Briggs: Toledo football will be special if this big question becomes an answer

The Blade
AUG 8, 2023 1:56 PM
If Toledo football coach Jason Candle had a colder calculus, he could have easily passed the buck and made changes to his offensive staff after last season.
That includes moving on from line coach Mike Hallett.
Never mind the Rockets won the Mid-American Conference title.
Their traditionally prolific offense was as consistent as a summer gust, ranking outside the top 40 nationally in yards per game for the first time since 2010, and the line represented the most unstable link.
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Simply, it wasn’t good enough.
Hallett appreciates that.
“It would be very easy in any program to — if you don’t have a good year — start making changes,” Hallett said. “J’s had faith.”
Just don’t get the wrong idea.
Candle did not keep Hallett because he’s a good guy loath to make the hard decisions. (Recall the housecleaning of the defensive staff after the 2019 season.)
He kept him because he believes in Hallett and, above all, the group he leads.
Is that a gamble? Sure.
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If a Toledo team with big expectations is to enjoy a special season, our questions about the offensive line must evolve into answers.
And pronto, beginning with the opener at Illinois. The Illini have a monster of a defensive line, their 3-4 scheme fronted by an All-American (Jer’Zhan Newton) and All-Big Ten honoree (Keith Randolph) on the ends and 320-pound Northwestern transfer TeRah Edwards at nose guard.
As a first test, this isn’t dipping your toes into the kiddie pool. It’s taking the polar plunge in the middle of the ocean.
Good luck!
Still, Candle’s faith in the direction of the line is not without reason.
For one, Hallett knows what he’s doing.
As unsteady as the line has been the past two years — UT graded 118th nationally in pass blocking and 78th in run blocking last season, per Pro Football Focus — it’s not like he suddenly forgot the difference between a pancake block and a waffle.
The guy can coach.
Before coming to Toledo in 2016, he was 55-36 in nine years as the head coach at Division III Heidelberg, turning a program that had lost 36 straight games upon his arrival into an annual winner. And he’s done the job at UT before. A program doesn’t consistently put up big numbers — the Rockets were an average of 23rd in total offense from 2016 to ‘21, compared to 33rd the preceding six seasons — with a bad O-line. (UT was 54th in total offense last season.)
“Mike does a great job with those guys,” Candle said. “He’s a good teacher, good developer, he has authentic relationships with the guys in the room, and they play really hard for him. That's what you’re looking for.”
Further, the pieces are there for a big step forward this season.
We’ll see if it’s enough.
A year ago, the line was thrown together on the fly.
The short of it: Two key starters went down on back-to-back days of fall camp — all-league center Tyler Long broke and shredded his ankle and right tackle Mitch Berg broke his foot — and UT didn’t have the depth to rally. (Fair criticism: Where was that depth?)
Toledo was so up against it that, next thing you knew, Devan Rogers — beginning his fifth season as a defensive tackle — was the starting center.
“You take a guy on defense, put him over on offense, and say ‘Good luck, start learning,’” Hallett said.
All told, let’s be honest: The rebuilt line was a walking red flag, too often producing little push and less protection. UT allowed a whopping 102 tackles for a loss.
And yet ...
The optimism is as real as it is justified, for a couple reasons:
1. The line we watched all season? That wasn’t the one we watched the last two games.
As if coming of age, the Rockets’ front saved their finest work for when it mattered most, helping clear the way to wins over Ohio in the MAC championship game and Liberty in the Boca Raton Bowl. UT rushed for 236 yards on 46 carries against Ohio — almost twice the average yield of the Bobcats’ league-best run D — and held the ball for 40 minutes against Liberty, including on its name-taking, clock-bleeding final drive.
“Thank goodness we found a way the last two games to have an opportunity to put some really good work on the field,” Hallett said. “That really buoys your whole offseason.”
2. The band is (mostly) back together, with some new frontmen, too.
If the Rockets got a little burned in the fire last year, they may now be seasoned just this season.
That includes Rogers, who, after a year of pouring himself into his new position, “looks like a totally different person,” Candle said.
Together, the line returns four starters from last season, welcomes back Long, and welcomes in three power-conference transfers, including 6-5, 305-pound senior David Nwaogwugwu (Rutgers).
If the season began today, I’d expect all-league junior Nick Rosi at left tackle, Nwaogwugwu at right tackle, juniors Vinny Sciury and Kendall Major at the guard spots, and Rogers at center, with Long set to rejoin the fray once full go. (Long hopes to be ready for the Illinois opener.)
The Rockets’ line now counts 94 career starts between them, second-most in the MAC (Northern Illinois has 117).
“The thing that's been really good is how tightly bonded this group is,” Hallett said. “When you go through some of that adversity that we faced last year with injuries and letting some games get away from us that we probably shouldn't have, those guys learned to grow. ... We talk about five fingers versus a fist. The line has to be a fist. It’s got to be together and this group has as much camaraderie and esprit de corps as I’ve seen here. We’ve had great groups, but this group is really tied together.”
And, if all goes well, hoping to tie a bow on what could be a special Toledo team.