Toledo makes top 25 for 1st time in 11 years

Rockets No. 23, in AP, 25th in BCS

11/4/2012

 

Knocking off unbeaten Cincinnati didn’t do the trick. Nor did a follow-up road win at Buffalo.

How about doing nothing? That’ll work.

For the first time in 11 years the University of Toledo football team is ranked in the top 25 after leaping three spots in both major polls Sunday.

Toledo, which sat idle last weekend, enters the new week No. 23 in the Associated Press poll and No. 25 in the USA Today coaches poll, and slipped in at No. 25 in the Bowl Championship Series standings. A string of losses by teams in front of them in last week’s polls bumped the Rockets into the picture.

The Rockets, who have won eight in a row since an overtime loss at Arizona in the opener, will try to bolster their spot Tuesday at home against Ball State (6-3).

“It's nice to be ranked and to be recognized on a national basis,” coach Matt Campbell said in a statement. “But rankings are not really relevant to the task at hand. We are facing a very good Ball State team on Tuesday and that is all we are focused on right now.”

Toledo picked up 146 points in the AP vote, gaining 58 from last week. Rutgers is No. 24 and Texas Tech No. 25, with Mid-American Conference members Northern Illinois and Kent State waiting in the wings as the first two schools out.

Toledo received 108 votes from the coaches, an increase of 49 from last week.

Bolstering its case were losses by five teams ranked between 19 and 24 last week in at least one of the polls: Boise State, Texas Tech, Arizona, West Virginia, and Oklahoma State.

The 2001 season, when Toledo last appeared in the top 25, was the first under then coach Tom Amstutz. The Rockets finished that campaign 10-2 and ended ranked No. 22 by the coaches and No. 23 by the AP.

Contact Ryan Autullo at: rautullo@theblade.com, 419-724-6160 or on Twitter @AutulloBlade.