UofToledofans
Recruit
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2017
- Messages
- 129
I'm not going to try to follow every thread this week so I will post here to make it easier on my brain.
Our message board is CSNbbs - Toledo for anyone trying to read our fan base. Some here have eluded to this game being our Super Bowl. That's true if the Super Bowl was played in a home stadium. Fresno State in 3 weeks is the more important game from a W/L standpoint because we need to beat G5ers over ranked teams that we are expected to lose to. I doubt that's how our players and most fans think though. This game is huge for recruiting and the national eye.
Glass Bowl Stadium:
It's a Historic venue with recent renovations as new as 2016 (East side concession area) and 2014 (endzone athletic complex). It combines old fortress like rock and new amenities like a state of the art 3 level press tower which was the 2nd largest at the time of creation in 1990. Sight lines are terrific and will enhance your gameday experience compared to a place like App State that has a track. 30k will sound like 40k with the fans right on top of you. I doubt that will matter for a Miami player who has seen some cool and loud venues, but it does sneak up on you for G5 level teams or P5 teams that didn't know what to expect. Our visiting locker rooms are far and away the worst in CFB. It's a huge advantage for Toledo, especially against teams who expect more. Gary Pinkel had Missouri get geared up in our ROTC building across the road because of how small and crammed that thing is. If Miami does use it though, it's pretty exciting for the visiting fans in that section. You will never feel closer than you do in section 26 or whatever that is. Toledo is a night game school, so this game being at noon relieves some of the tension which would ensue at a 7pm kick.
Fan expectations: Humbly, all of my friends (22 to 25 year old range) wanted Miami to stomp LSU and be ranked in the top 5. The way that game lined up though, probably gave us more confidence than anything else. If we do win, Toledo isn't a top 25 team because "oh Miami must not be that good." which sucks, but hey a P5 win would be a P5 win no matter what. Miami will be ranked 21st or so and that suffices as a big time team in the Glass Bowl. Miami IS the biggest name to ever come through, so this game is special even if we get spanked. Do we expect to win? More now than 2 weeks ago... I'm guessing we are between 14 and 17 point dogs. Teams in that range win all the time. IDK what FPI is at anymore but I'd say we win this game 1 or 2 times out of 10. Like a 15-20% chance? Most scenarios in my head say this one is competitive to the 4th quarter. If the QB situation for you guys gets figured out and we turn the ball over a lot or something, we could get drilled. A score of 52-10 on "pure talent" seems un reasonable to me. I feel we are a top 50 team in the country at worst and somewhere between 20th and 35th when we play well.
Offense: High powered and good. Play makers are all over the field. Even though we lost Woodside and Swanson, we can still ball. I firmly believe (like last season) we will be a top 3 offense you see this year. Team speed is not that of a normal MAC team.... We have a ton of Florida players, some that even chose us over the P5 in state schools. Saying that we are slower than Miami is probably true but so is Pitt, Duke, BC, etc. That doesn't always determine offensive production.
Defense: I think we are better than a year ago but maybe incrementally. We can't possibly be worse against the run. Pass defense is pretty good. Our DB's are the strength of the D for sure. The MAC is not an offensive jug this season so we may have good defensive stats at the end of the season stacked up against relative competition. As long as we aren't gouged for more than 7ypc on the ground, the D will get a couple of stops??? Maybe.
ST: Our kicker is amongst the best in the country. He hit 2? 40+ yarders against Miami last season. Our punter looks to have improved from last year. His rugby stile boot was crushing em against VMI. Feagles had some suspect punts against LSU, so we may have the advantage here. Cody Thompson also picked one off VMI's punters foot for a TD. I always think its odd that high level high school kickers aren't recruited better... Vest was first team all Georgia for 3 years. Why didn't GT or Georgia or any Florida team go after him?
My final prediction: I won't give one yet. I'm hopeful for a fun game day environment and for Toledo to turn some heads on the 15th. I think we are wearing alternate grey uniforms against you guys. For people who care that's what we wore against Akron at home in 2017.
Our message board is CSNbbs - Toledo for anyone trying to read our fan base. Some here have eluded to this game being our Super Bowl. That's true if the Super Bowl was played in a home stadium. Fresno State in 3 weeks is the more important game from a W/L standpoint because we need to beat G5ers over ranked teams that we are expected to lose to. I doubt that's how our players and most fans think though. This game is huge for recruiting and the national eye.
Glass Bowl Stadium:
It's a Historic venue with recent renovations as new as 2016 (East side concession area) and 2014 (endzone athletic complex). It combines old fortress like rock and new amenities like a state of the art 3 level press tower which was the 2nd largest at the time of creation in 1990. Sight lines are terrific and will enhance your gameday experience compared to a place like App State that has a track. 30k will sound like 40k with the fans right on top of you. I doubt that will matter for a Miami player who has seen some cool and loud venues, but it does sneak up on you for G5 level teams or P5 teams that didn't know what to expect. Our visiting locker rooms are far and away the worst in CFB. It's a huge advantage for Toledo, especially against teams who expect more. Gary Pinkel had Missouri get geared up in our ROTC building across the road because of how small and crammed that thing is. If Miami does use it though, it's pretty exciting for the visiting fans in that section. You will never feel closer than you do in section 26 or whatever that is. Toledo is a night game school, so this game being at noon relieves some of the tension which would ensue at a 7pm kick.
Fan expectations: Humbly, all of my friends (22 to 25 year old range) wanted Miami to stomp LSU and be ranked in the top 5. The way that game lined up though, probably gave us more confidence than anything else. If we do win, Toledo isn't a top 25 team because "oh Miami must not be that good." which sucks, but hey a P5 win would be a P5 win no matter what. Miami will be ranked 21st or so and that suffices as a big time team in the Glass Bowl. Miami IS the biggest name to ever come through, so this game is special even if we get spanked. Do we expect to win? More now than 2 weeks ago... I'm guessing we are between 14 and 17 point dogs. Teams in that range win all the time. IDK what FPI is at anymore but I'd say we win this game 1 or 2 times out of 10. Like a 15-20% chance? Most scenarios in my head say this one is competitive to the 4th quarter. If the QB situation for you guys gets figured out and we turn the ball over a lot or something, we could get drilled. A score of 52-10 on "pure talent" seems un reasonable to me. I feel we are a top 50 team in the country at worst and somewhere between 20th and 35th when we play well.
Offense: High powered and good. Play makers are all over the field. Even though we lost Woodside and Swanson, we can still ball. I firmly believe (like last season) we will be a top 3 offense you see this year. Team speed is not that of a normal MAC team.... We have a ton of Florida players, some that even chose us over the P5 in state schools. Saying that we are slower than Miami is probably true but so is Pitt, Duke, BC, etc. That doesn't always determine offensive production.
Defense: I think we are better than a year ago but maybe incrementally. We can't possibly be worse against the run. Pass defense is pretty good. Our DB's are the strength of the D for sure. The MAC is not an offensive jug this season so we may have good defensive stats at the end of the season stacked up against relative competition. As long as we aren't gouged for more than 7ypc on the ground, the D will get a couple of stops??? Maybe.
ST: Our kicker is amongst the best in the country. He hit 2? 40+ yarders against Miami last season. Our punter looks to have improved from last year. His rugby stile boot was crushing em against VMI. Feagles had some suspect punts against LSU, so we may have the advantage here. Cody Thompson also picked one off VMI's punters foot for a TD. I always think its odd that high level high school kickers aren't recruited better... Vest was first team all Georgia for 3 years. Why didn't GT or Georgia or any Florida team go after him?
My final prediction: I won't give one yet. I'm hopeful for a fun game day environment and for Toledo to turn some heads on the 15th. I think we are wearing alternate grey uniforms against you guys. For people who care that's what we wore against Akron at home in 2017.
