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2011 Illinois Fighting Illini football team

American college football season

Field	Value
year	2011
team	Illinois Fighting Illini
sport	football
image	Fighting Illini logo.svg
image_size	125
conference	Big Ten Conference
short_conf	Big Ten
division	Leaders Division
record	7–6
conf_record	2–6
head_coach	Ron Zook
hc_year	7th
hc_games	regular season
head_coach2	Vic Koenning
hc_games2	interim; bowl game
off_coach	Paul Petrino
oc_year	2nd
off_scheme	Multiple
def_coach	Vic Koenning
dc_year	2nd
def_scheme	[4–3](4-3-defense)
stadium	Memorial Stadium
champion	Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl champion
bowl	[Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl](2011-kraft-fight-hunger-bowl-december)
bowl_result	W 20–14 vs. [UCLA](2011-ucla-bruins-football-team)

The 2011 Illinois Fighting Illini football team was an American football team that represented the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as a member of the Big Ten Conference during the 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season. In their seventh and final season under head coach Ron Zook, the Fighting Illini compiled a 7–6 record (2–6 in conference games), finished in fifth place out of six teams in the Big Ten's Leaders Division, and outscored opponents by a total of 294 to 255. After opening the season with six victories, the Illini lost the last six games of the regular season. They concluded the season in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl where they defeated UCLA, 20–14. At the end of the regular season, Zook was fired, as were most of the assistant coaches. Defensive coordinator Vic Koenning stayed on as interim head coach for the bowl game.

Quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase led the team in both passing (2,110 yards) and rushing (624 yards). The team's other statistical leaders included wide receiver A. J. Jenkins (90 receptions for 1,276 yards) and kicker Derek Dimke (64 points scored, 34 of 34 extra points, 10 of 12 field goals).

The team played its home games at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois.

Schedule

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Game summaries

Arkansas State

Champaign, IL Illinois opened the year at home for the first time since 2006. The opener was the first of eight home games for the Illini. After a slow start and falling behind 8–7 with 2:50 left in the 2nd quarter, the Illini scored a touchdown and a late field goal to take a 17 8 halftime lead. The offense continued to roll in the 2nd half as Illinois extended the lead to win the contest 33 15.

Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase led the Illini offense, finishing 16 for 23 on pass attempts totaling in 267 yards and two touchdowns. A.J. Jenkins was a favorite target for Scheelhaase, grabbing 11 receptions for 148 yards and 1 TD. Darius Millines also hauled in a TD and finished with 119 yards on 5 receptions. Jason Ford led the rushing attack with 86 yards on 22 carries and 2 touchdowns.

South Dakota State

Champaign, IL

Arizona State

Champaign, IL

Western Michigan

Champaign, IL

Northwestern

Champaign, IL

Indiana

Bloomington, IN

Ohio State

Champaign, IL

Purdue

West Lafayette, IN

Penn State

University Park, PA

Michigan

Champaign, IL

Wisconsin

Champaign, IL

Minnesota

Champaign, IL

UCLA (Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl)

San Francisco, California

The Bruins, with a losing record, were granted a waiver to play in a bowl game by the NCAA on November 30, 2011 since their seventh loss was played in the post-season Pac-12 Championship Game. The Bruins were coached by interim head coach Mike Johnson, who replaced Rick Neuheisel.

Second Quarter scoring: UCLA – Taylor Embree 16-yard pass from Kevin Prince (Tyler Gonzalez kick); ILL – Derek Dimke 36-yard field goal

Third Quarter scoring: ILL – T. Hawthorne 39-yard interception return (Dimke kick)

Fourth Quarter scoring: ILL – Dimke 37-yard field goal; ILL – A. J. Jenkins 60-yard pass from N. Scheelhaase (Dimke kick); UCLA – Nelson Rosario 38-yard pass from Prince (Gonzalez kick)

Rankings

References

"2011 Illinois Fighting Illini Schedule and Results". Sports Reference LLC.
Goudie, Chuck. (November 28, 2011). "Big Price Tag Attached to Zook's Firing". [[WLS-TV.
"2011 Illinois Fighting Illini Stats". Sports Reference LLC.
"Cumulative Season Statistics". University of Illinois Department of Athletics.
(October 29, 2011). "Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Penn State Nittany Lions Box Score". [[ESPN]].
Harris, Flint. (December 23, 2011). "2011-2012 Bowl Game Attendance". HolyTurf.
(October 1, 2011). "Illinois Completes Comeback in Final Minute to Defeat Rival Northwestern". [[ESPN]].
(October 22, 2011). "Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Purdue Boilermakers Box Score". [[ESPN]].
[https://archive.today/20130105150605/http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/113011aaa.html UCLA Bowl Waiver Approved By NCAA ], ''UCLABruins.com'', November 30, 2011

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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