2011 Military Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Presented by Northrop Grumman | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Date | December 28, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||
Season | 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||
Stadium | RFK Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
Location | Washington, D.C. | ||||||||||||||||||
MVP | WR Bernard Reedy | ||||||||||||||||||
Favorite | Toledo by 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
Referee | Riley Johnson (Sun Belt) | ||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 25,042 | ||||||||||||||||||
Payout | US$1 million per team | ||||||||||||||||||
United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
Network | ESPN | ||||||||||||||||||
Announcers |
Pam Ward (Play-by-Play) Dan Hawkins (Analyst) Jeannine Edwards (Sidelines) |
||||||||||||||||||
Nielsen ratings | 1.5 | ||||||||||||||||||
The 2011 Military Bowl Presented by Northrop Grumman, the fourth edition of the game, was a post-season American college football bowl game, held on December 28, 2011 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2011–12 NCAA bowl season.
The game, which telecast at 4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, featured the Air Force Falcons from the Mountain West Conference versus the Toledo Rockets from the Mid-American Conference.
The 2011 Military Bowl was the first meeting between Air Force and Toledo. Prior to the bowl game, the Falcons have played against one Mid-American Conference team, winning and losing one game to Kent State.
The 2011 Military Bowl was the Falcon's fifth consecutive appearance in a bowl game (2007–11). Air Force was highlighted by the performances of Jon Davis who has a 10 career games with 10 or more tackles; Asher Clark who has 11 career 100-yard rushing games; and senior quarterback Tim Jefferson, Air Force's winningest quarterback. The Falcons came into the game 2nd in the FBS in rushing, average 320.3 rushing yards a game.
Coming into this game, Toledo averaged 42.3 points per game for the season, including an FBS-best 53.8 points in November. The team was led by junior first-team All-MAC WR Eric Page, who set numerous school records in 2011, including most receptions in a season (112) and for a career (293) and senior RB Adonis Thomas, who finished the season with 963 yards rushing. Toledo quarterback Terrence Owens, however, only started the final two games of the 2011 season coming into the bowl game; quarterback Austin Dantin started the first 10 games before a concussion sidelined him. A few days after accepting the invitation to the 2011 Military Bowl, coach Tim Beckman left Toledo to become the coach for Illinois, leaving offensive coordinator Matt Campbell to coach the Rockets in the bowl game.