The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH 13 seniors returning from their team that participated in their previous trip here in 2018, head coach Jason Candle said he hopes that his Toledo Rockets can leave the Bahamas this time around with the Bahamas Bowl trophy on their plane.

The Rockets, with a plane full of more than 200 players, coaches, administrators and fans, arrived in town yesterday for their match-up on Friday at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, who got here a little earlier.

Toledo, representing the Mid American Conference, will take a 7-5 win-loss record into the game at 12 noon live on ESPN against Middle Tennessee, representatives of Conference USA with a 6-6 record. Having lost to the Florida International University Panthers 35-31 in their initial outing here in 2018, Candle said he’s looking forward to a little better results this time round.

“We’re looking forward to a great week here at Atlantis. The hospitality as always is first class, the greeting was first class and so we’re looking forward to a great week,” he said.

“The bowl game for us is a reward for a great season. We had a good season. This is a good time for us to come down and finish off the season the right way.

“We have 13 seniors here who we want to hand off the right way with a victory. If you can have that experience and a little bit of fun doing it, that’s obviously the main goal and to do hit here is first class.”

And because he didn’t get to do it the last time he was here, Candle said he’s definitely hoping to at least put his toes into the beautiful waters surrounding Atlantis. If he does, maybe they will come out with a victory.

“After the last 18 months what everybody in the world has been through, we don’t take this lightly,” said Candle about COVID-19, which changed the landscape of sports, forcing the organisers to call off last year’s Bahamas Bowl as well.

“This is a first-class experience and so it’s good for us to be away and right before the holidays to get a little break. We’re not tourists. We’re football players. We want to win the game, but I think we can do both, have a fun week and then go with the game on Friday.”

For Nate Bauer, a 5-foot, 11-inch, 185-pound safety returning from the previous Toledo team, the memory of the loss still lingers in their minds.

But they want to leave here as champions and not the runners-up again.

“The last team we had was real talented, but this one is talented too,” Bauer stated.

“I’d say this group is a little more together, so we should have a better chance (of winning).”

Reminding all of the fond memories he had the last trip, Bauer said he’s been able to inform the younger guys of some of the places to go and eat and so they should have a good time.

While he said he did quite a lot of things on the last trip, Bauer said he would definitely like to “get on some jet skis” this time and go back on the water slides and enjoy the experience with the sharks on the water rides.

— A few things to ponder when you look at Toledo:

• The Rockets will be playing in their 19th bowl game in programme history, and they own a record of 11-7 in bowl games.

• Toledo has now been bowl eligible for 11 straight seasons – every year since 2010, excluding 2020 in which bowl eligibility requirements were waived due to COVID (Toledo was 4-2 in 2020).

• 11 players earned All- MAC honours this season, the most for a UT team since 2016 (12).

• Toledo has scored 182 points in its last four games, an average of 45.5 per contest.

• No team in the country takes care of the ball as well as the Rockets - they lead the country in fewest turnovers (six in 12 games) and fewest interceptions thrown (two in 12 games).

• Bryant Koback rushed for 135 yards against Akron, his fifth straight 100-yard rushing game.

He now has 1,274 yards for the season, the second time he has rushed for over 1,000 yards in a season (1187 yards in 2019).

• Koback now has 3,900 career rushing yards, good for fourth in Toledo history.

The all-time leader is Kareem Hunt (2013-16) with 4,945 yards.

• Senior cornerback Samuel Womack has 15 pass breakups, third in the country.

He has 40 PBUs for his career, the most in Toledo history.

• Toledo ranks first in the MAC in both scoring offence (34.2) and scoring defence (21.0).