Woodside takes over

Redshirt junior quarterback Logan Woodside led the Rockets to another win Sept. 10, racking up 329 passing yards and four touchdowns. This is coming after his standout performance from the week before when he threw for 371 yards plus three touchdowns in a victory versus Arkansas State.

When asked what Woodside needs to do to continue this early season success, Rocket head coach Jason Candle knows exactly what to do to play toward Woodside’s strengths.

“Keep making great decisions and playing within himself and the offense,” Candle said.

But not many people around campus know much about the Toledo QB. For example, this is not Woodside’s first time starting for the midnight blue and gold. He sat behind former UT quarterback Phillip Ely last season and then redshirted to retain his junior eligibility.

However, in 2014 as a true sophomore, Woodside played in 12 games and threw for 2,263 yards with 19 touchdowns to only eight interceptions when Ely went down with a season-ending injury.

In his first start that season against Cincinnati, Woodside completed 27 of 40 passing attempts for 322 yards and three touchdowns. That was good enough to earn him MAC West offensive player of the week, an award he won once already this season.

He also led the team on a 55-yard drive in the torrential rain on the road versus Western Michigan to tie the score in the final minute of the game, so he is no stranger to pressure situations.

Toledo finished that season 9-4 and then capped it off with a victory in the GoDaddy.com Bowl (now called the Dollar General Bowl) versus Arkansas State, where Woodside completed 21 of his 27 passes for 176 yards.

Just two years prior to taking over for an injured teammate, Woodside was a senior at Franklin County High School in Kentucky. In his final year there, he passed for 2,951 yards and a school-record 41 touchdowns in addition to 65 tackles and five interceptions. He was named 1st team all-state.

“He does a great job taking it upon himself to be accountable for what he does,” Candle said. “That’s what leaders do, and he’s become a leader for us.”

The Rocket offense has been pretty successful with Woodside leading the way. In 2014, UT led the Mid-American Conference in almost every major offensive category. Individually, he ranked fourth in the conference in both passer rating (142.5) and completion percentage (62.5).

The team averaged about 32 points per game in the games Woodside played in 2014. He is leading the team to an average of 38 points per game so far this season. In Saturday’s game, he completed touchdown passes of 85, 64 and 89 yards.

“Nice thing about us is we have a number of weapons offensively, so all the blame doesn’t fall on the quarterback every week,” Candle said.

Woodside will have the chance to prove his few doubters wrong as UT takes on two tough non-conference opponents. Fresno State comes to the Glass Bowl Saturday, Sept. 17 and then the Rockets hit the road to take on Brigham Young University on Sept. 30.

It doesn’t get any easier for the Rockets from there on as they face Akron, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan in three of their last four games.

The Rocket quarterback will have his hands full leading the way for the one of the top teams in the MAC. As long as he can continue to play off of the running game and spread the ball around to his playmakers like senior Corey Jones and junior Cody Thompson, you should be seeing more of the same winning formula from Toledo’s offense.