The 2011 Insight Bowl, the 23rd edition of the Insight Bowl, was a post-season American

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

, held on December 30,

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Sun Devil Stadium Mountain America Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in Tempe, Arizona, located on the campus of Arizona State University (ASU). It is the home of the Arizona State Sun Devils football team of the Big 12 Conference. The stadium o ...

Tempe, Arizona Tempe ( ; ''Oidbaḍ'' in O'odham language, O'odham) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in t ...

as part of the 2011–12 NCAA Bowl season. The game was telecast at 8:00 p.m. MT on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. The Iowa Hawkeyes of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

faced the Oklahoma Sooners of the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

. Oklahoma won by a score of 31–14. The game was briefly suspended with 2:22 remaining in the fourth quarter when one of ESPN's

skycam __NOTOC__ Skycam is a computer-controlled, stabilized, cable-suspended camera system. The system is maneuvered through three dimensions in the open space over a playing area of a stadium or arena by computer-controlled cable-drive system. It is r ...

s crashed onto the field, nearly hitting Iowa wide receiver Marvin McNutt, Jr. The incident has since gone viral on YouTube. For the 2012 season, the bowl had a new sponsor and a new name as it became the

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl The Rate Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played in the state of Arizona since 1989, under several different names. Played as the Copper Bowl from inception through 1996, it was known as the Insight.com Bowl from 1997 ...

Teams

After winning the 2010 Insight Bowl 27–24 over

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, the Iowa Hawkeyes are back to take on the Sooners of Oklahoma, which began the season as the top-ranked team in both the Associated Press and ESPN coaches’ polls. The two teams have met only once, in 1979 when Oklahoma defeated Iowa 21–6 in head coach

Hayden Fry John Hayden Fry (February 28, 1929 – December 17, 2019) was an American college football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Southern Methodist University (SMU) from 1962 to 1972, North Texas State University—now known ...

's second game. On that team were

Bob Stoops Robert Anthony Stoops (born September 9, 1960) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Arlington Renegades of the United Football League (UFL). He was the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1999 through ...

, the current Oklahoma head coach, and Bruce Kittle, currently a Sooner assistant coach.

Iowa

The Hawkeyes opened the season unranked, and could not put together anything longer than a two-game winning streak during the 2011 season. The bright spot was a win over No. 13

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

Kinnick Stadium Kinnick Stadium is a stadium located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the home stadium of the University of Iowa Iowa Hawkeyes football, Hawkeyes football team. Opened in 1929 as Iowa Stadium to replace Iowa Field, it currently holds u ...

. Iowa entered the Insight Bowl at 7–5 overall (4–4 B1G).

Oklahoma

After opening the season as the No. 1 ranked team in the preseason polls, the Sooners entered the Insight Bowl with a 9–3 record (6–3 Big 12). Coming off a 44–10 loss to No. 3

Oklahoma State Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

, the Sooners were looking to build momentum for the 2012 season. Head coach

and assistant Bruce Kittle played at Iowa under

in the 1980s.

Game summary

Statistics

References

Insight Bowl The Rate Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played in the state of Arizona since 1989, under several different names. Played as the Copper Bowl from inception through 1996, it was known as the Insight.com Bowl from 1997 ...

Rate Bowl Iowa Hawkeyes football bowl games Oklahoma Sooners football bowl games Sports in Tempe, Arizona

December 2011 sports events in the United States Sports competitions in Maricopa County, Arizona {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub