Jason Candle to Become Toledo's Next Head Coach

What a turn of events for the Toledo Rockets over the past few days. On Saturday night, head coach Matt Campbell accepted the Iowa State head coaching job, just a day after the Rockets were rumored for a potential BCS Bowl (before losing to Western Michigan). Then, a photo gets tweeted out in the Iowa State WAR room in Ames, Iowa featuring Matt Campbell and several other former Toledo coaches, including offensive coordinator, Jason Candle. In another change of events, rumors struck on Wednesday afternoon that Candle is now becoming the next head coach of the Toledo Rockets.

Former offensive coordinator, Jason Candle will be introduced
as Toledo's next head coach at 4:30 pm on Wednesday.

Candle, a 36-year old offensive genius, began his coaching career at his alma-mater, Mount Union with Matt Campbell. After coaching receivers from 2003-2006, he became the offensive coordinator for the 2007-08 season until ending up in Toledo. At Toledo, Candle began as the tight ends and slot receivers coach in 2009 but eventually took over as offensive coordinator for Matt Campbell in 2012, turning the Rocket offense into a balanced powerhouse. Now, Candle is expected to accept the Toledo coaching job and be introduced to the media at 4:30 pm on Wednesday.


Originally, many thought Toledo was going outside of the current staff to hire a head coach. Especially after Campbell cleaned house as far as the Rockets former coaching staff was concerned, taking them all to Iowa State aside from defensive coordinator Jon Heacock and runningbacks coach, Anthony Johnson.

Jason Candle has turned Toledo's offense into a balanced
powerhouse.

Candle could be introduced at the Toledo men's basketball game on Wednesday night at Savage Arena. The hire is incredibly smart due to Candle's tremendous reputation as a recruiter and a long-time Toledo assistant under Campbell. Following Campbell's departure, Toledo players overwhelmingly vouched for Candle to become their next head coach. After the vacancy, Athletic Director Mike O'Brien announced he would be hiring a search firm to conduct a national search. Now, just days later, that won't be needed. Matt Campbell has begun to recruit his former Toledo commits, now to Iowa State, and Jason Candle can now put a stop to that bleeding. It won't be easy to convince current Rocket commits in the 2016 class to stay, but Candle has the ability to do so, since he recruited many of the current commits anyway.


I'll keep you posted on the latest via Twitter: @ToledoZach