Toledo spent the offseason restocking through the transfer portal, landing 11 players with prior all-conference tape, headlined by pass rusher Andrew Zock, the reigning FCS Defensive Player of the Year. Whether that overhaul is enough to offset a new coaching staff learning on the fly is the swing question for a Rockets defense that has to slow down a Western Michigan run game that gashed everybody down the stretch.
Western Michigan isn't sneaking up on anybody this time. The Broncos are the reigning MAC champs, and Lance Taylor's group returns enough pieces up front and in the backfield to make this trip into Toledo look a lot less dramatic than the last one.
That last meeting between these two was a fistfight — Western Michigan trailed by 13 before ripping off two late touchdowns to escape with a 14-13 win, a result that turned into the spark for a run to the MAC title. Toledo, meanwhile, watched a team many expected to win the conference limp home instead, which is exactly the kind of near-miss that fuels an offseason overhaul.
Records reset for 2026, but the tape from last year doesn't lie about what this game meant. Whichever team controls the line of scrimmage in Toledo again is going to walk away with the early leg up in a MAC race that figures to run through both of these programs.