CNNSI.com - 2000 College Football Preview - CNNSI.com's Toledo preview

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Toledo Rockets

Ready to unseat the Herd

College Football: The New Century

'99: 6-5, 5-3 MAC

Coach

Gary Pinkel (10th season, 63-36-3)

Key offensive players

Chester Taylor, TB, Sr.
The MAC's top returning rusher had 1,176 yards last year.

Tavares Bolden, QB, Jr.
A great scrambler who ran for 365 yards in 1999.

Mel Long, WR, Sr.
He's tied for the nation's longest current streak with a reception in 35 consecutive games.

Key defensive players

Kevin Rollins, LB, Sr.
He runs a 4.5 in the 40 and led the MAC with 11 sacks.

Ivan Maisel's Player of the Century: Mel Long, DT, 1969-71
"First consensus All-American in MAC history. Rockets went 35-0 in his career."

Brightest Moment: Compiled 35 consecutive wins from 1969-71 for three consecutive undefeated seasons.

Lowest Moment: The firing of coach Dan Simrell in 1989 despite a 50-37-2 record and just two losing seasons.

DeJuan Goulde, DE, Sr.
Named first-team All-MAC, and his 10 sacks tied for second in the league.

Throwback player

Andy Boyd is a local walk-on who is small but has been starting at free safety the last two seasons.

21st century player

Offensive lineman Avid Odenthal is from Cologne, Germany.

Fast fact

Since a 4-7 record in 1993, Toledo has six straight winning season and an overall record of 46-21-2.

Outlook

Toledo was a team on the rise at the end of the 1999 season. The Rockets won their last three games, including an impressive 45-21 rout of West Division champion Western Michigan in the season finale. With 20 starters back, the Rockets are poised to win the West Division and finally unseat Marshall as the overall conference champion after losing to the Thundering Herd in the 1997 and '98 MAC championship games.

--Stan Crawley