Head Coach Tom Amstutz celebrates Toledo's 49-41 victory over Bowling Green in 2004 with UToledo students.
Rocket Blog: My 12 All-Time Favorite Rocket Football Victories
10/10/2020 8:03:00 AM | Football
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University of Toledo Associate Athletic Director for Communications Paul Helgren shares his 12 favorite Rocket Football victories since 1998, the year he began working with Toledo Football. No. 6 on the list is the Rockets' improbable comeback victory against Bowling Green in 2004.
 Toledo 49, Bowling Green 41 (Nov. 23, 2004)
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Long after the final whistle had blown, after the last round of "U of Toledo" had been sung in the locker room, and after the post-game interviews with the media were completed, Toledo Head Coach Tom Amstutz turned to his offensive coordinator and asked a surprising question.
"You didn't think we were coming back, did you?"
Rob Spence, the "mad professor" of the Toledo offense, just smiled and shook his head. He could be forgiven for a little skepticism. His offense had just scored 42 second-half points in an improbable 49-41 victory over arch-rival Bowling Green in which the Rockets trailed by 20 points at halftime. Spence was probably not alone. How many of the Rocket faithful in the Glass Bowl on that Tuesday night in November really thought Toledo would come back and win?
Amstutz said he never gave up hope, but you have to wonder. On one hand, he had urged his team to keep fighting in a fiery halftime speech. After all, his teams had been there before. He reminded them about the 2001 MAC Championship Game in which the Midnight Blue and Gold rallied from a 23-0 deficit to defeat Marshall.Â
On the other hand, Toledo had been stuck in some huge halftime holes earlier that season and then proceeded to sink even deeper in the final 30 minutes. Down 42-7 at halftime at Minnesota, the Rockets gave up two quick third-quarter touchdowns in a 63-21 blowout. A 49-7 halftime deficit at Kansas ended no better: 63-14 Jayhawks.
Those two losses actually were a turning point for Toledo. Embarrassed by the 0-2 start, the Rockets rallied to win seven of their next eight games. Junior quarterback Bruce Gradkowski and senior wide receiver Lance Moore were an unstoppable combination. The defense, led by junior linebacker Anthony Jordan and senior safety Patrick Body, recovered from that shaky beginning to become a very respectable unit.
Nearly 32,000 fans crammed the Glass Bowl for the Battle of I-75 in 2004.
The Rockets' turnaround set the stage for another historic matchup in the Battle of I-75. Bowling Green, 8-2 and ranked No. 24 in the country, was led by sophomore sensation quarterback Omar Jacobs. The Falcons were flying high with seven consecutive victories, including a 52-0 thrashing of Western Michigan and a 56-35 humbling of perennial power Marshall in their previous two games. Both Toledo and BG were 6-1 in league play but only UT was playing for a chance to represent the West Division at the MAC Championship Game due to the Falcons' early-season loss at 7-1 Northern Illinois.
The Glass Bowl was packed with an overflow crowd of nearly 32,000, with at least a couple of thousand fans wearing Brown and Orange. For late November, the weather was decent, mid-40's and no wind. ESPN2 came to Toledo with an 'A' crew of Dave Pasch, Rod Gilmore, Tevor Matich and Rob Stone. It was the kind of dream matchup that would help brand midweek "MACtion" as a staple on the college football landscape.
The game could not have started any worse for Toledo. Bowling Green needed just six plays to score on its opening possession, then recovered a Steve Odom fumble on the ensuing kickoff. Two plays later it was 14-0.
After a Toledo punt, the Falcons put together another long drive that ended with a 32-yard field goal by Shaun Suisham. It was 17-0 and there were still seven minutes left in the first quarter. Many of the Rocket faithful who straggled into the stadium from their tailgate parties were shocked by the depressing news that greeted them on the scoreboard.
Toledo finally got it together when Gradkowski capped an 84-yard drive with a 20-yard TD pass to Moore. But Bowling Green came right back with another touchdown throw from Jacobs. Another Toledo punt was followed by another BG field goal and now the Rockets were looking at a 27-7 deficit.
The rest of the first half was disastrous for UT's offense -- but it could have been worse. Gradkowski was intercepted twice on Toledo's last two possessions, the second time at the BG one-yard line. But Suisham missed a 50-yard field goal attempt after the first pick, and Falcon Head Coach Gregg Brandon opted to run out the clock with 1:05 left on BG's final possession. Who could blame him? His Falcons were up by 20 and Toledo had not stopped their offense once.
The Falcons nearly flew into their locker room at halftime with excitement while the Rockets retreated somberly into the Larimer Building. The Glass Bowl had grown quiet, save for the corner of the stands behind Bowling Green's bench, where an early victory party was already underway.
Down by 20 to their arch-rivals, the Rockets were quiet in the locker room. That's when Amstutz went to work.
"The players' heads were down in the locker room and I went in there with fire and told them I wasn't quitting," Amstutz told reporters after the game. "I told them you have to believe and told them we've done this before. Some of our seniors stood up and said they didn't want to finish their season like this. They wanted to battle the whole way and see what happened."
And battle they did in the final 30 minutes, rattling off five consecutive touchdowns before the Falcons knew what hit them. However, it was a single play on Toledo's first possession of the second half that may have determined the outcome of the contest.
Facing fourth-and-nine on the BG 37-yard line, Gradkowski went deep and hit Moore for a touchdown. Still, Bowling Green fans weren't worried. Up till that point, Toledo had not come close to stopping Jacobs and the vaunted Falcon offense. But that changed in the second half.
On BG's next possession, Jacobs was sacked by Body on third down, forcing the Falcons to punt for the first time. Gradkowski hit running back Scooter McDougle for a 34-yard completion to the two-yard line, then ran it in himself two plays later. Suddenly the Falcon lead had shrunk to 27-21; the party was starting to simmer down in Bowling Green fan section.
Jacobs drove BG to the UT 24-yard line when Amstutz decided to burn a timeout and rally his defense. The gamble paid off as Jacobs threw three straight incomplete passes and Susham missed a 41-yard field-goal attempt. The Glass Bowl crowd erupted. Momentum was now clearly wearing Midnight Blue and Gold.
From this point on, the Rockets dominated the game. It took Gradkowski six plays to get Toledo back into the end zone. A 20-yard TD pass to Odom gave Toledo a 28-27. The Rockets would not trail again.
Keon Jackson recovered a fumble and Jalen Parmele converted the turnover into a five-yard touchdown on the final play of the third quarter. BG opened the fourth quarter with a pair of stalled drives. Toledo made it 42-27 on a McDougle touchdown plunge with 6:13 to play. A Falcon score cut the lead to 42-34 but McDougle put the game on ice with a 31-yard score. BG scored again with 1:13 left but its ensuring onside kick was recovered by UT. The party in Rocket Nation was on!
The celebration in the Glass Bowl was wild (it seemed like the entire UToledo student body was on the field), but nothing compared to the euphoria in the Toledo locker room. With the MAC Championship on the line, the Rockets had spotted their hated rivals a 20-point lead on their own field and somehow managed to come back and win. Amstutz probably hugged every single player and coach on his team, many of them two or three times. Players who usually evacuated the locker room as soon as possible after a game, lingered and reveled in the joy.
Everyone knew that something special had just happened. When you experience something like that, you just don't want it to end.
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