Page 112 - Toledo Football Media Guide - 2012

2011 IN REVIEW 113

011 Highlights

The Rockets’ 2011 season had more twists and turns than the latest Cedar Point roller coaster. To say that Toledo went 9-4 with a victory in a bowl game, does not accurately sum up the Rockets’ wild ride.

The season featured the same number of starting quarterbacks (2) as head coaches. An injury list that beganwith the loss of starting safety Mark Singer in the preseason turned into a veritable plague by mid-year. And of Toledo’s four losses, three were winnable and each was not without controversy. But of Toledo’s nine victories, none were more sweet than the fnal triumph, a 42-41 victory over Air Force in the Military Bowl.

The season began routinely enough, a 58-22 blowout over BCS opponent New Hampshire in the home opener. But then the craziness ensued.

The Rockets came within one play of upsetting heavily favored Ohio State, losing 27-22, as Toledo failed to complete a fourth-down pass on OSU’s 16-yard line with just 48 seconds to play.

Toledo outgained the Buck-eyes, 338-301, but OSU beneftted from a pair of controversial illegal procedure calls on UT punts that were both converted into touch-downs.

Following a solid efort in a 40-15 loss to No. 4 Boise State at home, the Rockets traveled to Syracuse, losing 33-30 in an overtime con-test that will forever remain infa-mous in the hearts of Rocket fans. Syracuse’s PAT after its fnal touch-down appeared to go wide left, but ofcials on the feld ruled it good. Replay ofcials confrmed the call. However, after the game, Big East

ofcials admitted that the kick was no good, a key ofciating error that may have cost UT the game. Next, Toledo went on the frst of two four-game winning streaks, setting up a West Division show-down with Northern Illinois on Nov. 1.

When the dust fnally cleared, the Huskies came out on top, 63-60, in a contest that was not decided until time ran out on Toledo’s fnal drive. NIU scored the game-win-ning touchdown with 19 seconds left, not quite enough time for UT to come back and score one more time. Toledo outgained NIU, 589-532, but was killed by back-to-back touchdowns on kickof returns by the Huskies on their frst two pos-sessions.

While the Rockets sufered the misfortune of scoring 60 points and losing, they came back the fol-lowing week and allowed 63 points in a victory, a 66-63 slugfest over Western Michigan. The two teams combined for 1,439 yards of of-fense, including 804 by the Rock-ets.

2011 in Review: Rockets Travel aWindy Road to

Victory at the Military Bowl

The Rockets capped of a wild 2011 season with a raucous celebration following a 42-41 victory at the Military Bowl.

Relatively uneventful victories over Central Michigan and Ball State followed, giving Toledo eight wins and a berth in the Military Bowl to play Air Force at RFK Sta-dium in Washington, D.C.

Toledo used its powerful of-fense and a bend-but-don’t-break defense to capture an exciting 42-41 victory in a game that came down to the fnal minute. Follow-ing what appeared to be the game-tying touchdown, the Falcons opt-ed to go for two points on a trick play. But sophomore defensive end Jayrone Elliott stripped the ball from the ball-carrier, who ending up kicking it out of the end zone, leaving the Rockets with a 42-41 advantage and their frst bowl tri-umph since 2005.

The bowl victory also marked the debut of Matt Campbell as head coach. Campbell, Toledo’s of-fensive coordinator for three sea-sons, took over as head coach after Tim Beckman left for Illinois at the conclusion of the regular season. It was an incredible beginning of a head coaching career, and an