Leaders in consistency

Jeremiah Detmer is one of the Rockets' most iconic and influential seniors of the season. Detmer is known for his consistent leg, having tied the school record for most consecutive field goals last season.

If you know University of Toledo football, you know the names Greg Mancz and Jeremiah Detmer.

And if you know football in general, you know this is not ordinary.

Offensive linemen and kickers don’t become the faces of football programs, but that rule couldn’t be any further from the truth at UT. Mancz has made a name for himself as a leading member of Toledo’s veteran offensive line. The unit has made itself as synonymous with consistency as Detmer, who is arguably the most consistent placekicker in the Mid-American Conference.

Mancz and Detmer are both seniors, both leaders and definitely both characters. But at the beginning of the 2011 season, during a trip to face Ohio State, they were simply the only freshmen sitting on UT’s first team bus.

“Mancz and I were sitting next to each other, and he looked at me and said ‘a couple of years from now it will just be you and I on this bus from this bus. All these guys on this bus right now will be gone and it will just be you and I.’” Detmer recalled. “Three years have gone by and here we are.”

Both Detmer and Mancz were made captains this year, and they have been tasked with guiding what is mostly a younger team through the trials of a collegiate football season.

“To be a leader of a group of guys like the men [on this team] is something that you dream of,” Detmer said. “I love these guys a lot, I respect these guys and these guys respect each other and I’m just excited for the rest of this season to get to lead and to be a part of this team.”

For Mancz, the honor of being named captain, as well as being synonymous with Toledo football could have also gone to many of his and Detmer’s teammates.

“They have plenty of talent and they would be just as good being the face,” he said. “It just so happens we fell into it.”

One glance at the achievements and awards this pair has piled up between them over the last four years tells you they did not simply fall into anything.

Detmer was last season’s MAC Special Teams Player of the Year and a First-team All-MAC selection. He finished as a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award, which is awarded to the nation’s top placekicker, and he is viewed as a prime candidate for the honor again this season.

The Hilliard, Ohio native finished 2013 with a field goal percentage good for second in the MAC and third nationally, and his previous streak of 23 consecutive field goals ties for most by a Rocket and fifth-best all-time in the NCAA.

“I never doubt him when he goes out there,” Mancz said of Detmer. “That’s something I’ve been really fortunate with my four years of college and definitely something I don’t take for granted.”

Mancz definitely knows a thing or two about consistency.

Coming into 2014, the Cincinnati native had started all 38 games of his Rocket career. Last season he was a part of a Toledo line that allowed only six sacks in 12 games, the fewest in the country at that time.

Just as with Detmer, Mancz and the other lineman have built trust with the team through their consistency.

“If you don’t have trust in anything you do, you’re lacking something huge,” Detmer explained. “To have trust, not only that I trust the guys in front of me but those guys trust me, it is a chemistry thing and it goes such a long way. It just makes life easier and it’s awesome to have the trust of your teammates and to trust them.”

Mancz was named Toledo’s center this season, and he has moved up and down the line during his collegiate career. Through that time he has made a point of being more than a football player, volunteering and giving back in any way he can.

Mancz was named second-team All-MAC in 2013, and he is a nominee for the Allstate Good Works Award, All-America and Academic All-America as well as someone on the official watch list for the Rimington Award, an honor presented annually to the top center in college football.

“Greg is a hilarious guy,” Detmer said. “You talk to him and he is a fun guy and energetic, a guy you want to lead, want to follow and want to be lead by. He’s a genuine guy and is a lot more than just a football player.”

Both Mancz and Detmer have spent their college careers working to be the best and most consistent at their positions, and they have stepped up and accepted the mantle of leadership along the way.

These two leaders will be gone after this season, moving on to the next phase of life. Mancz will continue graduate studies, while Detmer looks to make the “big bucks” as a teacher, although he won’t rule out taking a shot at an NFL career.

“If I’m given the opportunity I’m not going to pass it down,” Detmer said. “I think a year in the NFL is about eight or so year’s worth of salary as a teacher, but whatever works out will be great.”

Whatever works out after this season, two of Toledo’s most consistent seniors will be gone, and they will have left a lasting impression along with an open seat on Toledo’s first team bus.

But for now, they both still have work to do.

“There is always something that will happen,” Mancz said of the future. “There are plenty of opportunities that will arise, but right now I’m worried about today and then [the next] practice and then going into Saturday’s game.

“There are a lot of goals we haven’t accomplished.”