Toledo added another MAC victory to it’s record in defeating Kent State last night, in the first of several mid-week games for the Rockets as they close out the 2014 campaign. Straight from UTRockets.com:

Sophomore Kareem Hunt enjoyed his homecoming to Northeast Ohio as he rushed for 141 yards to lead Toledo to a 30-20 victory over Kent State in a rain-drenched Dix Stadium Tuesday night.

The victory moves Toledo into bowl eligibility at 6-3, and more importantly keeps the Rockets on top of the West Division of the Mid-American Conference at 5-0. On the horizon is another big November showdown at Northern Illinois (6-2, 3-1 MAC) on Nov. 11.

Mancz and Woodside’s apparent injuries are troubling but we will wait to hear official word from the coaches before jumping to any conclusions regarding those players. Toledo will face NIU next Tuesday (11/11) in an important MAC West matchup.

This week is the tenth installment of MAC Blogger Roundtable. Each week one MAC blog poses questions to the other blogs and gathers the answers into a digest post. This gives us a chance to get the skinny from many different blogger’s/team’s perspective and better understand the issues facing other teams on a weekly basis. We provided the questions for this week’s roundtable, so read on.

Participating blogs (hit the links for their full answers):

Falcon Blog Bowling Green (FB)

Eagle Totem Eastern Michigan (ET)

Bull Run Buffalo (BR)

Below the fold you’ll find the questions that were posed and a few of the answers…

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The Rockets dispatched the Minutemen of UMass, 42-35 to secure a victory for the Homecoming crowd. Straight from UTRockets.com:

Sophomore Kareem Hunt rushed for a career-high 198 yards as Toledo rallied from a 13-point first-half deficit to defeat UMass, 42-35, on Homecoming at the Glass Bowl Saturday afternoon. The victory lifts the Rockets to 5-3 and keeps them on top of the West Division of the Mid-American Conference with a 4-0 league mark.

Freshman Terry Swanson scored the winning touchdown with 34 seconds left from 19 yards out. With the score tied, 35-35, and UT running the clock down for a game-winning field goal, UMass head coach Mark Whipple elected to let Swanson score. The Minutemen’s final drive ended when senior Blake Frohnapfel’s pass was intercepted by freshman cornerback Trevon Mathis on the UT 35-yard line with five seconds left.

Toledo is the only MAC team which is undefeated in conference play. The Rockets next face Kent State on Nov 11.

So far this season, the rushing duties have truly been by committee. In seasons past, we’ve usually seen a front-runner in the rushing game and while we’ve always been fortunate to have solid support players who can pick up the slack when needed, this season sees a unique situation where a number of individuals have all contributed to the effort. Check out the numbers:

With his average, you can clearly see that Kareem Hunt was getting the job done before he was injured. Seven touchdowns is also impressive in just 4 games. But what is most impressive, is the progress of Terry Swanson, Damion Jones-Moore and Marc Remy during that span and after Hunt’s injury. Of the 5 leading rushers for Toledo, only QB Logan Woodside has an average of less then 5 yards per carry which is quite a feat. Considering these 5 players account for 96.4% of Toledo rushing yards (the other handful are from Corey Jones, pre-injury Philip Ely and Zac Rosenbauer), that is a strong rushing performance by the team.

It’s time for the next installment of the MAC Blogger Roundtable. Each week one MAC blog posses questions to the other blogs and gathers the answers into a digest post. This gives us a chance to get the skinny from many different bloggers’/teams’ perspective and better understand the issues facing other teams on a weekly basis. This week’s questions are from the Ball State blog, Over The Pylon.

Below the fold you’ll find the questions that were posed to us and our answers, so read on…

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Toledo dropped the matchup with the Cyclones despite a late surge from the Rockets. Straight from UTRockets.com:

Freshman Terry Swanson rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns but it wasn’t enough as Toledo lost to Iowa State, 37-30, in non-conference action in Ames, IA on Saturday.

Toledo scored a touchdown with 56 seconds left when sophomore quarterback Logan Woodside completed a four-yard shovel pass to sophomore Marc Remy. That cut the Iowa State lead to seven points and set up an on-side kick attempt by the Rockets. Senior placekicker Jeremiah Detmer pounded the ball right at ISU’s Luke Knott and immediately tackled him. But Knott hung on to the ball and secured the Cyclone victory.

The remainder of Toledo’s schedule (5 games) are MAC opponents, including important matchups against NIU and BGSU. Toledo needs to stay the course and finish strong. Next up is UMass on 10/25.