Student-athletes on the Toledo football team recently completed an outstanding 2023-24 academic year, earning a combined 3.011 grade point average in the 2024 spring semester following a 3.103 mark last fall. A total of 64 Rockets made the spring Honor Roll (3.0-plus GPA), 27 made the Dean’s List (3.50-plus GPA) and seven made the President’s List with perfect 4.0 GPAs.
In addition, 23 Rockets received diplomas during the 2023-24 school year (eight this spring and 15 last December), 17 earned Academic All-MAC honors and seven were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team. Judge Culpepper (first team) and Maxen Hook (second team) were named to the College Sports Communicators’ Academic All-America football team. It is the just the second time ever that Toledo has had two players make Academic All-America and the first since 2001. Culpepper is Toledo’s first first-team selection since Dan Molls in 2012.
Toledo Football Head Coach Jason Candle gathered with graduates before the 2024 Spring Commencement on May 4. A total of 23 Toledo football student-athletes received their diplomas in the 2023-24 school year.
The football program also had the highest Graduation Success Rate (94%) among Mid-American Conference schools in the latest figures released by the NCAA last fall.
“We are very proud of the effort that our young men put into their academics,” said Head Coach Jason Candle, who was named MAC Coach of the Year last fall 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 academic 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-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, becoming the first Rocket ever to be named to all five major All-America teams in a career, and became the first Rocket in 31 years to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.
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.
