WACO, Texas — Even though he has turned the page, quarterback Dequan Finn looks back on his time in Toledo with the fondest of memories.
The 2023 Mid-American Conference MVP with the Rockets, who he helped lead to an 11-2 record and an 8-0 mark in MAC play by throwing for 2,657 yards with 22 touchdowns and nine interceptions along with 563 rushing yards and seven more scores, Finn after last season transferred to Baylor.
In 2022, the Detroit native helped Toledo to a 9-5 record and the MAC title, earning offensive MVP honors in both the MAC championship game and the Boca Raton Bowl.
For his career, he threw for 7,074 yards with 63 touchdowns and 23 interceptions and he rushed for 1,840 yards and 25 scores on the ground as a Rocket.
“I just thank the whole Toledo coaching staff, the community, everyone, because I learned a lot being there,” Finn said this week at his first youth football camp in Waco. “I’m always going to pay my respects to where I was at before. I’m always thankful for Toledo for having me, developing me into the better person and player I am right now.”
In fact, one of the reasons he ended up at Baylor is because he felt the program’s culture under head coach Dave Aranda was similar to the one he experienced at Toledo under Rockets head coach Jason Candle.
“It was the same principles that were at Toledo, treating me as a person first more than a player,” Finn said. “Person over player is something coach Aranda talks about, and that’s something that when I was getting recruited that caught my attention, because those are the same principles that coach Candle had, too, at Toledo. It was just the same foundation that’s here that was at Toledo. That’s one of the main reasons I chose Baylor.”
In the offseason, Baylor saw Blake Shapen, its starting quarterback the past two seasons, transfer to Mississippi State, creating an opportunity for Finn to potentially become the Bears’ new No. 1 signal-caller.
"He has an energy about him that is real,” Aranda said during spring practice, “and I think guys are attracted to it.”
Finn and Sawyer Robinson, a former Mississippi State transfer who started four games for Baylor in 2023, are locked in a fierce battle for the starting spot, one which began in spring ball and will continue into fall camp.
Finn arrived in Waco in January and has spent the past seven months focused on “mainly just class and ball,” as he put it. He has found time to embrace certain aspects of Texas culture, however, including developing an affinity for Mexican food
As for the experience of giving back to his new community by holding his first football camp, that harkened him back to his own days as a camper in Detroit, an experience which stuck with him throughout his football career and one he wanted to replicate at his first camp.
He drew on some simple advice he’d received at Toledo during his camp, more words of wisdom which have stuck in his psyche.
“Something that coach Candle always told me was when you go somewhere, always leave it better than what it was before,” Finn said. “That stuck with me when I was at Toledo, and that’s going to stick with me further down my career and in life as well. Just giving back to the kids and being engaged with them, that’s the most important thing with me.”
Finn has adjusted quite well to his new surroundings and new program. And this fall, the ex-Rocket could prove to be the same difference-maker he was during his impressive career at Toledo and possibly lead the Bears to become one of the bigger surprises in the Big 12.
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