Louisville, Toledo bring stout defenses into matchup at the Boca Raton Bowl

By Canadian Press on December 22, 2025.

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — At the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, the winning coach gets doused with mayonnaise. At the Pop-Tarts Bowl, the victorious team has the chance to consume an oversized toasted pastry.

And those celebrations evidently made Louisville and Toledo players wonder what will happen when they meet Tuesday in the Boca Raton Bowl — especially since the game is now sponsored by Bush’s Beans.

“I think their first question is, will the winning bald-headed coach get a bowl of beans dumped over their head,” interim Toledo coach Robert Weiner said as Louisville coach Jeff Brohm, seated to his left, nodded in approval. “I strongly answered no.”

They’re simply looking for a ninth win to end the season instead.

Louisville (8-4, 4-4 ACC) and Toledo (8-4, 6-2 Mid-American Conference) will be facing off for the first time since 1981, looking to cap years that might be remembered for less-than-fond reasons. The Cardinals lost their last three ACC games to fall out of league title contention, and the Rockets lost coach Jason Candle — the program’s all-time win leader — earlier this month when he left to take over at Connecticut.

“Both teams have a lot of guys from Florida that get an opportunity to come down here and play in front of family and friends and be around them for four or five days,” Brohm said.

Weiner will coach the Rockets in this game, even though Toledo moved quickly after Candle’s departure to hire Mercer’s Mike Jacobs as their new coach. Weiner has been on Toledo’s staff for six years, going there after a long run as a highly successful high school coach — winning four state titles at Tampa Plant High.

“But this might be a little bit different,” Weiner said.

The series

The first Louisville-Toledo meeting was 100 years ago; the schools have met eight times over that span, with the Cardinals winning five of those matchups. It’s only the second game between the schools since 1958 and the first time they’ve met in a bowl contest.

Boca history

Toledo is 2-0 in previous Boca Raton Bowl appearances and is seeking to become the first team to win the game three times. The Rockets have been bowl eligible for 16 consecutive years and topped Pittsburgh of the ACC 48-46 in overtime to win the GameAbove Sports Bowl last year.

Louisville is in the Boca Bowl for the first time. The Cardinals — who topped Washington in the Sun Bowl last year — are in a bowl for the fifth straight season and are seeking back-to-back bowl wins for the first time since beating Florida in the Sugar Bowl to end the 2012 season and Miami in the Russell Athletic Bowl to end the 2013 season.

Inside the numbers

It’s easy to look at this matchup and expect to see points. Toledo averaged 31.6 points per game this season, while Louisville averaged 30.2 per game.

But it might not be that simple.

These defenses were among the nation’s best this season. Toledo was No. 2 nationally in yards allowed per game — giving up just 248.7 on average, behind only Ohio State in the FBS rankings. The Rockets were also fourth nationally in scoring defense at 12.2 per game, behind College Football Playoff qualifiers Ohio State, Indiana and Texas Tech.

Louisville’s defense gave up 300.3 yards per game, 15th-best nationally.

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Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press