The 2010 San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl was a post-season

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

between the

San Diego State Aztecs The San Diego State Aztecs are the athletic teams that represent San Diego State University (SDSU). San Diego State currently sponsors six men's and eleven women's sports at the varsity level. The Aztecs compete in NCAA Division I ( FBS for foo ...

and the

Navy Midshipmen The Navy Midshipmen are the athletic teams that represent the United States Naval Academy. The academy sponsors 33 varsity sports teams and 12 club sport teams.Qualcomm Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium on the west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. The stadium opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium and was known as Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 to 2017, the stadiu ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. The sixth edition of the annual

Poinsettia Bowl The Poinsettia Bowl was a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played in San Diego, California, United States from 2005 to 2016. The game was originally played from 1952 to 1955 between military service ...

, which the Aztecs won 35–14, began at 5:00 PM PST and was broadcast on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Teams

Navy Midshipmen

The 2010 game marked Navy's third appearance in the Poinsettia Bowl. Previously, they had defeated the

Colorado State Rams The Colorado State Rams are the athletic teams that represent Colorado State University (CSU). Colorado State's athletic teams compete along with 8 other institutions in the Mountain West Conference, which is an NCAA Division I conference and sp ...

51–30 in the inaugural

2005 Poinsettia Bowl The 2005 San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the Colorado State Rams and the Navy Midshipmen on December 22, 2005 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California, United States. The game, ...

and lost 35–32 to the

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the Runnin' ...

in the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

game. At the end of the 2009 season, the Midshipmen upset the

Missouri Tigers The Missouri Tigers intercollegiate athletics programs represent the University of Missouri, located in Columbia. The name comes from a band of armed Union Home Guards called the Fighting Tigers of Columbia who, in 1864, protected Columbia fro ...

in the

Texas Bowl The Texas Bowl is an annual postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game first held in 2006 in Houston, Texas. Each edition of the bowl has been played at NRG Stadium, previously known as Reliant Stadium. The bowl replaced ...

with a score of 35–13. The 2010 game was the eighth straight bowl game appearance for the Midshipmen.

San Diego State Aztecs

This was San Diego State's first bowl appearance since the

1998 Las Vegas Bowl The 1998 Las Vegas Bowl was the seventh edition of the annual college football bowl game. It featured the San Diego State Aztecs, and the North Carolina Tar Heels. It remains the only bowl game in NCAA history where both of teams which participate ...

. Under second year head coach Brady Hoke the Aztecs posted an 8–4 regular season record. Although this is SDSU's first appearance in the Poinsettia bowl the game was the second time that the Aztecs played a bowl game at Qualcomm Stadium. They were defeated by

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

in the 1986 Holiday Bowl, 39–38. The Midshipmen and the Aztecs had previously played each other twice, in 1994 and 1997, with San Diego State winning both contests with scores of 56–14 and 45–31.

Pregame summary

Navy

Leading the Midshipmen were

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Ricky Dobbs Ricky Dobbs Jr. (born January 31, 1988) is a United States Navy officer, politician and former college football quarterback for the United States Naval Academy currently serving as the District 1 Douglas County, Georgia Commissioner. During the ...

, wide receiver Greg Jones, and

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

Tyler Simmons.

San Diego State

Statistical leaders for the Aztecs were

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

Ronnie Hillman Ronald Keith Ryan Hillman Jr. (September 14, 1991 – December 21, 2022) was an American professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the San Diego State Aztecs, earni ...

, quarterback

Ryan Lindley Ryan George Lindley (born June 22, 1989) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is currently the quarterbacks coach at San Diego State University. He played college football at San Diego State, and was drafted by the Arizona ...

, and wide receiver DeMarco Sampson.

Game Summary

Following seven straight days of rain in Southern California (often referred to as a

Pineapple Express Pineapple Express is a non-technical term for a meteorological phenomenon characterized by a strong and persistent large-scale flow of warm moist air, and the associated heavy precipitation both in the waters immediately northeast of the Hawaii ...

), the

San Diego River The San Diego River is a river in San Diego County, California. It originates in the Cuyamaca Mountains northwest of the town of Julian, then flows to the southwest until it reaches the El Capitan Reservoir, the largest reservoir in the river's ...

overflowed and the stadium and surrounding parking lot were flooded. Thanks to external pumps, the field was cleared the morning of the game.

Scoring summary

Final statistics

Hillman set a new bowl game record of 228 yards rushing, previously held by Navy's Adam Ballard since 2005.

References

Poinsettia Bowl Navy Midshipmen football bowl games San Diego State Aztecs football bowl games December 2010 sports events in the United States 2010 in sports in California 2010s in San Diego {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub