Football: Rockets Announce 2002 Football Schedule
2/21/2002 12:00:00 PM | Football
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Feb. 21, 2002
Toledo, OH - The University of Toledo announced its 2002 football schedule today. The Rockets will play six home games and six road games. This is the first season that the NCAA will allow all of its Division I-A schools to play 12 regular-season games. Head Coach Tom Amstutz called it the most challenging slate in school history.
"I feel that our schedule is the toughest we've ever had here," said Amstutz, who led his team to a MAC title and Motor City Bowl championship in his rookie season last year. "We've got two very tough non-conference road games at Pitt and at Minnesota. We face UNLV from the Mountain West at home. We also play at Central Florida, which is a very difficult place to win. I think all of our MAC games will be tough, really. There really aren't any pushovers in the MAC. I seriously doubt if there has ever been a tougher schedule at UT from top to bottom."
The season opens with a Thursday night home game vs. Cal Poly on Aug. 29. That game was added earlier this month after Southern Illinois backed out of its scheduled game with the Rockets. Toledo opens its MAC season on Sept. 7 with a trip to Eastern Michigan, and follows that with a battle at Minnesota in the Minneapolis Metrodome on Sept. 14, a rematch of last year's 38-7 Toledo victory at the Glass Bowl.
Head Coach John Robinson's UNLV Runnin' Rebels invadeToledo on Sept. 21. Robinson, who will be entering his fourth season at UNLV, is the former leader of the USC Trojans (1976-82, 1993-97) and the NFL's Los Angeles Rams (1983-91). Robinson led USC to the national championship in 1978. UNLV's visit will mark the first appearance in the Glass Bowl by a school from the Mountain West Conference. The MWC was established in 1999 after eight schools from the Western Athletic Conference broke off to form a new league. The Rockets will return the trip to Las Vegas in 2003.
The remainder of Toledo's home slate features four Mid-American Conference teams, including three from the West Divison: Ball State (Oct. 12 - Homecoming), Central Michigan (Nov. 9) and Bowling Green (Nov. 30). The Miami Redhawks, from the East Division, will play in the Glass Bowl on Oct. 26. This will be the first time since 1996 that Toledo will have both Bowling Green and Miami on its home schedule.
Toledo's other road games include a trip to Pittsburgh of the Big East on Sept. 28, and MAC games at Central Florida (Oct. 19), Western Michigan (Nov. 16) and Northern Illinois (Nov. 23). Central Florida is the MAC's newest member and will compete in the East Division. Bowling Green moves from the East Division to the West Division. Because the MAC now has 14 member schools for football, all eight league games will count in the division races. For the past two seasons, only division games counted in the standings.
In addition, the MAC Championship Game will be played on Dec. 7 at the site of the East Division champion. The game will be televised on ESPN2 as part of ESPN's "Championship Saturday." As MAC West Division champion last season, Toledo hosted Marshall in the 2001 MAC Championship Game and came away with a dramatic 41-36 victory. The Rockets went on to defeat Cincinnati in the Motor City Bowl to finish with a 10-2 record and final rankings of No. 22 in the USA Today/ESPN poll and No. 23 in the AP poll.
