Rockets Open Up 2017 Training Camp with Morning Practices
7/31/2017 2:27:00 PM | Football
Toledo, the preseason favorite to win  the Mid-American Conference Championship, opens its season in exactly one month, a home contest vs. Elon on Aug. 31. Despite the preseason accolades, head coach Jason Candle said the Rockets have plenty to improve on.
"Regardless of the expectations, there's an easy blueprint to this thing," said Candle, "and that's to find a way to motivate yourself each and every day to be the best that you can be. If indivdually we take the selfless approach we will benefit from that collectively and have a pretty good football team.
"There's a lot of work to be done," Candle added. "On defense, we need to stop the run and do a better job taking the football away. On the offensive side, we didn't run the ball as well as well shoudl have last year. And in the games we lost, we did a poor job of taking care of the football."
Toledo was 9-4 in Candle's debut as head coach in 2016, earning a berth into the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl.  UT returns one of the nation's most explosive offenses. Led by senior quarterback Logan Woodside, Toledo averaged 38.0 points per game and led the Mid-American Conference in total offense with a school-record 517.8 yards per game in 2016. Woodside paced the nation with 45 touchdown passes and was named a Heisman contender by the Heisman Trophy Trust. Two of his favorite targets are back—Cody Thompson (64 receptions, 11 TDs, 19.8 ypc) and Jon'Vea Johnson (40/10/19.3)—as is 2015 second-team All-MAC running back Terry Swanson. On defense, the Rockets return seven starters, including All-MAC linebacker Ja'Wuan Woodley.
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Head Coach Jason Candle.
Senior Wide Receiver Cody Thompson
Senior Defensive Back Trevon Mathis
