Student-athletes on the Toledo Football team earned a combined 3.103 grade point average last semester, the highest ever in a fall term for the Rockets. The 3.103 mark trails only the 3.202 the team earned last spring as well the 3.270 GPA recorded in the 2020 spring semester during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, 15 Rockets received diplomas in December, while 17 earned Academic All-MAC honors and seven were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team. The football program also had the highest graduation success rate (94 percent) among Mid-American Conference schools in the latest figures released by the NCAA last month.
The Rockets earned a fall semester-record 3.103 GPA and were No. 1 in the MAC in the most recent graduation success rate released by the NCAA.
“We as a staff are really proud of the efforts that our young men put into their academics,” said Head Coach Jason Candle, who was named MAC Coach of the Year for the second time in his career. “We talk all the time about reaching your full potential in everything you do. In a world that puts so much emphasis on things that don’t matter, it’s refreshing to see our players strive for greatness in the things that do matter. Our culture here is very strong and our academics success is part of the foundation of that, and we look forward to continued success on and off the field.”
Toledo combined academic achievement with a highly successful season on the field.
The Rockets went 11-3 in 2023, winning 11 games for the first time since 2017 and only the second time in the past 28 years. UT won 11 consecutive games from Sept. 9 through Nov. 24, shooting up to No. 23 in the AP poll in late November.
Toledo won the MAC West Division crown for the second consecutive season and appeared in the MAC Championship Game for the second straight year. The Midnight Blue and Gold also played in their third consecutive bowl game, seventh under Candle, and were bowl-eligible for the 14th-consecutive season, the eighth-longest streak in the country. Cornerback Quinyon Mitchell was named to four of the five major All-America teams, and became the first Rocket ever to be named to all five major All-America teams in a career.
In addition, Toledo appeared on national television 10 times in 2023, another school record, with more than 3.8 million viewers from around the country watching those games.
