By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Whenever the right job called for Mike Jacobs to leave Mercer, it was likely to be in a colder climate, far from the gnat line, and not a lateral move.

That came to fruition on Wednesday when Jacobs was hired to take over at Toledo, his hometown university.

Mercer statement
Toledo statement

He replaces Jason Candle, who was named as the new head coach at Connecticut on Saturday, while Mercer’s season was coming to an end with a 47-0 loss to South Dakota in the second round of the NCAA FCS playoffs.

Jacobs will be introduced on Friday.

The move was a no-brainer for Jacobs for a variety of reasons.

He’s a Toledo area native, playing football at Maumee High, about nine miles southwest of the city, which sits on the Maumee River. He played football at Ohio State, and coached at Notre Dame College (the school closed in May of 2024) in Euclid, Ohio, near Cleveland.

It also means family is available to babysit sons Luke and Knox when Jacobs and wife Lacey need a hand.

Jacobs won’t coach Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl against Louisville on Dec. 23, that job to be handled by interim head coach and co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Robert Weiner.

The 46-year-old – fourth on the list of NCAA Division I and II winningest head coaches by percentage behind Ryan Day, Kalen DeBoer, and Kirby Smart - was apparently the only choice, athletics director Bryan Blair told David Briggs of the The Toledo Blade on Wednesday.

“Yes, you want to talk to other candidates, and work the process” Blair told Briggs. “But your gut is telling you, ‘This feels right and checks every box.’ It became abundantly clear very quickly that he was the guy. There’s not a single ounce of truth we offered anybody but Mike Jacobs.”

Blair also wanted to get Jacobs before Coastal Carolina made a big pitch. Jacobs’ name was also attached to the since-filled opening at UAB. Blair he got emotional on Sunday night watching Jacobs’ introductory press conference at Mercer back on Jan. 31, 2023.

“Midway through, I was crying, because of watching his emotion, his love for his family, his passion,” he told Briggs. “It came through the video screen,”

Toledo is a metro area of about 500,000, and is the fourth-largest city (270,000) in Ohio. The university has 11,200 on-campus undergrads, and the team plays in the 26,038-seat Glass Bowl.

The last three Toledo head coaches left for Illinois, Iowa State, and Connecticut. Matt Campbell just moved from Iowa State to Penn State. The Rockets are in their ninth bowl since Candle took over. He became the Mid-American Conference’s second-highest paid coach during the season with a salary of $1.15 million

Jacobs steps into a quality situation.

Toledo hasn’t had a losing season since going 5-7 in 2006. Last year, the Rockets beat Mississippi State 41-17, a year after losing 30-28 to Illinois, two years after a 32-29 loss to Notre Dame.

Jacobs joins one Central Georgian with the Rockets. John Alan Richter is a junior quarterback at Toledo, one of one of five players from Georgia currently on the roster.

Considering Mercer’s last two hires, here’s a note: Lenoir-Rhyne head coach Doug Socha is 10-3 and 6-5 in the season since replacing Jacobs, who went 32-9 in four seasons at L-R after replacing Drew Cronic, who went 25-3 at L-R before following Bobby Lamb at Mercer.

It’s highly doubtful Mercer will try to capture some lightning in another Bear coaching bottle, despite Cronic and Jacobs combining to go 48-23 in Macon with three NCAA FCS playoff trips and make the Bears a Southern Conference contender and regular occupant of the polls.

Socha doesn’t have anywhere near the record Jacobs and Cronic had.

As is with the case with the vast majority of coaching changes – Toledo’s fortunate quick turnaround notwithstanding – it’s doubtful that Mercer will have any news to share for several weeks.

Within minutes of words getting out about Jacobs’ departure, the social media move to interview and hire Chris Hatcher began. Hatcher is a Macon native and Mount de Sales grad who was let go by Samford on Nov. 9 with the Bulldogs at 1-9 en route to a 1-11 season.

Samford hired Clemson analyst and former Jacksonville State head coach – and longtime Hatcher friend - John Glass last week.

Another name likely to surface is West Georgia head coach Joel Taylor, who came to Mercer with (correction: Cronic) but took over the Wolves’ program two years ago this month and is 12-10, but is off an 8-3 season – including a 34-3 win over Samford and 35-31 win over East Tennessee State - in the program’s second year in Division I.

Both Jacobs and Taylor are finalists for the Eddie Robinson Award that goes to the top FCS coach.