Michael Lev: How Toledo, Wyoming have overcome G5 challenges en route to Arizona Bowl

The fact that All-American cornerback Quinyon Mitchell is still a Toledo Rocket and is expected to play in the upcoming Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl qualifies as a Christmas miracle.

It just doesn’t happen very often these days. Like, almost never.

Let’s start with the fact that Mitchell didn’t transfer after last season, when he earned multiple All-America accolades. Most in his position would have entered the portal at the first opportunity.

Mitchell reportedly had plenty of NIL offers. He turned them down, placing loyalty ahead of possible financial gain. Crazy, right?

“Toledo is home,” Mitchell told The Blade in August. “It’s where I want to finish. We said we want to run it back, so we’re going to run it back.”

Mitchell repeated as an All-American this year, further boosting his NFL Draft stock. Dane Brugler of The Athletic projected Mitchell as a first-round pick in a recent mock.

Unless your team is playing in the College Football Playoff, odds are any potential first- or second-round pick will opt out of a “meaningless” bowl game. (I hate when the non-CFP bowls are described that way, because they are meaningful to the participants, but that’s the default setting nowadays.) Again, Mitchell is bucking that trend. Kudos to him.

Of course, I’m the same guy who praised Arizona tackle Jordan Morgan for opting out of the Alamo Bowl. But he had a special set of circumstances: He tore his ACL last November, delaying his NFL timetable by a year. He made the right call for his particular situation.

Anyway, back to Mitchell. It’s a sign of the times that the choices he has made register somewhere between stunning and shocking. It’s especially improbable to see it play out at a Group of Five school. Toledo and fellow Arizona Bowl participant Wyoming face challenges in the portal/NIL era that most in the Power Five conferences — soon-to-be Power Four as the haves further separate from the have-nots — don’t.

The Athletic’s Max Olson wrote last week about the “G5 Talent Drain.” As of last Friday, nearly 600 players from Group of Five schools had put their names in the portal. As Olson noted, 17 players on the All-Conference USA teams had entered.

Per Olson, 123 G5 players “transferred up” in the 2021-22 cycle. That number jumped to 239 in the last cycle.

Toledo just lost its quarterback, Mid-American Conference MVP Dequan Finn; he announced Sunday that he’s transferring to Baylor. Another Rockets starter, first-team All-MAC guard Vinny Sciury, is headed to Texas Tech. He’ll play at Arizona Stadium ... next year when the Red Raiders visit Tucson.

I asked Toledo coach Jason Candle how he processes losing his conference’s best player just a few weeks before the Rockets seek to match the school record for wins in a season.

“Well, I mean, it’s processed,” Candle said during a news conference Monday. “He’s not here. We wish him nothing but the best of luck. He’s won a lot of football games for us here, he’s done a lot for this program, he’s done a lot for this institution. Certainly had a great year. Give him a lot of credit. He had a tremendous season.”

Toledo will start fourth-year sophomore Tucker Gleason in the Arizona Bowl. Unsurprisingly, Gleason started his college career elsewhere; he transferred to Toledo from Georgia Tech in January 2021. Such is the way.

The Rockets will rally around Gleason, Candle said. Because, well, what choice do they have?

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Coaches at all levels of college football face the same alternatives amid a rapidly changing landscape: Adapt or die.

Last week, I asked Wyoming coach Craig Bohl whether all that stuff — the portal, NIL, having to re-recruit your own roster and having to be “on” basically year-round — contributed to his decision to retire after the Arizona Bowl. He said it didn’t.

“We’re all evolving,” Bohl said. “It’s evolved from when I first started coaching. If there were less than two backs in the backfield without a fullback, you thought it was an illegal formation. Things have changed over the years. We’ve adapted. I’ve adapted.

“We have a game that is more popular than it’s ever been. TV ratings are through the roof. Attendance is at an all-time high here.

“I do have some concerns as we move forward. ... I’m concerned that we’re losing some of the scholastic model. I’d encourage our presidents to really get involved. But that had no bearing on me exiting.”

If the longtime coach of the Cowboys had cited the portal, NIL or whatever’s lurking around the corner — quite possibly unlimited transfers — for wanting to get out of Dodge, could you have blamed him?

Bohl happened to be at a point in his life where he could walk off into the sunset and be at peace with that decision. He’s 65 years old. He has grandkids. Wyoming football is on solid footing.

If Bohl’s mentor, Tom Osborne, could retire from coaching at age 60 — after leading Nebraska to the 1997 national championship — Bohl could step away at 65.

Wyoming has only six players in the portal, five fewer than its total heading into last year’s Arizona Bowl. (Eight more entered in January, although only three landed at other schools, per 247Sports’ database.) Toledo also has six.

It’s a credit to the cultures implemented and nurtured by Bohl and Candle that those numbers aren’t higher. It could be way worse.

Bohl and Candle know they can’t compete with schools from the power conferences in terms of NIL opportunities or media exposure. But they can offer consistency, camaraderie and coaching-staff bona fides that rival anyone’s.

“You have to have the things in place to be successful, and I think we have that here,” Candle said. “Sometimes you begin chasing things. It’s no different for me than it is some of these young people that go in the transfer portal.

“I don’t know if every opportunity is right for every person. ... I gotta live this. These kids gotta live these experiences.

“Toledo’s a great place. It’s been great to me and my family.”

Candle has a .657 winning percentage in eight-plus seasons as the Rockets’ head coach. He’s been linked to several other jobs. He has yet to jump. He could someday.

In the meantime, he’s preparing his team for the Arizona Bowl. His All-American cornerback is fully on board.

Holy Toledo, indeed.