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. 3 on his list is the Rockets' 24-6 victory at Penn State in 2000.
Toledo 24, Penn State 6 (Sept. 2, 2000)
If it had been up to Gary Pinkel, the Toledo-Penn State game in 2000 would have never happened.
The Toledo head coach was less than thrilled when Athletic Director Pete Liske informed him midway through the 1998 season that the Rockets would be making the trip to Happy Valley in less than two years. The reason was simple: Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions were a powerhouse. Penn State was 11-0 vs. MAC teams in its history, with a combined score of 219-34 in those contests. They had two of the best players in college football – defensive end Courtney Brown and linebacker LaVar Arrington – who would be selected 1-2 in the 2000 NFL Draft. A year after the matchup was announced, Penn State was ranked No. 2 in the country, a position it held for much of the 1999 season.
Liske was a former Penn State quarterback with close ties to Paterno, so for him the matchup was a natural. But you could sympathize with Pinkel's viewpoint. His experience with top-10 teams up to that point had been disastrous -- a 48-0 loss in 1991 to No. 3 Washington (where he had been assistant under Don James for 12 years) and a 49-0 shellacking at No. 1 Ohio State in the second game of the 1998 season. The memory of that lopsided affair was probably still stinging when Pinkel got the news from Liske about the Penn State game.
It's not that Pinkel's Rockets were weaklings. They had won the MAC West Division title in 1997 and would go on to win it again in 1998. But Pinkel knew full well his squad was still a work in progress, and was by no means ready for a team like Penn State.
But a funny thing happened on the way to Happy Valley; the Rockets got better and the Nittany Lions got worse. Toledo had a middling 6-5 record in 1999, but finished the season with three convincing victories, thanks to a power running game led by a sophomore by the name of Chester Taylor. After starting out 9-0 in 1999, Penn State lost three of its final four games. The Nittany Lions lost nine starters on defense going into the 2000 season, including Brown and Arrington. And a week before the Toledo game, Paterno's squad looked flat in a 29-5 loss to USC in its 2000 season opener at the Kickoff Classic in East Rutherford, N.J. So perhaps the Nittany Lions weren't so mighty after all.
Still, no one really expected Toledo to beat Penn State. I think even Pinkel had his doubts. The team's final practice leading up to the game was not to his liking, and he was more than willing to share his thoughts with his team.
"That's probably the worst practice I've ever seen in my life!" he told them. "If we play like that against Penn State, trust me, we will get our butts kicked!" Pinkel was probably just trying to motivate his team but I remember leaving practice that day thinking, yeah, we might get killed. I was never so happy to be so wrong in my life.
From the opening kickoff to the final whistle, the game was a complete mismatch. The final score was 24-6 but it easily could have been 38-0. At the end of the game, the Rockets were simply trying to run out the clock. I could hardly believe my eyes. What had just happened?
Right from the start, Penn State was helpless against Toledo's veteran defense. On the Lions' first series of downs, UT defensive end DeJuan Goulde stopped Eric McCoo for no gain on third-and-one. A short punt and a penalty gave the Rockets possession near midfield and they took advantage, moving 54 yards in eight plays to take a 7-0 lead. The Nittany Lions were geared to stop Taylor but Pinkel surprised them by calling five straight short passing plays to open the drive and move the Rockets to the PSU 13-yard line.
From there, Taylor finally got his chance and broke several tackles before falling into the end zone. It was 7-0 Toledo before many of the 94,296 fans in Beaver Stadium had a chance to settle in. But their nightmare was just beginning.
On the Lions' next possession, they faced third-and-seven from their own 17-yard line. Pinkel dialed up a blitz and cornerback Jehu Anderson sacked quarterback Rashard Casey for a seven-yard loss. In its first six plays, Penn State had gained exactly five yards.
Toledo moved the ball again on its next possession but this time had to settle for a 24-yard field goal from Todd France. Still it was 10-0. The small contingent of Toledo fans at the game, as well as the national TV audience watching on ESPN, was starting to believe that an upset was in the making.
The two teams then traded punts until midway through the second quarter when Toledo went on the march again. This drive was a 14-play, 83-yard masterpiece of ball control, finished off by a one-yard run by Taylor. The half ended with Goulde sacking Casey, who fumbled. A stunned Beaver Stadium crowd watched in disbelief as Toledo trotted off the field with a 17-0 lead. For the half, their team had gained just 64 yards, had five first downs and been in Toledo territory just once. It was complete domination. But there was always the second half…
Any hopes the Nittany Lion faithful may have had for a comeback were immediately squashed. The Rockets opened the half with a 12-play drive that ended with quarterback Tavares Bolden hitting Lyle Green on a roll-out pass for a 13-yard score. The scoreboard now read 24-0, Rockets.
Penn State did score on its first possession of the second half, but even that was a fluke. On third-and-five, Casey was chased by several Rockets and looked like he was going down for yet another sack. Somehow he slipped away from the defenders and was able to reverse field to his left. In all the commotion, running back Larry Johnson had slipped downfield unnoticed and Casey found him for a 61-yard touchdown. The Rocket coaches were livid. They let Casey – and a potential shutout – get away. Appropriate to the day, however, Toledo blocked the extra point, leaving the score at 24-6.
At this point, Pinkel really played it safe, allowing Bolden to throw just four more passes the rest of the way. Toledo ground up yardage and ground down the clock on every possession but did not score again. On the other side of the ball, the Rocket defense simply dominated. Penn State's last four possessions went punt-punt-loss of downs-fumble. The game ended with Toledo running out the clock deep in Penn State territory, making no attempt to tack on a final score. The victory was so complete and so shocking that even Pinkel found himself incredulous.
"I'm a little bit numb right now," Pinkel told reporters after the game. "The whole time the clock is ticking down and you're still keeping your guard up. When it was about a minute-and-a-half left, I actually looked at Jehu Anderson and said, 'You know what? We're going to win this game."
The final numbers related the hard facts of a dominating Toledo performance, especially on defense. Toledo outgained Penn State in total yards, 385-166, and racked up 25 first downs to just nine for the Nittany Lions. The time of possession was 40:19 for Toledo, 19:41 for Penn State. PSU rushed for just 70 yards on 27 attempts. Casey completed only 5-of-13 passes before being benched. The Rocket defense had seven sacks, forced two fumbles and broke up three passes. On offense, Taylor rushed for 141 yards and two touchdowns, while Bolden played an error-free game, completing 18-of-28 passes to seven different receivers.
But the true story of the victory could not be found in numbers. The celebration on the field was long and loud. The outpouring of emotion from the Toledo players was palpable. I will never forget the sound of the team singing fight song in the locker room or the sight of senior offensive tackle Jim Harding actually weeping with emotion while talking to reporters after the game.
That whole day almost feels like a dream to me now, but my memories are still vivid. I remember the drive on the team bus back to the airport that made its way through legions of Penn State fans who were licking their wounds at post-game tailgates. Many actually stopped and applauded when they realized it was the Toledo bus, a class act that showed appreciation for the massive achievement of their underdog opponents. My 1990's flip phone was almost out of juice but I was able to answer a call from ESPN Radio, handing the phone to Chester Taylor, then to Coach Pinkel, as they let the nation know how they had just pulled off the victory that the entire college football world was talking about.
When we arrived at Toledo Express Airport an hour later, there were reporters and scores of Rocket fans there to greet their heroes. When the team buses pulled into the Larimer Athletic Complex, there were more reporters and now hundreds of friends, family and well-wishers. It felt like the college football equivalent of the Beatles arriving in New York City. Everybody in Toledo had watched the game on TV. Everybody was talking about it and would talk about little else for days.
Other big victories would come in the years ahead for the Toledo Football program, but at that point in time, this was its biggest win on the biggest stage. Veteran Toledo Blade sports writer Dave Hackenberg, making a reference to the words of the Toledo fight song, summed it up best in his column the next day.
"With all due respect to the ancestors," he wrote, "they never had a victory like this one."
Paul Helgren's All-Time Favorite Rocket Victories
3. Toledo 24, Penn State 6 (Sept. 2, 2000)
4. Toledo 35, Miami 27 (Dec. 2, 2004 - MAC Championship Game)
5. Toledo 35, Pittsburgh 31 (Sept. 20, 2003)
6. Toledo 49, Bowling Green 41 (Nov. 23, 2004)
7. Toledo 45, Akron 28 (Dec. 2, 2017 - MAC Championship Game)
8. Toledo 16, Arkansas 12 (Sept. 12, 2015)
9. Toledo 33, Northern Illinois 30 (Nov. 23, 2002)
10. Toledo 42, Air Force 41 (Dec. 29, 2011 – Military Bowl)
11. Toledo 44, Bowling Green 41 (2OT) (Nov. 22, 2005)
12. Toledo 32, Temple 17 (Dec. 22, 2015 - Marmot Boca Raton Bowl)
