2011-12 Year in Review

Football

7-6 (2-6 Big Ten) // Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl Champions // T-10th Place Big Ten // Bowl Highlights

Illinois finished the 2011 season on high note, defeating UCLA, 20-14, in the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl to finish with a record of 7-6. The win, combined with the 38-14 win over Baylor in the 2010 Texas Bowl, gave the Illini bowl victories in back-to-back years for the first time in school history.

The Illinois defense was dominating in 2011. The Illini finished the season ranked third nationally in pass defense (162.3 ypg), fourth in tackles for loss (7.9 per game), sixth in sacks (3.2 per game), seventh in total defense (286.2 ypg) and 15th in scoring defense (19.6 ppg). Illinois broke the single-season school record for sacks. The Illini got to the quarterback 41 times on the season, breaking the old record of 40 shared by the 2007 and 2001 teams. The Illini also had 103 tackles for loss, the second-best in a season in school history.

Consensus All-American Whitney Mercilus led the nation in sacks (16.0), sacks per game (1.23) and forced fumbles (9). The nine forced fumbles were a Big Ten single-season record and the second-most in NCAA history, just one shy of the national record of 10. Mercilus' 16 sacks tied Simeon Rice's school record from 1994 and his 22.5 tackles for loss tied for the third-most in school history, just behind the UI mark of 23 shared by Rice (1994) and Mike Polosky (1991).

Mercilus won the Hendricks Award as the nation's top DE, becoming Illinois' first major national award winner since 1995, and was named the College Football Performance Awards National Defensive Player of the Year. He also was a finalist for the Nagurski Trophy, which goes to the nation's top defensive player. Mercilus was named a first-team All-American by nine different publications, including the Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America, American Football Coaches Association and Walter Camp. He is Illinois' first consensus All-American since linebacker J Leman in 2007.

Biletnikoff Award semifinalist A.J. Jenkins led the Big Ten in receptions (90) and ranked among the nation's elite in both receiving yards per game (14th, 98.2) and receptions per game (16th, 6.9). Jenkins finished two yards short of David Williams' school single-season receiving yardage record of 1,278 yards from 1984. Jenkins finished with 1,276 receiving yards, second-most in UI history, and his 90 catches ranked third-most in school history.

Sophomore LB Jonathan Brown was a monster during the second half of the season, totaling 78 tackles, 13.5 TFLs, 4.0 sacks, two PBUs, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and three hurries in the final seven games of 2011. He ranked sixth in the nation and second in the Big Ten in TFLs per game (1.63).

Senior PK Derek Dimke missed just two kicks all season, nailing 10-of-12 field goals and all 34 of his PATs in 2011. He finished his career as the most accurate kicker in Illinois history, making 39-of-46 field goals (.848) and all 89 PATs he attempted during his UI career.