Rockets football team fell short of its goal

The University of Toledo Rockets finished 9-3 but again, an also-ran in the MAC West and the conference overall. The good parts of the season were beating rival Bowling Green and Cincinnati. The low points were losses to Ball State and Northern Illinois. Those defeats took the Rockets out of winning the MAC West and getting a chance to win the MAC championship. 

This is not how you become an elite team anywhere, MAC included. For the third year in a row, the month of November was a disappointment for the team and fans. The before-the-season- started analysis from Head Coach Matt Campbell and the media was the usual stuff: the Rockets must win their division and the MAC championship game, or else it’s a disappointment. In that regard, it is a disappointment. Campbell has to figure out how to win games in November. Beckman couldn’t. Amstutz did for a while, but he got fat and lazy, watching a great program turn into a mess with lousy recruiting and poor discipline. 

The Blade and all the TV people here have raved for the past two years about how great TU has recruited. It’s time to prove it in 2013, Rockets. And even with Northern Illinois coming to the Glass Bowl next year, it’s no sure bet the Rockets will win that important game. The Huskies QB Lynch is a junior. He will be back for his senior year. Owens will be back at QB for TU, too. Owens didn't even make third-team all-MAC at quarterback. He must be better than Lynch for the Rockets to win the MAC West title. We should not settle for LLLLoyd Carr-type seasons when the Rockets have plenty of talent to win the MAC.

College & pro football picks, Sept. 29 - 30

College football

Toledo 27, Western Michigan 24 — The Rockets will find a way to upset the Broncos in Kalamazoo despite their injuries, porous young secondary, playing on the road, etc. There won’t be any letdowns from last week. Fluellen and Bell, hurt in the Coastal Carolina win, should be able to play Saturday night.

Bowling Green 35, Rhode Island 15 — Falcons whip on a flatulent FCS team from the Colonial Conference. It’s BG’s Homecoming game. Weird scheduling in my opinion.

UConn 42, Buffalo 13 — Huskies handle a MAC weakling with little sweat broken.

Kent State 28, Ball State 27 — Two evenly matched MAC teams. I’ll take the home team. Cards knocked off a decent Big Least team to boost the MAC’s usually lousy image.

Miami 37,  Akron 10 — Two in a row for the Redskins/Redhawks. Beating the Zips does not take much hard work.

Ohio U. 27, UMass 13 — Bobcats travel to Foxboro. They’ll look like the sluggish Buckeyes for part of the first half.

Northern Illinois 27, Central Michigan 24 (OT) — Four weeks ago, this looked like the usual easy Huskie win over the Chippewas. Now it will be much closer and a tough one to pick.

Michigan State 13, Ohio State 7 — Back in August everyone pegged this game as a matchup of two of the Little 12’s top teams. Now both of them can barely beat weaklings from the MAC and Conference USA. This could be one butt ugly game that could go either way. Sparty’s offense sucks and the Buckeye defense still can’t tackle well but will still be good enough to hold MSU to a close, low-scoring, dull win. On the other hand, if the Buckeyes keep missing tackles or making bump tackles on Bell and the other Spartys, it could be more like 35-7.

Penn State 24, Illinois 14 — More butt-ugly football, courtesy the Little 12. Louisiana Tech is another WAC  team that could easily finish second or third in either Little 12 grouping.

Northwestern 38, Indiana 13 — Wildcat fans should not delude themselves into thinking their team is the best in the Legends division. Come to think of it, which one is?

Nebraska 24, Wisconsin 17 — Unlike last Saturday night’s Clemson-Florida State game, this will be a dull matchup of two teams that do not play basketball on grass. Ball might be a sideline observer if his head still hurts from last week’s concussion.

Minnesota 23, Iowa 10 — Floyd of Rosedale trophy is up for grabs and the Gophers get the steel pig. Minnesota fans should also not delude themselves that their team is the best of the Legends. Ferentz’s head ought to be on the guillotine after gagging to the MAC’s Chippewas.

Purdue 37, Marshall 20 — Boilers use this game as a tune-up for Denard and Michigan next week. Wolverines are off and Denard is getting schooled on how to throw a pass to a teammate wearing the same colored jersey Denard’s wearing.

Alabama 42, Ole Miss 7 — Saban puts a big whuppin' on the Rebels. It’s conference play for Nick and he won’t be taking his foot off the accelerator against conference teams.

LSU 59, Towson 3 — Come on, Les. Schedule a real team. I’m sure you could get Toledo to come to Baton Rouge for a game.

South Carolina 35, Kentucky 9 — KY fans are eagerly awaiting the start of basketball practice. There won’t be anything to make Spurrier grimace unless Lattimore blows out his knee again.

USC 24, Utah 19 — Wins aren’t coming that easy for Lane Violation Kiffin.

Oregon 45, Washington State 10 — Ducks made Rich Rod look like pretenders.

Florida State 37, South Florida 17 — Two teams with much more speed than any Little 12 team can provide.

Georgia 38, Tennessee 10 — Hope the Volunteer fans enjoyed the Akron whipping, ‘cuz their team will be on the wrong side of the whipping here.

No Fun League with the "real" refs

Lions 34, Vikings 27 — Lions can’t afford to be 1-3 at the end of the first quarter of the season.

Cowboys 26, Bears 22 — Can’t see this one going in the Bears’ favor in the Jerry Jones Dome.

Packers 27, Saints 20 — Saints are looking like the Aints of old.

Bengals 25, Jaguars 19 — Cincy’s early success is due to a soft schedule.

Ravens 34, Browns 13 — Browns will definitely be 0-4 after this rout.

College and pro football predictions, 9-22 and 9-23

Toledo 45, Coastal Carolina 14 — There shouldn’t be any worries here for the Rockets, other than key starters getting hurt and missing next week’s game with Western Michigan in Kalamazoo. 

Virginia Tech 41, Bowling Green 17 — Hokies and Beamer must have been looking ahead to the Falcons last week. Their loss to Pittsburgh was exceedingly embarrassing.

Buffalo 33, Kent State 28 — Two very lousy MAC East teams.

South Florida 26, Ball State 21 — Cardinal fans in Muncie were closing bars there after their win over Indiana. USF turns the ball over a lot, so a BSU win may not be out of the question in Muncie.

Michigan State 48, Eastern Michigan 7 — A Sparty letdown is not out of the question. Bell will get 187 yards and a pair of TDs, and the Sparty QB will look like Tom Brady against the atrocious Hurons/Eagles, who belong in Division I-AA.

Miami 35, UMass 10 — Minutemen will be the MAC East doormats.

Tennessee 41, Akron 7 — Rocky Top knows this win for the Volunteers is a joke.

Ohio U. 43, Norfolk State 6 — Bobcats enjoy an easy tune-up for the MAC schedule.

Western Michigan 31, UConn 28 (OT) — Upset here for the Broncos in Kalamazoo.

Northern Illinois 27, Kansas 23 — Huskies vanquish Charlie Weis in DeKalb.

Iowa 28, Central Michigan 10 — A close game here will prove the Hawkeyes are worse than mediocre. Flat-out lousy will be the better description of the mess Ferentz has in Iowa City if that happens.

Ohio State 45, UAB 17 — South Carolina whipped UAB, 49-6 last week and Spurrier called it “one of the closest 49-6 games I've ever been around.” He was being kind to the Blazers, I’m sure. Knowing the Buckeyes defense, the game will have some moments of closeness with all the bump tackles they love to do. When will they learn how to wrap up?

Michigan 35, Notre Dame 33 — The national sports media are on the Irish bandwagon. I’ll go against their “conventional wisdom” and take the Wolverines in an upset. Kelly’s defense somehow blows another fourth-quarter lead and makes Denard look like the Heisman Trophy candidate he really isn’t.

Louisiana Tech 31, Illinois 17 — Beckman’s boys better not take La. Tech lightly. This game may turn into an easy win for Bulldogs.

Penn State 30, Temple 20 — Enjoy this win, Happy Valley. There aren’t many more left on the schedule. Indiana is the only certain victory on the rest of the slate.

Northwestern 31, South Dakota 13 — Lots of 40-yard line seats will be available at kickoff at Ryan Field.

Wisconsin 17, UTEP 16 — I missed the Badgers-Utah State pick by one point. Bielema’s offense is really bad. Ball has to be wondering if he shouldn’t have turned pro.

Nebraska 47, Idaho State 8 — Burkhead is expected to play here. Like they will need him a lot. Pelini should be worried he will reinjure his ankle.

Minnesota 27, Syracuse 24 — Would love to see Little 12 zebras screw the Orange like the way they did it to the Rockets last year.

Alabama 52, Florida Atlantic 3 — FAU’s lovely parting gift comes in the form of a huge paycheck for taking one in the chops in Tuscaloosa.

LSU 35, Auburn 17 — First trip away from Baton Rouge for Miles. Chizik’s defense won’t be able to match up with the Tigers’ strong offense.

South Carolina 38, Mizzou 24 — Spurrier will have a few grimaces mid-game but in the end he will be flashing his smile.

USC 38, Cal 24 — Bears will give the Surfer Boys a few close moments before Barkley gets the offense moving.

Oregon 45, Arizona 34 — Ducks will fly past Rich Rod in Eugene in a typical no-defense Pac 12 game.

No Fun League

Lions 31, Titans 23 — Time for Stafford and the offense to get their asses in gear. Titan defense is far from titanic.

Bears 22, Rams 19 — Cutler throws 2 picks to keep the Bears from blowing out a lousy Ram team.

Packers 24, Seahawks 20 — On paper, it’s a Packer laugher. On the field, it’s much closer and bettors like it that way.

Redskins 30, Bengals 24 — After beating the Saints, the NFL shills across the country made Griffin look like the next Sonny Jurgenson. Then he couldn’t beat Bradford in St. Louis next week. Look for Griffin to get a huge boost for Rookie of the Year from the NFL shills after he beats the Bengals with 2 or 3 TD tosses and 286 passing yards.

Clowns 16, Bills 13 (OT) — Both teams have trouble moving the ball across the street.

49ers 27, Vikings 24 — I got this weird feeling the Niners could blow this one.

College football, 9-8-12...your guess is as good as mine.

Crazy college football predictions:

Toledo 28, Wyoming 24 — This is a winnable game for the Rockets in Casper or wherever the school is. UT’s pass defense and tackling needs a lot of improvement — again. And too many freshmen played last week. Not a good sign of depth.

BG 26, Idaho 17 — I think the Falcons beat the Vandals in the Humanitarian Bowl a few years ago.

Clemson 58, Ball State 13 — Good payday for the Cardinals. Sweeney will run up the score on them.

Illinois State 34, Leastern Michigan 31 — Upset pick here in Ypsilanti.

Miami 27, Southern Illinois 20 — Red-whatevers have no running game. They dropped a lot of passes against Ohio State, but that won’t happen this weekend in Oxford.

Florida International 44, Akron 7 — FIU will blow out the Zips with little effort on a hot, humid night in Miami.

Buffalo 27, Morgan State 20 — Weak MAC team struggles to get a win over a small FCS school.

Ohio U. 37, New Mexico State 13 — Bobcats looked sharp in taking down Penn State.

Western Michigan 42, Eastern Illinois 14 — Another directional Illinois school goes up against the MAC.

Northern Illinois 35, Tennessee-Martin 21 — Huskies gave Iowa a great game and almost beat them, which would have caused huge embarrassment for the Hawkeyes and the Little 12. UT-Martin beat C-USA doormat Memphis.

Kentucky 27, Kent State 20 — How many weeks are there to the start of basketball season in Lexington? ‘Cats fans want to know that. The football season will be another stinker there.

Ohio State 31, UCF 16 — O’Leary will give Meyer a stronger test than the Red-whatevers did. UCF’s best running back has a sore shoulder from the Akron massacre and he won’t play against the Buckeyes, who need to improve their pass rush. It was very weak against Miami.

Michigan 37, Air Force 14 — Wolverines will get back on track after getting the woodshed treatment from Alabama.

Michigan State 35, Central Michigan 10 — This game is in Mount Pleasant. Chippewas must be charging their fans 75 or 80 bucks a seat to pay the Spartans to come there.

Arizona State 27, Illinois 13 — Can’t see the Illini winning in Tempe with Scheelhaase on the bench. If he plays, Beckman has a shot at win #2.

Virginia 28, Penn State 17 — Cavaliers are 10-point favorites to beat the Nit Lions in Charlottesville.

Vanderbilt 37, Northwestern 34 — Mediocre SEC team vs. mediocre Little 12 team. Take the SEC one.

Iowa 24, Iowa State 20 — This is a shaky pick, even in Iowa City. Ferentz has no running game.

Indiana 27, UMass 15 — This is a UMass home game and I think they play all of them in the Patriots’ stadium, some 60 miles off the UMass campus.

Notre Dame 27, Purdue 20 — You can’t blow this one, Kelly, and demand respect for the Irish program.

Wisconsin 27, Oregon State 17 — This could be another disappointing win for the Badgers, a failure in that the offense sputters again.

Nebraska 30, UCLA 22 — You never know which Cornhusker team will show up, especially when they’re not playing in Lincoln.

Alabama 54, Western Kentucky 0 — Saban’s second stringers would fill many of the starting spots on all Little 12 teams, and his 3rd string would unquestionably start at Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota and Penn State. That’s how much talent there is on the Crimson Tide roster. Nick can roll lines like Scotty Bowman did with the Red Wings.

USC 47, Syracuse 13 — Not even cheating Big Least zebras can help the Orange upset the Trojans, who may face new NCAA charges for improper benefits. LA Times reported last week some Trojan fan gave Joe McKnight a car and other gifts.

No Fun League predictions:

Lions 38, Rams 17 — Megatron will spend plenty of time in St. Louis' end zone after catching plenty of Stafford's passes.

Eagles 17, Browns 13 — By the end of this month, will I be calling the Browns the Clowns?

Bears 27, Colts 19 — Central Catholic's and Ohio State's Dane Sanzenbacher made the Bears roster again. Of course, all the football world's eyes will be on the Colts new QB Luck.

49ers 31, Packers 28 — Minor upset at Lambeau Field.