The game ball for Friday night's Battle of I-75 makes the trip on foot. Student veterans from both schools were scheduled to set out on Saturday, Nov. 14, on the fourth annual Ruck the Ball, a 24-mile march from the BGSU campus to the Veterans' Plaza at UToledo. Before kickoff at the Glass Bowl, student representatives will hand that ball to the officials. It's a fitting start for a rivalry this close. After 90 meetings going back to 1919, the series is tied, 43-43-4. Whoever wins Friday will lead it.
Toledo comes in on a four-game winning streak after shutting out UMass 24-0 on Salute to Service night last Wednesday. Connor Walendzak, back from an injury, ran for a career-high 117 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown, and caught a 17-yard scoring pass from John Alan Richter. Adjatay Dabbs caught seven passes for a season-high 144 yards, and Nicholas Thompson returned an interception 62 yards for a touchdown. The defense held the Minutemen to 67 rushing yards and made 10 tackles for loss, two of them sacks by Andrew Zock.
Bowling Green's week was a lot louder. With starter Jay Kastantin ruled out on the conference availability report with an undisclosed injury, Oregon transfer Austin Novosad made his first career start against Kent State last Tuesday, and his first pass went to Nakai Amachree for a 70-yard touchdown. Novosad threw for 229 yards and three scores without an interception. Kent State's Dru DeShields ran in a 25-yard touchdown with two minutes left to put the Golden Flashes ahead 28-27, but nine seconds of game clock later, Amachree broke free for a 48-yard touchdown run. Nick Sawyer's interception sealed the 33-28 win.
That leaves the Falcons' quarterback job unsettled for Friday. Kastantin, a transfer from Assumption, won it days before the opener, and no update on his status had been made public when this was written. "He's prepared all year long as if he was the starter," head coach Eddie George said of Novosad. Toledo has no such question. Richter, named to the Davey O'Brien Award watch list last week, has thrown just three interceptions all season, and Walendzak's return gives the Rockets another back to pair with CJ Miller, their leading rusher.
It starts with Myles Bradley against Toledo's offensive line. Bradley, Bowling Green's sack leader by a wide margin, made the play that turned last year's game, a sack and forced fumble that set up the go-ahead touchdown. Toledo has allowed fewer sacks than any team in the MAC, and if Bradley can't get home, Richter will have time to look for Dabbs downfield.
The ground game is the other half. Bowling Green has had more trouble stopping the run than any team in the league, and Toledo just ran for 239 yards against UMass. Amachree, who had 110 yards rushing and 87 receiving against Kent State, is the Falcons' best weapon going the other way, but Toledo ranks second in the conference against the run.
The Rockets' road to Detroit runs through their last two games. They're in a four-way logjam at 5-1, and only two of those teams will play for the conference title in Detroit on Dec. 5. They close at Ohio, another of the four, on Nov. 27. Two wins would guarantee the Rockets at least a share of first place. Lose either and they'll need help, with a home loss to Buffalo in October already on their record. Friday is also the home finale and Mike Jacobs's first Battle of I-75 as head coach. Jacobs grew up in Maumee, just outside Toledo, played at Ohio State and came home from Mercer last December after two Southern Conference titles.
Bowling Green can't reach six wins, and its season ends at home against UMass on Nov. 28. Its prize is the rivalry itself. The Falcons have beaten Toledo two years running, the first time they've done that since 2007-09.
From 1980 through 2010, the winner took home the Peace Pipe, a miniature ceremonial pipe atop a base built by former Toledo player Frank Kralik. It was retired after the 2010 game, following talks with American Indian community members. Since 2011, the prize has been the Battle of I-75 Trophy, designed by Jeff Artz, who also designed the Fred Biletnikoff Award. Toledo won 11 of the first 14 trophy games, but Bowling Green has taken three of the last four, including last year's 28-23 win at Doyt L. Perry Stadium. The Rockets led 21-0 before the Falcons scored 28 straight points, with receiver RJ Garcia II throwing a 73-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Pettaway on a trick play to tie it. It was the first time Bowling Green had ever come back from 20 or more points down to win.
The projection is Toledo 28, Bowling Green 14. Toledo is better on both lines, it protects its quarterback as well as anyone in the league, and it has a title to play for at home. Bowling Green found something with Novosad and Amachree last week, and this series has a habit of ignoring records; in 2019 the Falcons won as 26-point underdogs. But they haven't stopped the run with any consistency this year, and Toledo has the backs to make them pay.
The market, for the record: no line had been posted when this was written.
What breaks it: Richter has time, Walendzak and Miller wear down the Falcons' front, and Toledo takes back the trophy with its title hopes intact. The other way it breaks: Bradley gets to Richter early, Amachree breaks one more long run, and Bowling Green wins a third straight in the series and takes the lead in it.