2012 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl
Arizona State's balanced offense hinged on its quarterback efficiency, with the potential to set a number of school records for the season.
[13] The Navy Midshipmen, representing the United States Naval Academy, began their 2012 season with a 50–10 loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Emerald Isle Classic in Dublin, Ireland.
They accumulated a 1–3 record for their first four games, but began a five-game winning streak with a victory over the Air Force Falcons in overtime on October 6.
[14] Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk cited the team's positive experiences at the 2004 Emerald Bowl as a primary reason for returning to play in the game.
[19] The Sun Devils, representing Arizona State University (ASU), began their first season under head coach Todd Graham by winning four of their first five games; their lone defeat was a 20–24 loss to the Missouri Tigers.
[31] During pregame walk-throughs the team prepared its new play calling system, which consisted of a number of oversized cards divided into four sections with a variety of colors and symbols.
[38] Although the team's defensive secondary unit was plagued with injuries early in the season, the squad found some stability by its final regular-season game.
[50] After the team's win against the Texas State Bobcats, cornerback Kwazel Bertrand was named the FBS Independent Defensive Player of Week.
[51] After an early-season series of personal issues and injuries depleted the Midshipmen defensive line, Navy had established a rotating system of 11 linemen to keep players fresh during games.
ESPN.com analyst Kevin Gemmell wrote, "Watching Sutton... and the rest of the Sun Devils defense square off with the Navy offense is going to be one of the more fascinating chess matches of the postseason".
[59] Terese Karmel wrote for SportsPageMagazine.com, "The key to the game could be the match-up between the Sun Devils' defense (second in the nation in sacks with 48) against the Naval Academy's young quarterback, Keenan Reynolds".
[60] After the Sun Devils accepted the invitation, head coach Todd Graham began to prepare the team to face Navy's run-heavy offense.
[68] Analyst Will Harris predicted a 42–24 victory for the Sun Devils on ESPN.com, citing Todd Graham's bowl record and Navy's undersized defense as reasons for his confident projection.
Arizona State sold $75 travel packages to students, which included a game ticket, bus transportation and hotel accommodations.
[80] The Sun Devils' uniform also included a black-and-white circular helmet sticker with the number 57 to honor Emerson Harvey, the school's first African American student athlete in 1937.
Tim Healey, Jeff Van Raaphorst, and Doug Franz provided play-by-play, analysis, and sideline coverage, respectively, for ASU.
[80] Television coverage began during Arizona State's first play from scrimmage, because a basketball game between the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and the UNLV Runnin' Rebels went beyond its allotted time slot.
On the following play, Reynolds was sacked by linebacker Carl Bradford, and punter Pablo Beltran came out and punted the ball to Arizona State's 40-yard line.
Navy brought in backup sophomore running back Geoffrey Whiteside, who picked up three yards and moved the Midshipmen into ASU territory for the first time.
The offense caught a break, however, when Arizona State received a fifteen-yard penalty for roughing the passer due to head contact with Reynolds.
The Midshipmen returned to the air following the timeout; after dodging an unblocked Arizona State defender, Reynolds completed a pass to receiver Matt Aiken in the end zone for a three-yard touchdown.
[95] Navy brought in kicker Colin Amerau for the kickoff; despite a deep kick, back to the ASU four-yard line, the Sun Devils started their next drive with the best field position of the half after Miles managed a 41-yard return.
As a result, Nick Sloan missed the thirty-four-yard field goal attempt on the following play, ad Navy turned the ball over to the Sun Devils for the second time.
Reynolds started out Navy's drive with two consecutive throws; the first was for a single yard to Brandon Turner while the second was an incompletion, which at least stopped the play clock.
Arizona State cornerback Robert Nelson, Jr. intercepted the pass at his own forty and tried to return it, but while avoiding Turner, he collided with a teammate and lost six yards.
Now at midfield, Kelley faked a hand-off to Marshall and threw the ball deep to a wide-open Ross, who outran a tackler and scored another ASU touchdown.
[89][97] The clock was started again, and the following play, Reynolds quickly pitched to Greene, who avoided several tacklers and ran down the sideline for a twenty-yard gain.
Using mostly second-string offensive players, the Sun Devils committed their only turnover of the day when quarterback Michael Eubank fumbled the ball when he was injured on a third-down play near midfield.
[101] The Sun Devils set 20 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl records, including most total yards gained and largest margin of victory.
[91] The team's overall success surprised ESPN.com Pac-12 analyst Ted Miller, who called his prediction that ASU finished 11th in their conference his "worst projection" of the spring.
