Winning the Recruiting Wars Will Pay Off for the Rockets
By Paul Helgren, Associate Athletic Director for Communications
Feb. 6, 2020
The off-season has been a very good one for Jason Candle and the Toledo Rockets football team.
First came the announcement of the addition of three new assistant coaches with genuine championship pedigrees. Next came the news on Wednesday that confirmed that the Rockets had once again secured the No. 1 recruiting class in the Mid-American Conference.
That first news item may very well have a major impact on the second one in the upcoming years. More on that in a minute.
First, the latest good news from the Larimer Athletic Complex.
Candle and his staff did it again, finishing the deal on Wednesday’s National Signing Day with a 2020 recruiting class that 247 Sports says is at the top of the MAC. This is nothing new, as the Rockets have had the number-one class in each of the past four seasons (the 2016 class, Candle’s first, ranked second). So with only a couple of exceptions, almost every player on Toledo’s 2020 roster will be coming from the league’s top-rated recruiting class.
Of course, having the best recruiting class in the Mid-American Conference does not guarantee success. But it sure helps.
Ask any college football coach. A good team has to start with good players. Everything else (player development, strength and conditioning, team-building, etc.) is vital, but in the end you need players, talented athletes who buy into the program and keep their focus on the task in front of them. Candle really likes his recruiting class, and the folks at 247 Sports just happen to agree.
So that means the Rockets will win the MAC next year, right? No, sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Evaluating high school players is an imperfect science, at best, and even a great recruiting class will not necessarily make an impact right away. Also, the line between a championship team and an also-ran is razor-thin in college football, especially in the MAC, a conference where every school has roughly the same resources. Plus, there are just way too many variables to consider in any given year, injuries being at the top of the list. Lose your starting quarterback (as the Rockets did in each of the past two seasons) and it may not matter what recruiting services thought of your offensive line.
But all things being equal, the year-to-year accumulation of talented players will make a difference. And that’s very good news for Rocket fans.
The other point here is that Toledo’s reign at the top of the recruiting heap is unlikely to change soon. With new assistant coaches Craig Kuligowski, Vince Kehres and Robert Weiner hitting the trail next year, Candle and the Rockets are looking to up the ante and entice even better players to make the Glass City their home in the upcoming years.
So go ahead and smile, Rocket fans. The good news in the last couple of weeks should whet your appetite for the 2020 season.
Spring practice, in case you’re wondering, is less than four weeks away.
Go Rockets!
Previous Blogs
Candle's assistant coach hires are great news for the Rockets (Jan. 31, 2020)
