Toledo hopes to emulate Boise's style, success

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Though last week's 27-22 loss to Ohio State stung like few others have, Toledo coach Tim Beckman knows the big picture. As the state of Ohio's "big" program, Ohio State is a big brother of sorts to Toledo. It wouldn't be a stretch to say many of Toledo's players grew up wanting to be Buckeyes. This week brings a new challenge -- and new, more familiar potential sibling. No. 4 Boise State visits Toledo Friday night in a game that the Rockets' coach and players want to win just as badly as they wanted to win last week's, but one that the coach is able to see in that bigger picture. Beckman hasn't been afraid to say his program both admires and emulates the one coach Chris Petersen has in place in Boise. Toledo showed last year and last week that it's made major strides since Beckman took over in 2009, and using Boise State as a model certainly isn't the worst plan for a program that's traditionally been a Mid-American Conference power and isn't bashful about thinking a little bigger. Toledo is never going to match Ohio State's huge stadium, huge Nike contract or its place as one of the dominant athletic programs in the national landscape. But in Boise, Beckman sees a program that plays in a stadium that seats 33,500, recruits outstanding talent without five-star labels and plays a high-tempo, highly-successful brand of football. In Petersen's time at Boise, his teams are 62-5 and have won five straight vs. BCS schools. The Broncos are one of four programs (along with Ohio State, LSU and Florida) who have won multiple BCS bowl games in the last five years - a feat made more impressive by the fact that they did it playing in a non-automatic qualifying conference. Dating back to 1997, they've won more games than any other Div. I FBS program in the country. A mid-major? Nah. That was long, long ago. And now Toledo, working on a short week and trying to shake the hangover of not finishing the job at Ohio State, gets another chance to measure itself against a top-shelf program. "For any guy on our team, any time you have an opportunity to get to play against a top-10 team and showcase what your capabilities are, you want to see that and measure yourself," Beckman said. "Some day we'd like to be a BCS-buster, and now we get to play one. And we get to play them right after Ohio State." Toledo's top goal remains winning the Mid-American Conference, and its players and coaches wear wristbands with the date of the league's title game in Detroit printed on them. But these games -- and, to a certain extent, next week's game at Syracuse -- allow Toledo's players a grander stage and the program as a whole a chance to grab the national spotlight. Before last week, Toledo had never scored in two prior games vs. Ohio State, including a 38-0 loss in Beckman's first year on the job in 2009. Last year, Toledo went to Boise and got shelled, 57-14, done in by a flurry of turnovers. "We're still making strides," Beckman said. "I don't think we're at the Boise level yet by any means." Beckman said his team played "a decent game" in Boise last year and that "we let some things slip later on in the football game." Performing better this year might be tougher with a banged-up defense, but Toledo will play in front of an energized home crowd and has a veteran roster that wasn't fazed by being a very unwelcome visitor in front of more than 105,000 last week. "I was impressed with Toledo for pretty much their whole game (last week)," Petersen said. "I said this before, but it didn't surprise me because even when Toledo played us up here last year and things went our way pretty well, we got five turnovers. I remember walking off the field thinking those guys were going to be good sooner than later, probably (last) season but I know (this) year. I'm not surprised by how those guys are playing right now." Much to the chagrin of college football fans everywhere, the BCS isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Boise's response to that hasn't been to complain about the lack of a season-ending playoff system, but to keep kicking the door. The Broncos can't afford a slip of any kind as they push for an undefeated season and their first chance to play in the biggest BCS game, while Toledo knows it's down to its last chance to play against a team as talented as the one senior quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Kellen Moore will direct Friday night. "Last year was my first time being up there (in Boise), and it really reminded me of a mini-Ohio State," Beckman said. "There was a buzz with the crowd, and they certainly have an outstanding football team. Kellen gets a lot of the acclaim but all their guys play extremely hard and they're a very well coached football team. They enjoy playing the game together." Boise State was off last week after beating Georgia, 35-21, in Atlanta in the season-opener, notching the program's first win over a Southeastern Conference team. Petersen said his team will come Friday night expecting another battle. Toledo has two proven quarterbacks, a solid senior running back in Adonis Thomas and one of the nation's most explosive players in junior wide receiverkick returner Eric Page. "You never know exactly what you're going to get when you come off a bye, especially early in the season," Petersen said. "Our guys are well aware of a good Toledo team. It looks to me like (Toledo) is just more comfortable with their systems on both sides. They just execute well. Their defense plays really well together. "In taking that next step, it's usually a bunch of little subtle things that add up. Studying Toledo on tape, it just looks like they really know what they're doing in their systems."