BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Toledo Rockets held their final practice on Monday\u00a0at Boca Raton High School leading up to tomorrow’s showdown with Louisville in the Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans. Toledo (8-4, 6-2 MAC) will face the Cardinals (8-4, 4-4 ACC) \u00a0at FAU’s Flagler Credit Union Stadium in Boca Raton, Fla. on Tuesday, Dec. 23 at 2:00 p.m. on ESPN.<\/p>\n
The Rockets, who are playing in their fifth consecutive bowl game,\u00a0are 13-9 all-time in bowl games, including a record 48-46, six-overtime victory over Pittsburgh at the 2024 GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit.<\/p>\n
Toledo won its\u00a0last four games of the season to finish in a tie for second place in the Mid-American Conference. Toledo features the No. 3 ranked defense in the country (247.8 yards per game) and held its final four opponents to single digits in scoring. Toledo’s offense leads the MAC in scoring (31.6)\u00a0 and total offense (421.8), and is paced by wide receiver Junior Vandeross III<\/a> (75 receptions, 11 TDs) and running back Chip Trayanum<\/a> (950 yards, 11 TDs).\u00a0<\/p>\n Interim Head Coach Robert Weiner<\/a> said the Rockets are highly motivated to play in the bowl game, especially the seniors.<\/p>\n “This game means everything for our seniors,” said Weiner. “Like I told the players after practice,\u00a0this game matters. This game has its\u00a0own challenges,\u00a0 and that’s the beauty of the game of football. What you do matters, what you contribute matters, and we’re gonna take that into this game.”<\/p>\n Added senior offensive lineman Ethan Spoth<\/a>, “I’m excited to go out there one last time with these guys and have a ball. I’m a senior so this it for me. We have a lot of guys who are in\u00a0the same boat.\u00a0 Everyone kind of just understands that this is the last time we’re going to be together. So\u00a0it’s special.”<\/p>\n Toledo vs. Louisville \u2022 2025 TEAM RECORDS:\u00a0 \u2022 SERIES RECORD: Louisville leads, 5-3. The two schools first met in 1925 but haven’t played since a Louisville victory in 1981.<\/p>\n \u2022 THE COACHES:\u00a0 \u2022 TV: ESPN \u2022 ROCKET RADIO NETWORK: Pregame begins at 1:00 p.m. \u2022 WEB-AUDIO: Free live audio streaming of the UT Rocket Radio Network broadcast on the Varsity Network App or UTRockets.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2022 X\/TWITTER:\u00a0 \u2022 TICKETS:\u00a0 The Launch Pad \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Toledo Rockets held their final practice on Monday\u00a0at Boca Raton High School leading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-198806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2025 Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans
\nTuesday, Dec. 23 – 2:00 p.m.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Toledo (8-4, 6-2 MAC)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Louisville (8-4, 4-4 ACC)<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Robert Weiner<\/a>, (interim head coach) 0-0 (6th year at Toledo), same overall.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Jeff Brohm, 27-12 (third year) at Louisville, 93-56 overall (12th year). 0-0 vs. Toledo.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Play by Play: Jay Alter
\n\u00a0 Analyst: Rocky Boiman
\n\u00a0 Sidelines: Ashley Stroehlein\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0 \u00a0Play by Play: Mark Beier
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Analyst: Jack Mewhort
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Sidelines: Pete Seymour<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0@ToledoFB: Regular updates on UT Football, live updates on Game Day.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tickets are on sale now for the 2025 Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans.\u00a0Tickets can be purchased through the bowl website at\u00a0Bocaratonbowl.com\/tickets<\/a>.\u00a0Tickets will be delivered via Ticketmaster, with full instructions sent by email when delivered.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2022 Toledo is playing in its fifth-straight bowl game. The Rockets are 13-9 all-time in bowl games.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2022 Toledo has been bowl-eligible for 16 straight years, the sixth-longest streak in the country.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2022 Toledo has clinched its 16th consecutive season without a losing record, the third-longest streak in the FBS.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2022 Robert Weiner<\/a> has been named interim head coach and will lead the Rockets in the Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans. Weiner, who has served as the Rockets’ co-offensive coordinator\/QB coach for the past six years, fills in for Jason Candle, who left to accept the head coaching position at UConn. Candle departs as Toledo’s all-time victory leader (81-44).\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2022 Toledo announced on Dec. 10 that former Mercer Head Coach Mike Jacobs<\/a> will be the Rockets’ next head coach.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2022 Senior safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren<\/a> was named to three major All-America teams: Sporting News (2nd team), FWAA (2nd team) and AP (3rd team).\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2022Toledo has held its opponent to 14 points or fewer seven times this season, and in single digits in each of the final four games.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2022 Toledo put a school-record 17 players on the All-MAC team, including seven on the first team. Both figures were tops in the MAC.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u2022 Toledo’s defense ranks third in the FBS in total defense (247.8). In other FBS rankings, Toledo ranks No. 2 in defensive passing efficiency (98.60), third in first downs allowed (168), fourth in scoring defense (12.2), eighth in passing yards allowed (158.4), eighth in rushing defense (89.3), and ninth in third-down defense conversion (29.9%).<\/p>\n