. Four-star Michigan wide receiver Kamren Flowers — who spurned Michigan State and Wisconsin — is the sixth-ranked player in the state.
The 2025 class is ranked No. 1 in the MAC and ahead of bigger, more resourced programs like San Diego State, Oregon State, Vanderbilt, Memphis, Boise State, and Colorado. The 2026 class is ranked as high as No. 16.
“It’s about getting everybody aligned to what each position group wants and the position characteristics we’re looking for at those spots, and then being able to identify those kids in high school and going out and getting them,” Toledo head coach Jason Candle said. “You don’t get every recruit. You want to shoot for bigger, stronger, faster at every position, as long as the character of the player fits the character of your team.”
The man tasked with leading Toledo’s recruiting efforts is Bryan Gasser. The Toledo native was hired last year to replace Ricky Ciccone, who left for Louisiana-Lafayette. Gasser previously worked at UT from 2010-15 and coached at Iowa State, Akron, and Northwestern.
The job is deeply personal for Gasser, who grew up as a UT season ticket holder. Even when he worked for other programs, he retained his Toledo fandom. Now Gasser (and deputies AJ Harrison and Tony Calcutta) are directing their roster construction with a mixture of professional responsibility and civic pride.
“This isn’t just a job,” Gasser said. “This is a place that [Candle] cares about and pours a lot into. I think he’s hired a staff that feels the same way, and I think you’ve got a community that appreciates and embraces what’s happening here. There have been a lot of great things that have transpired here over the years, from the late ’60s to ’70s to the ’90s to now.
“Toledo’s always found a way to compete at a really high level and at a level higher than maybe some of their peers. It’s a great situation where we have Toledo back in that conversation of one of the best programs in the country.”
It starts with relationships. In an era dominated by name, image, and likeness, as well as high-dollar transactions that mimic the NFL, the Rockets do things the old-fashioned way. That’s not to say they don’t participate in NIL, just that the entry point is genuine. Commitment after commitment tell a story of feeling valued and told the truth by UT’s coaches.
“A lot of schools just try to gas your head up,” Flowers said. “And [Toledo] was just very honest and upfront with me. I really prized that, just knowing who’s real and who’s not.”
That’s part of the reason why Toledo is in battles with power conference schools. If UT can get in the door, it believes that recent success, development, and relationships will appeal to recruits and parents. Under Candle, Toledo’s had 10 players drafted, the most in an eight-year period since 1969 to 1976 when the draft was 17 rounds.
Quinyon Mitchell’s first-round selection is a program-wide boost, but so is the development of Reggie Gilliam, Storm Norton, Cody Thompson, and Dyontae Johnson, undrafted free agents who found their place in the NFL.
“The thing that’s very consistent is they were all guys that came here out of high school,” Gasser said. “They’re not guys that transferred here and then made it to the NFL. We’ve had them from the start. So to be able to bring a young prospect in and say, ‘Hey, here’s Quinyon Mitchell’s story and path, and here’s what he looked like when he walked in and here’s where he’s at when he walked out. Here’s Sam Womack, who started as a walk-on. Here’s Reggie Gilliam, who started as a walk-on and was an undrafted guy and is one of the highest-paid players at his position.’
“There are a lot of stories that we can tell. There’s a lot of evidence that we can show of what development really looks like. That is an edge for us. We can recognize and identify traits, measurements, and intangibles and say, ‘Hey, here’s somebody that’s maybe not a finished product that doesn’t have all these stars, but he’s a ball of clay that can be molded into something special.’”
Gasser is intimately aware of what UT can sell. In 2013 — his lone season as director of high school relations — the Rockets assembled the top class in the MAC with four future draft picks: Kareem Hunt, Michael Roberts, Rodney Adams, and Logan Woodside.
Ciccone’s vacancy worried some after he put together the No. 1 class in the MAC five consecutive years. But Candle made a shrewd decision in hiring Gasser because of his familiarity with the program, the region, and preexisting relationships that allowed him to make immediate inroads.
“Toledo is one of those places where they have a really good history of evaluation and winning recruiting battles, and that’s where they’ve been able to sustain success,” said Allen Trieu, a Midwest recruiting analyst for 247Sports. “With Gasser, you have someone who has been at Toledo as an assistant coach, so he gets it from that perspective. He had been around for some of those guys they found during his first stint at Toledo. And he got to see it at Iowa State, where that staff did an excellent job mining for talent.”
The media attention, high expectations, and rabid fan base exert constant pressure on UT. It’s felt inside the Larimer Athletic Complex, where coaches and staff members feel a daily burden to perform at their highest level. Gasser is part of the machine that has been humming at maximum efficiency.
“It’s a formula that works,” Candle said. “Bryan spearheads a solid operation.”
With the persuasion of a local ambassador.
“The people that work in this building signed up knowing that that is the level of expectation here,” Gasser said. “We do expect to compete for championships. We do expect to have the best players at each position. We do expect to be a favorite and to go win every football game.
“And I think in recruiting we feel the same way. We’re not going to shy away and be afraid to go toe-to-toe with anybody.”
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