Briggs: Planted in middle of night, what's with the mysterious UT athletics campaign signs around town?

Election season is coming, and here, there, everywhere, so are the yard signs.

Biden 2024. Make America Great Again. Take Back … the MAC?

I can see ‘em already.

If you’ve spent any time in the city the past few years, you’ve probably noticed the usual political signage has gained some cheeky new company, courtesy of an anonymously funded campaign for … University of Toledo athletics.

Surreptitiously planted in the middle of the night, the signs sprout all around Toledo, 40 at a time.

DQ for Heisman. Tod Kowalczyk for Mayor. Quinyon Mitchell for … President.

OK, we made that last one up — even if, as sitting Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz fairly observed, the former Rockets star cornerback has a “hell of a lot more support here than Trump and Biden.”

But Mitchell — freshly selected by the Philadelphia Eagles with the 22nd pick of the NFL draft — is the subject of the mystery operative’s latest sign.

It congratulates, then implores: “Give him the Key to the City Wade on the 4th of July.”

By the way, stay tuned.

Plans were already well underway for just such a presentation. UT plans to honor Mitchell at its Oct. 5 homecoming game against Miami, which coincides with the Eagles’ off week.

“Apparently unbeknownst to the maker of these signs,” Kapszukiewicz said, “I’m going to give him the key to the city [that day].”

In any case, I was curious:

Who is the maker of these signs?

And what exactly is the point of them?

On second thought, do they need one, other than providing a little silly fun promoting the hometown university? (Good … point.)

First things first, I learned the funding source is a deep-state Super PAC committed to the success of the Rockets, and actually not a deep-state Super PAC.

The signs are the creation of Dave Langendorfer, a UT grad (‘99) and good-guy local entrepreneur.

Toledo fans paying close attention might have known it was him.

Langendorfer — who owns several properties and businesses, including Mr. Storage and a dozen Jersey Mike’s and Little Caesars franchises — is not just a big Rockets supporter. He’s also a big advertiser with a flair for knowing what will get people talking.

Think of the buzziest promotions at basketball and football games the past few years.

The $5,000 half-court shot. The Cookie Monster hoopla. The dunk tank.

Langendorfer’s businesses sponsored all of them.

The anonymous campaign signs were but another way to help keep the Rockets in sight and mind in their city, where, even in the highest times, they can feel like a stranger in the shadow of Ohio State and Michigan.

The signs first appeared a few weeks before the 2021 football season with a faux Heisman push for Carter Bradley. Langendorfer commissioned 40 yard signs at $4 a pop, then at 2 a.m. one morning drove around the city sprinkling the seeds of hope. He kept them to commercial properties, always to the right of a stop sign or red light.

As Langendorfer recalled, the what-the-hell but positive word of mouth was immediate, even from an unwitting member of his own family. ( Did you know there’s a Heisman campaign for the Rockets’ quarterback? )

“People were like, ‘Wait, does he really have a chance?’” he said. “It was kind of a joke, but it’s fairly cost-effective marketing. It just strikes up a little interest. … If it makes people smile or laugh for a second, it’s worth it.

“If I can just get one person to buy a $60 3-game mini fan plan, then I feel like it's a success.”

Langendorfer planted another wave of Heisman signs early in that 2021 season and followed with the campaigns for Dequan Finn — who succeeded Bradley at QB — and men’s basketball coach Tod Kowalczyk. (Amusingly, another booster moved one of the Kowalczyk signs to the Ottawa Hills front lawn of former president Gregory Postel when the coach was in talks for an extension in 2022.)

For the record, Kowalczyk’s mayoral competition is on board.

“I have a soft spot in my heart for candidates with long Polish names that start with ‘K’,” Kapszukiewicz said, “so if Tod wants to do it, I'll take a swing at coaching the basketball team for the season, and he can be the mayor.”

In the meantime, Langendorfer will keep fighting the good fight, looking to keep his Rockets front and center in Toledo.

While he’s not political, he would enjoy nothing more than a midnight blue wave ripping through the city this fall.