Linebacker goes home.......
Linebacker goes home.......
Football: Ellwood City's Gardner found right formula to pick Toledo
Thursday, September 26, 2002
By Paul Zeise, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
When David Gardner was a senior at Ellwood City, he was offered a number of scholarships but narrowed his choices to Pitt and Toledo.
On paper, the choice seemed to be an easy one.
Pitt was his hometown team; Toledo was on the other side of Ohio. Pitt played in a major conference with five bowl affiliations; Toledo played in a mid-major conference that at the time had only one bowl affiliation. Pitt was on national television a number of times per year; Toledo rarely was.
And sure enough, after weighing all of those factors and a few others, it didn't take long for Gardner to figure which offer was right for him.
He has loved every minute of his career at Toledo
"For me it was actually an easy choice," said Gardner, a senior starting linebacker. "I'm kind of a country boy, and Pitt was just a little too urban for me. Toledo is a little more in the suburbs, and I just felt more comfortable with that situation. I've made some great friends here and have had a great experience.
"Plus, we play a very high level of football here. I've been to a bowl game, we've beaten some of these teams from the bigger conferences, and we've proven that we can play with anyone in the country."
Gardner is a three-year starter for the Rockets, a team captain and their best defensive player. He leads the team with 49 tackles and also has intercepted two passes.
On Saturday, he will lead the Rockets into Heinz Field for a non-conference game against Pitt (3-1).
Observers might look at this as a relatively easy win for the Panthers. After all, they are 16-0 against teams from the Mid-American Conference, including a 6-0 mark under Coach Walt Harris. Pitt has won those six games by an average score of 31-11.
But Toledo is not just another MAC team. The Rockets should provide Pitt with far more competition than the Big East's lower-tier teams. They are not only one of the MAC's best programs and the defending conference champions, but they also have become one of the better programs in the country.
The Rockets (3-1) are 26-4 in their past 30 games, have won at least 10 games in each of the past two years and last year won the MAC championship game as well as the Motor City Bowl.
More important, Toledo has shown it is capable of stepping up in class and still winning. Two years ago, the Rockets stomped Penn State, 24-6, at Beaver Stadium. Last year, they humbled Minnesota, 49-7. And in 1997, they beat Purdue, 36-22.
"We don't ever enter a game thinking about what conference our opponent is from," Gardner said. "We expect to win every game that we play. If we didn't, what would be the point? We know that Pitt is a great program with great tradition, but we feel like we have a great tradition as well. We'll have to play well to beat them, but we prepare to win here at Toledo."
The team's success in the past few years has been stunning to most people, but not to those within the program. Tom Amstutz, who is a Toledo native, a Toledo graduate and was a Rockets assistant coach from 1990 until last season when he was promoted to head coach, isn't shocked by any of it.
"Why should it be a surprise?" he asked. "We have an established program here and we expect to play at a very high level game in and game out. I've been around here pretty much my whole life, and that's what is expected. We expect to win every game we play, period.
"This will be a great challenge for us, but we're ready."
The Rockets lost a number of key players, particularly on defense, to graduation. The team has 54 first-year players and has seven new starters on defense.
Gardner, who is a team captain and leads the team with 49 tackles, said the defense has improved, but that it hasn't played a complete game yet. He said that the unit is still missing too many assignments and that, to date, the offense has carried the load.
"I think our defense is a lot like Pitt's offense," Gardner said. "You watch them and you can see they have some talented kids and a lot of great athletes. But they are a little out of rhythm, still. You can see they are so close to breaking out and once they do they are going to shock some people. We're the same way. Once we put a complete game together, we'll be very, very good."
One kicker emerges
Pitt is shelving its platoon system at place-kicker.
Freshman David Abdul will be the lone kicker Saturday against Toledo, Coach Walt Harris said after practice yesterday.
Through the first four games, Abdul, a scholarship player from Massillon Washington High School in Ohio, has handled kickoffs and field goals beyond 40 yards, where he is 2 of 5. Redshirt freshman J.B. Gibboney, a walk-on, is 7 of 10 on extra points and 3 of 4 on field goals, all from less than 40 yards.
Two return
Two Pitt players who missed practice Tuesday, linebacker Mike Jemison (excused absence) and tight end Darryl Weston (headaches), returned yesterday.
