Tucker Gleason laid out his clothes on Monday night.
Dan Bolden couldn’t sleep.
The first day of fall camp never gets old for the University of Toledo football players.
“It’s like the first day of school,” Gleason said. “I laid my outfit out last night that I was going to wear in this morning. I was excited, a little bit nervous. Once you get into the first little bit of it, you’re running around, all the nerves go away and you’re out there just having fun.”
The Rockets had a split-squad practice at the Glass Bowl Tuesday, with the veterans going in the morning followed by underclassmen. The weather went from foggy and misty to blue skies and brilliant sunshine. Head coach Jason Candle hopes it’s a metaphor for the upcoming season.
Toledo has a blend of veterans at critical positions and newcomers at equally important spots. But the expectations are not diminished. UT was picked second by the Mid-American Conference’s coaches, one spot lower than folks in the 419 expect. Candle has coached two championship teams and another that made the title game.
“Those teams all had the ability to take it day by day and really understand their work and that what they’re doing in each and every period of practice is going to matter in December,” Candle said. “That’s a big challenge for this team, to stay in the now and understand that yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s game. Whatever we’ve done in the past, nobody really cares. This is a different team. We’ve got to focus on the details and the little things that can make our team great each and every day and stack those together.”
Winning not only builds confidence in a team (or individual) setting, the avenues to winning are remembered and replicated. Toledo has won 23 total games, a MAC title, and a bowl game over the past two seasons. And the Rockets enter 2024 with an eight-game regular-season conference winning streak.
Gleason, Bolden, Maxen Hook, Jerjuan Newton, Jaquez Stuart, and numerous others have lived a championship season and breathed the culture and commitment. Seventy freshmen and sophomores have not.
“I’ve been here for the lows of a 6-6 season in 2019, winning a MAC championship, and all that in between. So we know what it takes,” Bolden said. “We know the details that need to be taken care of, the small things that will add up over time. We know how to win football games. That’s something that we’re going to lean on.”
The first day is filled with excitement — and rust. Elementary mistakes are made. There are missed tackles, incorrect routes, and dropped passes. All the stuff that keeps coaches awake at night.
The growth comes in reviewing the tape and how players evolve from Practice 1 to Practice 5 to Practice 15. The errors and missteps must be corrected when Aug. 29 arrives and UT lines up across from Duquesne for a real football game. Will the Rockets lose? Probably not. But when mistakes are repeated, bad habits creep in.
“There are going to be some plays that look really bad,” Candle said about Tuesday’s practice. “When you turn on the tape, you just try to piece the highlighted plays together and create a picture of what each player can do to create a standard of expectation for them. It’s our job to coach them through that and make sure that they meet that [expectation].”
The rest of camp won’t be nearly as exciting for Gleason and Bolden. The cool clothes and sleepless nights will cease. But in its place is a process that’s just as familiar: developing a winning formula.
It’s an exercise Toledo has trademarked.
“You have guys that know what winning is and know what it looks like,” Gleason said. “The older guys, they know how to win. They know what it takes to win a championship. So if those older guys can help hold that standard, then you have a pretty good football team.”
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