Canes Ready for Battle at Toledo
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes never take an opponent lightly.
Head coach Mark Richt, who is in his third season at the helm of the Hurricanes, makes sure his team is ready to play at the highest level every single week. That mindset will be especially important as the Hurricanes travel to Ohio to face the defending MAC champions, the Toledo Rockets, on Saturday afternoon.
“Jason Candle, in his third season at Toledo, is doing a great job,” Richt said. “He has already got 22 victories. [Toledo] was 11-3 last year, he was [MAC] Coach of the Year last year. They won their league last year – great job by him and his staff. Of course we played them a year ago, it was our first game off [Hurricane Irma] and it was a barn-burner. It was a battle to the very end. They did a great job and our guys fought like mad too, and we ended up winning it. It was a great battle, and we expect the same [Saturday]. We’re going to be in their house, I guess we’ll be on ESPN2, I just found out, at high noon. It’s supposed to be very warm. I think today’s temperature was a lot lower, I guess, than what game day is supposed to be – I think it’s supposed to be in the 80s. It’ll be nice and warm. We’ll have to do battle in their house.”
A road team earning a victory at the Glass Bowl has been especially rare since Candle took over prior to the Boca Raton Bowl in 2015. The Rockets are 11-1 at home under Candle, including a perfect 6-0 and a year ago. Toledo’s only home loss under Candle came on Oct. 27, 2016, falling to Ohio University, 31-26.
“It’ll be wild,” Richt said. “We’ll get everything they’ve got. I’m sure they’ll have every single seat sold and they’ll be standing room only. Their fans are going to be ready for a great battle. They’ve been excited about this for a while. Let’s face it – they played a game, had an open date, so the fans had time to get ready for two weeks. The coaches had time to get ready for two weeks, and the whole offseason. We really don’t know, for sure, what we’ll get. The only thing we do know is, historically, they don’t try to make up a whole bunch of stuff. They just line up and win. They just line up and execute. With that much time, we have to expect that they’re going to be doing a few things a little differently – and a few curveballs on both sides of the ball and the kicking game.”
Miami has been in a similar situation under Richt, traveling to Appalachian State in 2016. The Mountaineers had developed a reputation as a quality football program that has a flair for pulling off upsets against bigger programs. But the Canes jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back as they won convincingly, 45-10.
“It’s the same thing as Appalachian State,” quarterback Malik Rosier said of this weekend’s game at Toledo. “I’m going in there and before we even got to the stadium, three or four hours before the game, the fans were literally waiting outside, hundreds of people. For us, it’s just going in there and winning, no matter if there’s a hundred fans there, a million fans. To us it’s just 120 yards and a football. So we are trying to go there and do our job, and we can’t let their atmosphere affect how we play. I think we did a great job versus Appalachian State. We had that first big run by Mark Walton, and it kind of killed the crowd. And so I feel like if we go out and we execute and we have a couple of good drives, I think the crowd will be taken out of it. And that’s our job, to take the crowd out by putting points on the board. They are going to be amped up because it’s versus Miami and everyone loves playing us.”
Part of what has made Toledo successful in the past was quarterback Logan Woodside leading the offense. The 2018 MAC Offensive Player of the Year has moved on to the Tennessee Titans practice squad, but Biletnikoff Trophy candidates Cody Thompson and Diontae Johnson headline a dangerous receiving corps that Richt and the coaching staff are not underestimating.
“I think in terms of who we’re playing,” Richt said. “I’m looking at their film, I’m looking at their scheme, I’m looking at their best players – who we need to try to defend, who we need to try and block better, maybe have a scheme for somebody. What are they doing on this down and instance? That’s all I think about with opponents. It’s another game. It’s the next one on the schedule. And we have to get ready to improve every minute of every day.”
Another reason the Rockets have been successful is consistency with their coaching staff. In addition to Candle, offensive coordinator Brian Wright and defensive coordinator Brian George are each in their third seasons in their respective roles.
“Their offensive and defensive coordinators are back,” Richt said. “Three years, they’ve all been there together, so he’s done a good job of keeping his staff together…they’re really good at what they do. They’re what you’d expect from a team that wins their conference. They’re what you’d expect from a team that wins 11 games. I think they’ve gone the last six years and never won less than nine [games]. They’re winners because they execute. They’re winners because they believe in what they do and how they do it. I think they’re winning because they’ve kept their staff intact and the kids know what to expect. They do a great job. We have to travel there, wake up early and get ready to rock and roll.”
Running back DeeJay Dallas, who averaged 9.6 yards per carry while amassing 48 yards on five touches a week ago against Savannah State, remembers facing the Rockets last season in the Canes’ first game back following Hurricane Irma. Miami had to battle to come away victorious and Dallas expects another hard-fought game on Saturday.
They’re well coached,” Dallas said. “They’re not going to beat themselves. We’ve just got to come out and take it to them.”
Freshman Will Mallory got a taste of a big road game when he was in Texas for the Advocare Classic against LSU. While Toledo may not have the hype and accolades that LSU does as a program, Mallory knows this weekend’s game against the Rockets will also be challenging.
“They’re a heck of a team,” Mallory said. “They win the championship up there in the MAC almost every year. They’ve had two weeks off, so they’ve had a lot to prepare for us. We’re going to go in there and they’re going to play hard. We’ve got to go up there and battle and do what we have to do and get the W and move on to next week.”
