Toledo Rockets 2009 College Football Predictions, Picks & Odds: Toledo’s season was made by their upset of Michigan in the Big House. The Rockets almost pulled off another big upset earlier in the year against Fresno State. They ended up losing that game by one point in double overtime. Other than those two games, Coach Tom Amstutz’s final season in Toledo was not very memorable. However, Coach Tim Beckman’s first season could be very memorable. Odds makers at Sportsbook.com have the Toledo Rockets 50-1 odds to win the BSC 2010 National Championship.
The offense returns nearly as many starters as the defense, but at times the unit had major trouble moving the ball. Quarterback Aaron Opelt is yet another experienced, yet unspectacular senior quarterback in the MAC. In 2008 he threw for 2,176 yards, 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. The problem with the passing attack, which ranked 11 th in the conference in 2008, is that Nick Moore is gone.
Toledo won games with their defense. And now ten starters are back. The Rockets have a handful of linemen who played last year and are returning this season, but none of them were consistently getting into the backfield. Senior Derrick Summers and sophomore Hank Keighley are the likely starters on the ends and they have to create pressure on the quarterback. Getting some help from tackles Skylaar Constant and Maurice Hill would not hurt. Linebacker Donald Arichie should be the team’s leading tackler once again and Daris Quinn ranked fourth on the team with 77 tackles. Counting rover Barry Church, the secondary is extremely talented, even with the loss of Tyrrell Herbert. Church is a candidate to get into the backfield if the front four struggles to do so on their own. With Lester Richmond, Desmond Marrow and Joe Bates joining Church in the secondary, the pass defense should be among the best in the conference.
Beckman is looking for the biggest improvement to come from this group, which found itself near the bottom of the conference in critical areas such as punt returns, kickoff coverage and kickoff returns. Senior placekicker Alex Steigerwald connected on 16-of-21 field goal attempts, including the 48-yarder that helped beat Michigan. Sophomore punter Bill Claus returns, and Beckman is hoping that dynamic freshman Eric Page can make the return game a big asset.
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