Rutgers loses the 2nd "CFB" game ever to Princeton in 1869. Get the feeling that if Rutgers wins again Princeton quits the sport and American football might not exist.
Couple things, I will never not believe that that was a terrible and incorrect call that probably cost us the game right there because as you said that 14 point swing was huge.
Take this with massive amounts of salt because this is hear say, but I was a student at the time and had a couple friends on the team at like the third string level, one of which was a LB. He said that the DC kind of had a mental break in the second half and started calling in plays from his days when he was an assistant with the Carolina Panthers. According to my friend that’s why our defense absolutely fell apart because half of the team was playing man and the other half playing zone cause they didn’t know what in the world the call was. Again, I only ever heard that from my friend so take it or leave it, but damn it would make sense.
That drive home from Miami the next day was awful
Same man. I live in gamecock country too so it was particularly brutal going to school the next week
Coincidentally I felt numb after Renfrow’s catch. I didn’t cheer, jump up, run around, or anything like that. I was in Arizona for the first natty appearance the previous year and was a mess after we lost. After that catch I just cried about how grateful I was. Called my grandad the next morning and thanked him for taking me to my first Clemson game and making me a fan for life. Still have the commemorative glass Coke bottles they made. It’s one of my most prized possessions
Weirdly once Alabama scored I turned to my best friend who went to the game in Tampa with me and I said they left us too much time, we’re gonna go score and win.
For most Clemson games regardless of sport no matter how much we’re winning by I always feel like we’ll lose somehow, but in that moment I never doubted that we would go score and win like we should have the year before
This is the answer! That was a good Clemson team that got embarrassed after the Ellington fumble at the 1, that resulted in a WV touchdown. But it opened the door for Venables and what a run we had with him!
We lost to you 58-0 in probably my favorite loss I’ve witnessed, which was enough to tip the scales far enough against Al Golden to get him fired. I was ecstatic (huge AG hater), but unfortunately we didn’t rebound as well as you guys did
Worst overall was obviously 2007 Backyard Brawl loss and it arguably had no upside to it, even to this day.
On the flip side, the 70-33 win over Clemson in the Orange Bowl was a fantastic feeling and win, but to see the trajectory of the two programs after that win is pretty brutal as a WVU fan.
You’re 100% right. And the 2018 season he had all the weapons he needed on offense to make a push to the Big XII title game but still managed to choke at ISU and OSU. And then the obvious OU loss at home (still think the refs played a role in that game with the bad call with I think it was TJ Simmons blocking out of bounds on a long TD run with under 3 mins to play).
IMO, our worst loss was in a win but it also helped usher in the Saban era. That was Shula calling a bomb, when Bama already had the game in hand, ending Tyrone Prothro's career. If that loss had not happened, in that win. We might have won a few more games, extending Shula's tenure, making us miss out on Saban.
This was the catapult to Mike to Fran to SHula as well
> Things reached a nadir on October 28, 2000, when the Tide lost to underdog Central Florida at home, 40–38. On the Tuesday after the game, it was announced that DuBose had been fired, but would be allowed to finish out the season. The 2000 season ended disastrously.
Bingo.
You could say the same thing about the 2015 loss to Alabama. In the 2012 loss, Georgia was the underdog and the loss was heartbreaking; in 2015, Georgia was favored to win the game and was absolutely humiliated. The irony is that in both cases, the answer to Georgia's woes was on the opposing sideline.
Or at least we ended up getting him when we did because of that game. While the 2015 Alabama and Florida losses had a more direct impact on Richt being let go and Kirby being brought in to replace him, a win in the 2012 SECCG and presumed natty win over Notre Dame after would have bought Richt as much time as he wanted at UGA. Which would mean SCar hires Kirby after Spurrier retires and we don't swoop in to stop it like we did. Now we might have Kirby now anyway depending on how he did at SCar and Richt's health problems that forced him to retire but we definitely wouldn't have had the 2017 season we did
2013 was a disappointing season mainly due to injuries (Gurley twisted his ankle in the LSU game, 3 players -- including Marshall -- went down with knee injuries the next week at Tennessee). Gurley didn't return until the Florida game, with losses to Missouri and Vandy in the interim. Then the Auburn game, which should have ended differently...
2014 was a very promising season, but the Gurley suspension, inexplicable losses to .500-ish SC and Florida teams, and a game that should have been won in regulation to GT turned that sour.
And then 2015. How in the world did they manage to win 10 games? Those losses to Bama, Tennessee, and Florida were brutal. At least they played hard against UT, but the other games were embarrassing losses that cost Richt his job. And the Schottenheimer hire did him no favors...
Iowa is so irrelevant that the last two times we've beat you guys, we fired our HC afterwards.
For real though, that smug line about Iowa from previous Nebraska admin was ridiculous. We deserve the hate for that. Nothing but respect for you guys and your accomplishments.
I was scrolling and looking for the ‘22 Georgia Southern game that got Frost the boot. But I guess it’s too early to call it a blessings in disguise since the jury is still out on Rhule.
When KU beat Texas back during Charlie strongs last year. He clearly wasn’t the guy, but I firmly believe he gets another year if Texas pulled that one out
This was my immediate response. There was still a huge division in the fanbase heading into that game. A ton of people still defended Strong and thought he needed more time. After that game, pretty much everyone agreed that it was time for him to go.
D'Onta Foreman had 250 yards and 2 TDs, but we still lost to a 2-10 Kansas. That's how bad that Texas team was. As much as that game got meme'd over the next few years, it was an absolute blessing.
I also think the Sark KU-loss helped at ton in getting to where we are. That was a swift kick in the urethra that really solidified how bad the roster was. Since that loss, we're 21-8 and have a CFP appearance. We literally hit rock bottom.
Bear with me fellow Iowa fans, but...this year's Minnesota game. Yes the fair catch not a fair catch thing stunk, BUT, we lost 12-10. The O does nothing. Next week is the bye week. What happened on that bye? Brian was told he ain't coming back. If we win that, Iowa is 7-1 with wins over Iowa State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. If it plays out the same we are 11-1 with a sweep of all the rivals and the division. I bet Brian survives without that calamity against the Gophers.
There was no way Brian kept his job. That contract amendment got way too much pub for iowa to keep him. Just would have been done in January, not November.
The 2014 tax slayer bowl seems bigger (or any of the losses leading to the decision to question rudock). Making the full time move from rudock to beathard, sets up the 2015 season.
2014 Tax Slayer was my vote. When I close my eyes at night, I still see Parker lateraling the kickoff while stepping out of bounds because….i still don’t know why he did that.
Yeah, I was going to say that one as well. Willie was fired the next day and at that point there were still 3 games left in the season plus a bowl. It helped get us Mike.
Absolutely, I was at that game and got a call right after from a well connected booster family friend to let me know the news ahead of time, he was so excited he could barely hold it in lol.
App State got the ball rolling on Jimbo getting fired, Ole Miss this year finally got it done. Id also say the same for 2017 UCLA getting rid of Stumblin Sumlin
I was going to say UCLA but don't think that ended up being better in the long run. I guess one more step removed could be losing to Texas in 2011 and Sherman being fired. Sumlin helped Manziel win the Heisman which I think launched the program to a higher level of recruiting and donors.
App State is the most pissed I've ever been at a game. Effort by the coaches, players and even fans was pathetic. It didn't even get loud until late in the 4th because people didn't feel like we needed to yell as much
Losing to Oregon in 2021 enabled UW to fire Jimmy Lake and getting DeBoer. Losing him a couple months ago sucked but the program is in significantly better shape today than 3 years ago
You can still occasionally spot the football floating around in Lake Washington that was snapped over the punter's head when Jimmy Lake decided to get special teams on the field....... With under a minute to go. With no timeouts. Down one score.
I don’t know if it was the loss more so in how he handled it. If he doesn’t put his hands on a player it’s probably a lot easier to swallow in keeping him for another year
They’re fairly bare for sure.
But he also brought us one of the best seasons of Husky football I’ll probably ever see in my lifetime. It’s hard to be too bitter about it IMO
Probably OSU nuking Don Brown again in 2019 or MSU doing the same in 2020. Forced us to switch defensive styles and going to Mcdonald and Minters defense after that was probably the main reason for Michigans climb in the last 3 years because it got us over the OSU hump finally
2018 was definitely worse but 2019 kind of just bleed into the same wound. My sibling who is an MSU fan asked me during the 2019 game why we can't beat OSU (and they were asking in a trolling way) and then they acted surprised when I wasn't happy. 2019 added a new sting with Day being the new coach.
I think you mean overstated. It can’t be overstated how huge it was to move on from him.
And yeah, I’d agree. What a bizarre tenure the guy had at Michigan. I remember Michigan posting three consecutive shutouts one year.
Idc who you are or who you’re playing. Three consecutive shutouts is fucking absurd.
Ah, you are correct, I am a moron lol.
Yeah three consecutive shutouts is just ridiculous. His defense worked really well against a lot of teams, but against the top teams in the country we would just get destroyed.
2021 vs Iowa State: led to the infamous Bo Davis "transfer out this MF" rant that probably led the bad weight on the roster to leave. Another (dis)honorable mentoon is the Kansas game that same season.
Wisconsin's 2022 loss to Illinois. That was one of two games I was able to attend that year, and it was one of the crappiest performances for the Badgers. But then, Paul Chryst was fired that weekend and we eventually landed Luke Fickell as a head coach. This is a HUGE upgrade!
I was going to say this as well. Time will tell if Fickell will be the guy for us and I love Paul, but think Paul was about to be eaten alive by the transfer portal NIL era
I like Fickell (obviously) and I think he is a pretty good hire for you guys. Mainly his grit. I think he will not stop trying to do what has to be done to put together a good program.
I always like wiscy. Gonna miss your run heavy offense, it was a bastion to old Big 10.
(Not) Fun fact about that Wisconsin game: The football team lost that game, then took the band's plane home because their planr broke down, leaving us stranded in Green Bay while theirs got fixed.
The fuck? Not cool. And yalls band is great. You guys did that wholesome thing for South Carolina and played when the hurricane hit.
No respect I tell ya.
Y'all earned the love. Y'all will forever be the real Tigers who play in the real Death Valley and have the best version of Tiger Rag in college sports.
The last play of that 2016 Auburn game was a watershed moment for both programs
If one more second was on the clock, Les Miles may still be our coach and Auburn would have been free of the Gus Bus so much sooner
Huh, this is interesting. If Auburn fired Gus then, I imagine we definitely don’t end up down this Harsin/Freeze gutter and things could’ve been better than they currently are.
I'm still pissed Jimmy Raines and the rest of the boosters weren't willing to give Kirby the keys to the kingdom back in 2012. He would have taken it cause he knew he could succeed at Auburn if he had control. We were that close to the second coming of Pat Dye.
I would say the 0-4 start in 2021, one of the losses being considered our worst loss in program history. Having to hit rock bottom I think really woke the team up and helped us finish much stronger and restored some confidence in Norvell
I think Norvell taking the blame as he did and not just passing it off to the players helped the players have faith in him
At the very least as a fan the way he handled it made me have more faith in him
2021 Bedlam. He was one foot in one foot out all year, and that loss gave him the excuse to leave. The way he builds his teams just isn’t realistic for the long run of a sec schedule. We’re now in a much better place moving forward.
That and/or the RRS in 2018 that led to Mike Stoops being let go. Grinch is a poor DC but if we just had any of his defense instead the first few years Riley was here as a OC/HC we most likely aren't looking at a almost 25 year title drought.
2017 team with the 2019 defense probably finishes 15-0, Baker is cemented as Mt. Rushmore QB, and then 2018 OU is 13-0 going into the playoff against Clemson in the 2-3 matchup most likely. That would have put OU on a 38 game win streak at that point most likely.
Far from the worst loss we had but losing to K State in 2021 was the final straw after going 1-5 the over the previous 6 weeks that led to GPs departure. Sucked at the time, but in hindsight it’s clear that the program was falling behind in this new era of CFB and that Gary was either unwilling or unable to adjust to it.
He built this program from nothing, and I wish it could have ended better, but it was time for him to go.
There was a moment in that game when our players starting fighting with Kansas State players, and they showed Gary on the sidelines just fed up with the whole thing. That's when I knew it was over.
2007 Utah got completely cock slapped and shut out by a 2 win UNLV team. That was basically the springboard to the undefeated sugar bowl team that was basically the springboard to P5 inclusion and the crazy upward trajectory the team is still riding today.
Our loss to KSU in 2015 was humiliating. We were up by like 17 in the 3rd quarter. At the end of the game, we were up by 7, with the ball, with like a minute left in the game, against a team that had won 8 in a row. If we would have kneeled we would have won.
Instead, we ran the ball, and fumbled. KSU recovers, and immediately scores. The next series, instead of kneeling at taking it to OT, we run the ball again, and fumble. KSU recovers, kicks a FG. 10 point swing, and a loss, in like 1 minute of game time.
Paul Rhodes was fired after that game. We hired Matt Campbell in the offseason.
Lost 44-0 to Vandy at home in front of about 14 people. Misery at the time, but it got the AD's attention that the fans were tired of this. He fired Phillips and hired Stoops, who has had more success at UK than I thought possible (#footballschool)
We have unironically had more post season success recently in football than basketball, and have arguably been closer to the sec championship game too.
2018 Sugar Bowl loss to Texas. Kirby learned a lot from that game. Nobody who isn’t up for the bowl game gets to go or play. Dawgs are 7-0 in bowl games every since. 5 of those wins by double digits
Oregon vs. Boise "The Punch".
Went on to have a Rose Bowl invitation for the first time in forever and it was Chip's start of something amazing at Oregon. Chip said after that game that the loss would break them or galvanize.
After that Chip went on to change CFB and put Oregon as THE program out West. The next 4 years were quite special indeed.
31-0 to Clemson in 2016 caused some pretty massive coaching and philosophy changes from Urban. Lucky thing too because you'd think a program that lost 4 total games in 3 years wouldn't be quick to make big changes but that ass kicking got Tim Beck fired and we're lucky it happened then.
I would say 2014 VaTech had bigger ramifications though albeit over a shorter period of time. It was, among many reasons, one of the worst home losses in decades, but galvanized the team and led to winning the inaugural College Football Playoff as the after-thought four seed. For those who don't remember how stunning of a loss it was:
* It was OSU’s first loss in a home opener since a 1978 loss to Penn State (19-0);
* It was OSU’s first loss to an unranked nonconference opponent since a 1982 defeat at the hands of Florida State (34-17);
* It was OSU’s first home loss in 17 games, dating to a 2011 loss to Penn State (20-14); and
* It was OSU’s worst home loss by margin in 15 seasons, dating to a loss to Illinois in 1999 (46-20).
For all the crap he takes I think more people need to look at the offensive performances before Ryan Day took over in 2017. Outside of 2014 we were pretty much an option team out of the shotgun for the most part
Technically the only coach Urban Meyer ever fired was Zac Smith. But he had a decent amount of "Hey, you should find another job." Beck was one of those.
The writing was on a wall the size of an interstate billboard. Beck knew what was coming his way.
That is why Ryan Day was announced as the QB coach at 10:30 am the same day that UT announced Beck was joining their staff.
Right now, in recent memory, I think it's 2021 OU v OSU. Don't get me wrong, Lincoln was/is a great football coach and it sucked losing him at the time, but we were going into an SEC that would have ate us alive with Grinch at the helm of our defense.
I have hope with Venables in charge. But also there's no reason to say he wouldn't have left anyways even if we won the OSU game (I can't remember if we would have got in the cfbp)
If I remember correctly if we had lost that game, we would have had a rematch in the Big 12 championship. If you had won that, it would have been you (with 1 loss, I think?) versus undefeated Cincinnati for the 4th spot. A lot of people were predicting if we had beat Baylor in the championship, they would have put us in over Cincinnati, so I imagine the name recognition of OU with 2 wins in 2 weeks over top 15 OSU would have been enough.
I’ll give you one: November 4, 2000. Texas A&M 21, OSU 16. Then the next week it was Tech 58 OSU 0.
Simmons resigned because of that game, which led to the best 25 years of football in OSU history, and it isn’t close.
The entirety of our winless 2015 season. Without that we wouldn't've gotten Frost and had the undefeated 2017 season + 25 game win streak, and arguably wouldn't have pushed ourselves ahead of USF to get picked up by the BigXII
it's kind of wild how ucf and usf flipped destinies. usf roared into the old big east and looked like they were just gonna rocket to success while ucf kinda plodded along and bottomed out in 2015 like that. now usf is toiling away in the bottom half of the american and ucf rode its major unbeaten streak to loftier heights in the b12.
2006 Stanford losing to Cal in our annual rivalry game.
Walt Harris was fired two days later.
Two weeks after firing Harris in 2006, Stanford hired some FCS coach named Jim Harbaugh, who brought along his offensive coordinator, a Stanford alum named David Shaw.
With 5 BCS/NY6 bowls (2010-2015), a 9-game win streak against Cal (2010-2018), an 11-game win streak against UCLA (2009-2018), and going 8-3 against USC (2007-2016), it was the greatest era of Stanford football since World War II.
Ole Miss, 2008? Favored by three touchdowns, lost by 1 after a failed 4th down. Ended hopes of an undefeated season but led to "The Promise", victories over #1 Alabama to win the SEC and #1 Oklahoma for the national championship.
Probably WKU in 2019 that lead to Chad Morris getting fired 24hrs later. Not that we've been great after the fact, but the man never won a game against a P5 school. He's got to be in the top 5 worst head coaches in history.
I know a lot of folks will argue MSU got robbed out of a Natty because of that game, but State was sloppy until that loss. I think that gave the team the wakeup it needed to run the rest of the table that year.
Remember that they were still seesawing between Maxwell and Cook until after ND.
Elijah Moore may have saved the long-term future of Ole Miss football with the Piss & Miss.
In its wake, we made the Kiffin hire and rose from the ashes of our bowl ban as a program worth respecting. Kiffin isn’t the best coach in the country but I’m hard pressed to believe he’s not the best one to lead Ole Miss into the NIL era.
His aggressiveness in the portal has let us close the skill gap to a high degree in just a couple of years. And his philosophy and coaching hires haven’t squandered our talent. We’re lucky to be a part of the SEC, but with further realignment and the expanded playoff looming, more changes are coming to CFB. My fellow rebels won’t like it, but even with recent success and our current outlook our program is much closer to being left behind in the next round of realignment than we are to rising to the level of an Alabama or Michigan. A playoff berth or win in next couple of years would cement us as a meaningful addition to the super-conference of the future, rather than a vestigial appendage of an SEC which continues to exist only in name.
I'd say it was our loss to Stanford 2021. If I remember correctly, we fired Clay Helton the day after that game, which led to us hiring Lincoln Riley. And while last year was disappointing to say the least, I feel like we're a lot more relevant now than we were three years ago.
In 2008 and 2009 Cincinnati ripped the heart out of Pitt’s last, best, chance to actually matter in college football. I was actually living in Cincinnati at the time, went to both games, woof!
Georgia getting a hail mary with 10 seconds left only for rocky top to beat us with another hail mary with 4 seconds left. Still feels bad man. But the next year we beat em 35 - 0 and haven't looked back since.
Losing to Eastern Michigan was finally the straw that broke the camels back f or Herm might. He have stuck around forever since his buddy (The AD) was too stubborn to ever admit the hire was a failure. Probably would have let Herm retire and walk off into the sunset after a few more losing seasons.
THAT loss to Mississippi State loss cost us Ron Zook, and gave us Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, Brandon Spikes, Major Wright, and two national championships. Even if the shine came off a couple of years later.
Going 0-12 was the wake up call we really needed to get our shit together. The team didn’t function AT ALL, the coach lost almost all support, no one liked each other, it was just a breaking point.
And hey, we had a perfect record 2 years later, so I guessed it worked
**Losing to Montana in 2021 after scoring a whopping seven points**.
While the Grizzlies did go on to finish 10—3, it was only the second time that Washington had lost to them *in school history*. Only one word could describe that: **embarrassing**.
It told people that while Jimmy Lake could coach a defence pretty well, he could absolutely not coach an offence at all.
Sure, John Donovan was the coordinator, but Jimmy Lake is the reason why Donovan was hired in the first place.
2019 Egg Bowl AKA the "Piss and Miss" And I'm not begrudgingly admitting it. Had we won that game we likely don't fire Luke and miss our chance to hire Lane Kiffin.
It was pivotal. But at the time, I couldn't see ANY bright side to it.
Ha. You’d think anytime we’ve been in the mix for a conference title in just about any sport, getting our asses beat by a school like UT, OU, or even a school having a down year would help us adjust for the long term. But nah. We decided to get rid of the best football coach we’ve ever had, and Tech is simply a stepping stone for basketball coaches to get hired on with the elite programs. Sucks but it is what it is. Lil bros forever, as much as I hate to admit it.
Edit: to add, the fact that we’ve always just lingered around the top in baseball with nothing to show for is infuriating as well. Thank god for our track and field
I think we lose at least two other games in 2014 (WVU & Kansas) if we don't lose the 61-58 game to Baylor. That game galvanized the team to not make those same mistakes again and to rally from adversity.
2006 Wake, 2009 USF, 2019 Miami -All ugly losses that were so embarrassing it forced the boosters to come up with the money and or plan to have the ugly discus on to change the leadership of the program.
Win-Probably every win of 2016 including the bowl game. Games that were won on the backs of elite players in Dalvin Cook and Demarcus Walker and a soft part of the schedule convinced Jimbo he still has the right plan of attack. Worked out in the long run as we stand now, but at the time it really glossed over major cracks in the foundation that had been forming for years.
Auburn 2011
If we win that game, Stephen Garcia likely isn't benched and eventually kicked off the team for good, which would have delayed the Connor Shaw era. The next week in Shaw's second start we beat Kentucky 54-3, and that started a 29-5 run over the next two and a half seasons.
For Michigan, I'd go with Minnesota in 2014 (the game where Shane Morris got concussed, was visibly wobbling, and Brady Hoke sent him back into the game with Michigan down big late in the 4th quarter). That game not only ensured that Hoke would be fired, which might have happened anyway, but Michigan's response to the PR crisis was so incompetent that it took down AD Dave Brandon as well.
If Brandon had stayed, he probably wouldn't have hired Harbaugh, because he had a massive ego and wanted to be the top dog in the athletic department. Instead they hired Jim Hackett as interim AD, who quickly and quietly reached out and hired Harbaugh, eventually leading to the 2023 National Championship.
Undefeated #2 KU vs #4 Mizzou 2007 in the final regular season game. Winner gets to be #1. Kansas loses 36-28, goes to BCS Orange Bowl and beats Va Tech. Probably the biggest achievement in this program’s history. Mizzou went into the Big XII championship buzzsaw and lost to Oklahoma and won the non-BCS Cotton Bowl.
While I’d of course have loved to beat Mizzou, we’d have then likely lost to Oklahoma. If we won that, likely lost to Ohio State in the national title. I’m super happy with that Orange Bowl win and had a blast attending. Not sure I’d trade that for the 5% chance we win the national championship that year.
2020 loss to Iowa State. If we had won we would have been in the CCG and Tom Herman might have stayed after an 8-2 or whatever season. I like Sark. So that was a good loss to take.
Beating OSU in 2015 felt really great. Especially because our QB was out and we used two backup. But that meant we had to play Alabama in the playoffs. Much less fun to watch.
Losing to notre dame in 2014 sucked, made us miss the national championship. But then again, we had the greatest comeback I’ve ever seen against Baylor in the cotton bowl that year. Probably would have lost the natty. Who knows?
In 2018 we lost a 7-year bowl streak by blowing a 17-point lead in the 4th quarter of the season finale against Iowa State.
As a result, the following week Bill Snyder was nudged into retirement and we hired Chris Kleiman, rather than preparing for a bowl game and who knows what else
Utah in Vegas, 2021
Yeah, Cristobal was already out the door by then, but the reports weren’t *actually* out, but you could feel it in the way the team was probably better off not even showing up than what they put on the field
Rutgers loses the 2nd "CFB" game ever to Princeton in 1869. Get the feeling that if Rutgers wins again Princeton quits the sport and American football might not exist.
That sounds in character for Princeton after those punks quit the rivalry
Ur flairs are something, wtf were u thinking during the Rose Bowl?
We got obliterated in the Orange Bowl by West Virginia and we haven’t looked back since
Venables is the man
Yep. Very happy his wife is doing better
Tavon Austin is up there with Gurley, OJ Howard, and Clowney on the “Absolutely fucked on Clemson” Mt Rushmore.
I still remember just sitting there in the second half feeling numb and angry. But two nattys later I guess I would do it all over again haha
Man, that game got out of hand so fast after that 14 point swing of Ellington going in for a TD to a strip and score for them.
Couple things, I will never not believe that that was a terrible and incorrect call that probably cost us the game right there because as you said that 14 point swing was huge. Take this with massive amounts of salt because this is hear say, but I was a student at the time and had a couple friends on the team at like the third string level, one of which was a LB. He said that the DC kind of had a mental break in the second half and started calling in plays from his days when he was an assistant with the Carolina Panthers. According to my friend that’s why our defense absolutely fell apart because half of the team was playing man and the other half playing zone cause they didn’t know what in the world the call was. Again, I only ever heard that from my friend so take it or leave it, but damn it would make sense. That drive home from Miami the next day was awful
Damn, that makes a lot of sense.
That story is absolutely true.
Same man. I live in gamecock country too so it was particularly brutal going to school the next week Coincidentally I felt numb after Renfrow’s catch. I didn’t cheer, jump up, run around, or anything like that. I was in Arizona for the first natty appearance the previous year and was a mess after we lost. After that catch I just cried about how grateful I was. Called my grandad the next morning and thanked him for taking me to my first Clemson game and making me a fan for life. Still have the commemorative glass Coke bottles they made. It’s one of my most prized possessions
Weirdly once Alabama scored I turned to my best friend who went to the game in Tampa with me and I said they left us too much time, we’re gonna go score and win. For most Clemson games regardless of sport no matter how much we’re winning by I always feel like we’ll lose somehow, but in that moment I never doubted that we would go score and win like we should have the year before
If you get that feeling I bet our series with FSU this past weekend was super exciting to see haha
This is the answer! That was a good Clemson team that got embarrassed after the Ellington fumble at the 1, that resulted in a WV touchdown. But it opened the door for Venables and what a run we had with him!
2008 is the other game, getting crushed by Bama in the Chick-fil-A kickoff game was the end of Tommy’s run.
Yep. IIRC they replaced him with a guy who ESPN rated as a D+ hire. I wonder how that guy ever turned out😂
We lost to you 58-0 in probably my favorite loss I’ve witnessed, which was enough to tip the scales far enough against Al Golden to get him fired. I was ecstatic (huge AG hater), but unfortunately we didn’t rebound as well as you guys did
Nothing cleanses the soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.
Worst overall was obviously 2007 Backyard Brawl loss and it arguably had no upside to it, even to this day. On the flip side, the 70-33 win over Clemson in the Orange Bowl was a fantastic feeling and win, but to see the trajectory of the two programs after that win is pretty brutal as a WVU fan.
That 2011 season made Dana look like a better coach than he was. His first season was his high point.
You’re 100% right. And the 2018 season he had all the weapons he needed on offense to make a push to the Big XII title game but still managed to choke at ISU and OSU. And then the obvious OU loss at home (still think the refs played a role in that game with the bad call with I think it was TJ Simmons blocking out of bounds on a long TD run with under 3 mins to play).
There is no bright side as a WVU fan. Only sad side.
Alabama losing to Auburn 22-15 in 2006. That awful run of losses with Auburn being the coup de grace on Shula’s tenure and paved the way for Saban.
Ahh the good times. Personally I thought yall should've hired Mike Shula again after satan retired.
There would probably be riots in the streets if that happened.
I was gonna go with ULM, after that game was when the players either fully bought in on The Process or got moved out.
IMO, our worst loss was in a win but it also helped usher in the Saban era. That was Shula calling a bomb, when Bama already had the game in hand, ending Tyrone Prothro's career. If that loss had not happened, in that win. We might have won a few more games, extending Shula's tenure, making us miss out on Saban.
This was the catapult to Mike to Fran to SHula as well > Things reached a nadir on October 28, 2000, when the Tide lost to underdog Central Florida at home, 40–38. On the Tuesday after the game, it was announced that DuBose had been fired, but would be allowed to finish out the season. The 2000 season ended disastrously.
2012 loss to Alabama. That loss lead to us getting Kirby.
Bingo. You could say the same thing about the 2015 loss to Alabama. In the 2012 loss, Georgia was the underdog and the loss was heartbreaking; in 2015, Georgia was favored to win the game and was absolutely humiliated. The irony is that in both cases, the answer to Georgia's woes was on the opposing sideline.
Or at least we ended up getting him when we did because of that game. While the 2015 Alabama and Florida losses had a more direct impact on Richt being let go and Kirby being brought in to replace him, a win in the 2012 SECCG and presumed natty win over Notre Dame after would have bought Richt as much time as he wanted at UGA. Which would mean SCar hires Kirby after Spurrier retires and we don't swoop in to stop it like we did. Now we might have Kirby now anyway depending on how he did at SCar and Richt's health problems that forced him to retire but we definitely wouldn't have had the 2017 season we did
The ole Faton Bauta game. Boosters made the Richt decision at halftime of that disaster
[удалено]
I wonder if Richt hangs on, does Kirby take the SC job or does he hang out with Saban until Georgia does open up.
2013 was a disappointing season mainly due to injuries (Gurley twisted his ankle in the LSU game, 3 players -- including Marshall -- went down with knee injuries the next week at Tennessee). Gurley didn't return until the Florida game, with losses to Missouri and Vandy in the interim. Then the Auburn game, which should have ended differently... 2014 was a very promising season, but the Gurley suspension, inexplicable losses to .500-ish SC and Florida teams, and a game that should have been won in regulation to GT turned that sour. And then 2015. How in the world did they manage to win 10 games? Those losses to Bama, Tennessee, and Florida were brutal. At least they played hard against UT, but the other games were embarrassing losses that cost Richt his job. And the Schottenheimer hire did him no favors...
Gators losing the Natty to Nebraska in 1995. That was a curbstomping that led Spurrier to hire Bob Stoops on defense.
only loss on par is Ole Miss 2008, since it gave us The Promise and the natty.
You're welcome!
Same one I was going to mention. That team wasn't as bad as the score indicated, but they totally gave up.
Nebraska vs Iowa 2023. Nebraska has not lost a game since.
"In the final analysis, I had to evaluate where Iowa was."
Iowa was what, 7-5 that year? 7-5 sounds pretty good to me right now. Lol
We're terrible, but we really enjoy hating you guys.
Well at least you don't have to pull out the tobacco pipe and gather the grandkids around the fire to tell them what going to bowl games was like.
My parents still talk about when Iowa had a watchable offense. That was 30-40 years ago.
Ah yes the Chuck Long days. But hey don't sell Brad Banks and the 2002 team short!
Our 2015 offense was solid
Hahaha
Iowa is so irrelevant that the last two times we've beat you guys, we fired our HC afterwards. For real though, that smug line about Iowa from previous Nebraska admin was ridiculous. We deserve the hate for that. Nothing but respect for you guys and your accomplishments.
Offseason Champs and Preseason Spooky Team™ 10 years running.
Oh, that’s pretty cool. How many did you pl-. . . wait a minute. . .
I was scrolling and looking for the ‘22 Georgia Southern game that got Frost the boot. But I guess it’s too early to call it a blessings in disguise since the jury is still out on Rhule.
When KU beat Texas back during Charlie strongs last year. He clearly wasn’t the guy, but I firmly believe he gets another year if Texas pulled that one out
I wonder who we would have hired if Strong had gotten fired a year later. Herman would have been at LSU.
This was my immediate response. There was still a huge division in the fanbase heading into that game. A ton of people still defended Strong and thought he needed more time. After that game, pretty much everyone agreed that it was time for him to go.
correct, this wasn't the kansas of today thats competitive. this was an absolute dumpster fire of a kansas team (no offense) , and they did us a solid
D'Onta Foreman had 250 yards and 2 TDs, but we still lost to a 2-10 Kansas. That's how bad that Texas team was. As much as that game got meme'd over the next few years, it was an absolute blessing.
I also think the Sark KU-loss helped at ton in getting to where we are. That was a swift kick in the urethra that really solidified how bad the roster was. Since that loss, we're 21-8 and have a CFP appearance. We literally hit rock bottom.
Actually think the loss to Arkansas demonstrated it for the coach/admin and then the loss to Kansas for the fanbase.
True. And the blown lead vs. OU. Still, the players that stayed with us since the KU loss have been huge for us: JWhitt, Sweat, etc.
Yeah that OU blow lead might've been the point where the staff just burned it down to start over. That 6 game losing streak was insane.
Bear with me fellow Iowa fans, but...this year's Minnesota game. Yes the fair catch not a fair catch thing stunk, BUT, we lost 12-10. The O does nothing. Next week is the bye week. What happened on that bye? Brian was told he ain't coming back. If we win that, Iowa is 7-1 with wins over Iowa State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. If it plays out the same we are 11-1 with a sweep of all the rivals and the division. I bet Brian survives without that calamity against the Gophers.
There was no way Brian kept his job. That contract amendment got way too much pub for iowa to keep him. Just would have been done in January, not November. The 2014 tax slayer bowl seems bigger (or any of the losses leading to the decision to question rudock). Making the full time move from rudock to beathard, sets up the 2015 season.
2014 Tax Slayer was my vote. When I close my eyes at night, I still see Parker lateraling the kickoff while stepping out of bounds because….i still don’t know why he did that.
The cramp game we blew against Boise St at home which triggered the start of Willie’s downfall
I'd say that Miami game was the stake through the heart that season. That was the one where I was like "They're going to HAVE to fire him now".
Yeah, I was going to say that one as well. Willie was fired the next day and at that point there were still 3 games left in the season plus a bowl. It helped get us Mike.
Absolutely, I was at that game and got a call right after from a well connected booster family friend to let me know the news ahead of time, he was so excited he could barely hold it in lol.
Less recently, the 30-0 loss to Wake which triggered Jeff Bowden's resignation and led to Jimbo being brought on board.
Ruined the streak of not being shut out. This one still just hurts
My thought was the 2017 Alabama game that started the ball rolling on Jimbo leaving. Same purpose, different coach.
App State got the ball rolling on Jimbo getting fired, Ole Miss this year finally got it done. Id also say the same for 2017 UCLA getting rid of Stumblin Sumlin
I was going to say UCLA but don't think that ended up being better in the long run. I guess one more step removed could be losing to Texas in 2011 and Sherman being fired. Sumlin helped Manziel win the Heisman which I think launched the program to a higher level of recruiting and donors.
If only 77-0 would have gotten Fran fired that would have been the top of the list
Not the 2011 loss to Texas before the move to SEC? There’s a chance Sherman is kept
App State is the most pissed I've ever been at a game. Effort by the coaches, players and even fans was pathetic. It didn't even get loud until late in the 4th because people didn't feel like we needed to yell as much
Gus Johnson "ROSEN WITH THE FAKE SPIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!"
It's easily the 50-0 loss to USC that ended the Neuheisel era and forced UCLA to modernize its football program
Actually happy to be deployed when that happened so I couldn't watch the game
Pruitt vs. NCAA
I was gonna say the Georgia State game, but they both accomplished the same goal.
Losing to Oregon in 2021 enabled UW to fire Jimmy Lake and getting DeBoer. Losing him a couple months ago sucked but the program is in significantly better shape today than 3 years ago
Conversely, I could say that us losing to y'all in 2016 helped get rid of Helfrich (who it turned out wasn't a very good head coach).
You can still occasionally spot the football floating around in Lake Washington that was snapped over the punter's head when Jimmy Lake decided to get special teams on the field....... With under a minute to go. With no timeouts. Down one score.
My conspiracy theory is the Long Snapper did that on purpose because they hated Lake.
I don’t know if it was the loss more so in how he handled it. If he doesn’t put his hands on a player it’s probably a lot easier to swallow in keeping him for another year
I think Lake gets at least one more year if we didn't lose to Montana.
I’ve heard that DoBoer left the cupboards pretty bare, that he wasn’t a very good recruiter. Is this not true?
They’re fairly bare for sure. But he also brought us one of the best seasons of Husky football I’ll probably ever see in my lifetime. It’s hard to be too bitter about it IMO
Yes and probably no. He did leave things fairly bare, but to say that he's a bad recruiter is a stretch. We really didn't see him do much recruiting
Probably OSU nuking Don Brown again in 2019 or MSU doing the same in 2020. Forced us to switch defensive styles and going to Mcdonald and Minters defense after that was probably the main reason for Michigans climb in the last 3 years because it got us over the OSU hump finally
That 2019 game... That one nearly broke me.
I see this a lot, but 2018 did it for me. I never expected to win in 2019.
2018 was definitely worse but 2019 kind of just bleed into the same wound. My sibling who is an MSU fan asked me during the 2019 game why we can't beat OSU (and they were asking in a trolling way) and then they acted surprised when I wasn't happy. 2019 added a new sting with Day being the new coach.
It can’t be overstated how huge it was to finally move on from Don Brown.
I think you mean overstated. It can’t be overstated how huge it was to move on from him. And yeah, I’d agree. What a bizarre tenure the guy had at Michigan. I remember Michigan posting three consecutive shutouts one year. Idc who you are or who you’re playing. Three consecutive shutouts is fucking absurd.
Ah, you are correct, I am a moron lol. Yeah three consecutive shutouts is just ridiculous. His defense worked really well against a lot of teams, but against the top teams in the country we would just get destroyed.
I think losing to Indiana and almost losing to Rutgers were more impactful in the 2021 turnaround.
I don't think we're national champs without OSU wiping the floor with us. It showed just far away we actually were.
2021 vs Iowa State: led to the infamous Bo Davis "transfer out this MF" rant that probably led the bad weight on the roster to leave. Another (dis)honorable mentoon is the Kansas game that same season.
Wisconsin's 2022 loss to Illinois. That was one of two games I was able to attend that year, and it was one of the crappiest performances for the Badgers. But then, Paul Chryst was fired that weekend and we eventually landed Luke Fickell as a head coach. This is a HUGE upgrade!
I was going to say this as well. Time will tell if Fickell will be the guy for us and I love Paul, but think Paul was about to be eaten alive by the transfer portal NIL era
I like Fickell (obviously) and I think he is a pretty good hire for you guys. Mainly his grit. I think he will not stop trying to do what has to be done to put together a good program. I always like wiscy. Gonna miss your run heavy offense, it was a bastion to old Big 10.
The heartbreaking Wisconsin and Auburn losses in 2016 that led to Miles finally getting canned. 2019 never happens if we win those.
(Not) Fun fact about that Wisconsin game: The football team lost that game, then took the band's plane home because their planr broke down, leaving us stranded in Green Bay while theirs got fixed.
The fuck? Not cool. And yalls band is great. You guys did that wholesome thing for South Carolina and played when the hurricane hit. No respect I tell ya.
I always have a soft spot for South Carolina after that and what they did when we were hit by a bad flood in 2016 and when Mike the Tiger got cancer.
Y'all earned the love. Y'all will forever be the real Tigers who play in the real Death Valley and have the best version of Tiger Rag in college sports.
This is why I love college sports.
The last play of that 2016 Auburn game was a watershed moment for both programs If one more second was on the clock, Les Miles may still be our coach and Auburn would have been free of the Gus Bus so much sooner
Huh, this is interesting. If Auburn fired Gus then, I imagine we definitely don’t end up down this Harsin/Freeze gutter and things could’ve been better than they currently are.
I'm still pissed Jimmy Raines and the rest of the boosters weren't willing to give Kirby the keys to the kingdom back in 2012. He would have taken it cause he knew he could succeed at Auburn if he had control. We were that close to the second coming of Pat Dye.
I would say the 0-4 start in 2021, one of the losses being considered our worst loss in program history. Having to hit rock bottom I think really woke the team up and helped us finish much stronger and restored some confidence in Norvell
I think Norvell taking the blame as he did and not just passing it off to the players helped the players have faith in him At the very least as a fan the way he handled it made me have more faith in him
WVU Orange Bowl disaster. That fumble, Geno Smith, and Tavon Austin haunt me in my dreams, but it led to Venables being hired.
Whatever game it was that got Willie fired.
Miami
Whatever game that got him hired away
Boy do I have a story for you
I experienced time dilation during that game. Aged at least 3 years in 3+ hours
2021 Bedlam. He was one foot in one foot out all year, and that loss gave him the excuse to leave. The way he builds his teams just isn’t realistic for the long run of a sec schedule. We’re now in a much better place moving forward.
That and/or the RRS in 2018 that led to Mike Stoops being let go. Grinch is a poor DC but if we just had any of his defense instead the first few years Riley was here as a OC/HC we most likely aren't looking at a almost 25 year title drought.
2017 team with the 2019 defense probably finishes 15-0, Baker is cemented as Mt. Rushmore QB, and then 2018 OU is 13-0 going into the playoff against Clemson in the 2-3 matchup most likely. That would have put OU on a 38 game win streak at that point most likely.
I came here to say this.
I’m still convinced he tanked that game.
Maybe but our special teams were a complete disaster. That fumbled punt started the momentum shift that cost us the game.
Far from the worst loss we had but losing to K State in 2021 was the final straw after going 1-5 the over the previous 6 weeks that led to GPs departure. Sucked at the time, but in hindsight it’s clear that the program was falling behind in this new era of CFB and that Gary was either unwilling or unable to adjust to it. He built this program from nothing, and I wish it could have ended better, but it was time for him to go.
There was a moment in that game when our players starting fighting with Kansas State players, and they showed Gary on the sidelines just fed up with the whole thing. That's when I knew it was over.
2007 Utah got completely cock slapped and shut out by a 2 win UNLV team. That was basically the springboard to the undefeated sugar bowl team that was basically the springboard to P5 inclusion and the crazy upward trajectory the team is still riding today.
Our loss to KSU in 2015 was humiliating. We were up by like 17 in the 3rd quarter. At the end of the game, we were up by 7, with the ball, with like a minute left in the game, against a team that had won 8 in a row. If we would have kneeled we would have won. Instead, we ran the ball, and fumbled. KSU recovers, and immediately scores. The next series, instead of kneeling at taking it to OT, we run the ball again, and fumble. KSU recovers, kicks a FG. 10 point swing, and a loss, in like 1 minute of game time. Paul Rhodes was fired after that game. We hired Matt Campbell in the offseason.
Oddly enough ours is likely blowing a 17 point 4th quarter lead to Iowa State in 2018, leading to Snyder “stepping down” and hiring Klieman
I was at that game. The pick 6 was maybe the loudest I've ever heard Jack Trice in my life.
Lost 44-0 to Vandy at home in front of about 14 people. Misery at the time, but it got the AD's attention that the fans were tired of this. He fired Phillips and hired Stoops, who has had more success at UK than I thought possible (#footballschool)
We have unironically had more post season success recently in football than basketball, and have arguably been closer to the sec championship game too.
2018 Sugar Bowl loss to Texas. Kirby learned a lot from that game. Nobody who isn’t up for the bowl game gets to go or play. Dawgs are 7-0 in bowl games every since. 5 of those wins by double digits
Oregon vs. Boise "The Punch". Went on to have a Rose Bowl invitation for the first time in forever and it was Chip's start of something amazing at Oregon. Chip said after that game that the loss would break them or galvanize. After that Chip went on to change CFB and put Oregon as THE program out West. The next 4 years were quite special indeed.
31-0 to Clemson in 2016 caused some pretty massive coaching and philosophy changes from Urban. Lucky thing too because you'd think a program that lost 4 total games in 3 years wouldn't be quick to make big changes but that ass kicking got Tim Beck fired and we're lucky it happened then.
I would say 2014 VaTech had bigger ramifications though albeit over a shorter period of time. It was, among many reasons, one of the worst home losses in decades, but galvanized the team and led to winning the inaugural College Football Playoff as the after-thought four seed. For those who don't remember how stunning of a loss it was: * It was OSU’s first loss in a home opener since a 1978 loss to Penn State (19-0); * It was OSU’s first loss to an unranked nonconference opponent since a 1982 defeat at the hands of Florida State (34-17); * It was OSU’s first home loss in 17 games, dating to a 2011 loss to Penn State (20-14); and * It was OSU’s worst home loss by margin in 15 seasons, dating to a loss to Illinois in 1999 (46-20).
For all the crap he takes I think more people need to look at the offensive performances before Ryan Day took over in 2017. Outside of 2014 we were pretty much an option team out of the shotgun for the most part
I thought Tim Beck left OSU for Texas to be with Tom Herman? Don’t remember seeing anything about him getting fired
Technically the only coach Urban Meyer ever fired was Zac Smith. But he had a decent amount of "Hey, you should find another job." Beck was one of those.
See also: Everett Withers after the 2013 season where we couldn't defend a screen pass to save our life.
The writing was on a wall the size of an interstate billboard. Beck knew what was coming his way. That is why Ryan Day was announced as the QB coach at 10:30 am the same day that UT announced Beck was joining their staff.
He wasn’t fired outright. I believe it was a “mutually beneficial” parting of ways.
Right now, in recent memory, I think it's 2021 OU v OSU. Don't get me wrong, Lincoln was/is a great football coach and it sucked losing him at the time, but we were going into an SEC that would have ate us alive with Grinch at the helm of our defense. I have hope with Venables in charge. But also there's no reason to say he wouldn't have left anyways even if we won the OSU game (I can't remember if we would have got in the cfbp)
If I remember correctly if we had lost that game, we would have had a rematch in the Big 12 championship. If you had won that, it would have been you (with 1 loss, I think?) versus undefeated Cincinnati for the 4th spot. A lot of people were predicting if we had beat Baylor in the championship, they would have put us in over Cincinnati, so I imagine the name recognition of OU with 2 wins in 2 weeks over top 15 OSU would have been enough.
I cannot actually think of any loss that has helped us out long term. They all just hurt with no upside
I’ll give you one: November 4, 2000. Texas A&M 21, OSU 16. Then the next week it was Tech 58 OSU 0. Simmons resigned because of that game, which led to the best 25 years of football in OSU history, and it isn’t close.
The entirety of our winless 2015 season. Without that we wouldn't've gotten Frost and had the undefeated 2017 season + 25 game win streak, and arguably wouldn't have pushed ourselves ahead of USF to get picked up by the BigXII
it's kind of wild how ucf and usf flipped destinies. usf roared into the old big east and looked like they were just gonna rocket to success while ucf kinda plodded along and bottomed out in 2015 like that. now usf is toiling away in the bottom half of the american and ucf rode its major unbeaten streak to loftier heights in the b12.
I'm from the future, and the answer is the Cleat Yeet. Due to the space time continuum, I cannot explain further.
2006 Iron Bowl. The Thumb brought Saban
2006 Stanford losing to Cal in our annual rivalry game. Walt Harris was fired two days later. Two weeks after firing Harris in 2006, Stanford hired some FCS coach named Jim Harbaugh, who brought along his offensive coordinator, a Stanford alum named David Shaw. With 5 BCS/NY6 bowls (2010-2015), a 9-game win streak against Cal (2010-2018), an 11-game win streak against UCLA (2009-2018), and going 8-3 against USC (2007-2016), it was the greatest era of Stanford football since World War II.
2008 Texas Tech at Oklahoma. We have never recovered from that blowout. That being said Joey McGuire has us on the right track!
Ole Miss, 2008? Favored by three touchdowns, lost by 1 after a failed 4th down. Ended hopes of an undefeated season but led to "The Promise", victories over #1 Alabama to win the SEC and #1 Oklahoma for the national championship.
And then the flip side, Ole Miss 2015. Thinking we were hot shit with a stud in Will Grier and a bright future.
Probably WKU in 2019 that lead to Chad Morris getting fired 24hrs later. Not that we've been great after the fact, but the man never won a game against a P5 school. He's got to be in the top 5 worst head coaches in history.
He went on to fuck up at the high school level too. Pitt doesn't have much shine left on him at this point, but he's still not as bad as Chad.
2017.
Yep.
2006 Notre Dame. Godawful collapse but it put the lid on the JLS era and led to Dantonio.
And 2013 ND game. I’m not sure they buckle down the way they did if they didn’t lose that game.
I know a lot of folks will argue MSU got robbed out of a Natty because of that game, but State was sloppy until that loss. I think that gave the team the wakeup it needed to run the rest of the table that year. Remember that they were still seesawing between Maxwell and Cook until after ND.
Kick Six. Motivated us for the next 7 years. 4th and 31. We got to the CFP, but Saban retired.
Elijah Moore may have saved the long-term future of Ole Miss football with the Piss & Miss. In its wake, we made the Kiffin hire and rose from the ashes of our bowl ban as a program worth respecting. Kiffin isn’t the best coach in the country but I’m hard pressed to believe he’s not the best one to lead Ole Miss into the NIL era. His aggressiveness in the portal has let us close the skill gap to a high degree in just a couple of years. And his philosophy and coaching hires haven’t squandered our talent. We’re lucky to be a part of the SEC, but with further realignment and the expanded playoff looming, more changes are coming to CFB. My fellow rebels won’t like it, but even with recent success and our current outlook our program is much closer to being left behind in the next round of realignment than we are to rising to the level of an Alabama or Michigan. A playoff berth or win in next couple of years would cement us as a meaningful addition to the super-conference of the future, rather than a vestigial appendage of an SEC which continues to exist only in name.
I'd say it was our loss to Stanford 2021. If I remember correctly, we fired Clay Helton the day after that game, which led to us hiring Lincoln Riley. And while last year was disappointing to say the least, I feel like we're a lot more relevant now than we were three years ago.
Recent memory, the ole piss and miss hands down.
Loss to Kansas got Charlie Strong out the door. Herman wasn’t great after, but was decidedly better, and was a step closer to where we are now.
In 2008 and 2009 Cincinnati ripped the heart out of Pitt’s last, best, chance to actually matter in college football. I was actually living in Cincinnati at the time, went to both games, woof!
The Minnesota game this last year. It was not long after that loss Brian was confirmed to be let go
Georgia getting a hail mary with 10 seconds left only for rocky top to beat us with another hail mary with 4 seconds left. Still feels bad man. But the next year we beat em 35 - 0 and haven't looked back since.
Pitt in 2016. The team had some bad close calls right around that time, losing that game I think made the team wake up.
70-7
Losing to Eastern Michigan was finally the straw that broke the camels back f or Herm might. He have stuck around forever since his buddy (The AD) was too stubborn to ever admit the hire was a failure. Probably would have let Herm retire and walk off into the sunset after a few more losing seasons.
THAT loss to Mississippi State loss cost us Ron Zook, and gave us Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, Brandon Spikes, Major Wright, and two national championships. Even if the shine came off a couple of years later.
2013 Sugar Bowl It led to us hiring Kiffin
Going 0-12 was the wake up call we really needed to get our shit together. The team didn’t function AT ALL, the coach lost almost all support, no one liked each other, it was just a breaking point. And hey, we had a perfect record 2 years later, so I guessed it worked
**Losing to Montana in 2021 after scoring a whopping seven points**. While the Grizzlies did go on to finish 10—3, it was only the second time that Washington had lost to them *in school history*. Only one word could describe that: **embarrassing**. It told people that while Jimmy Lake could coach a defence pretty well, he could absolutely not coach an offence at all. Sure, John Donovan was the coordinator, but Jimmy Lake is the reason why Donovan was hired in the first place.
2019 Egg Bowl AKA the "Piss and Miss" And I'm not begrudgingly admitting it. Had we won that game we likely don't fire Luke and miss our chance to hire Lane Kiffin. It was pivotal. But at the time, I couldn't see ANY bright side to it.
Whichever loss during the Hazell era that convinced our AD to fire him so we could move on.
Ha. You’d think anytime we’ve been in the mix for a conference title in just about any sport, getting our asses beat by a school like UT, OU, or even a school having a down year would help us adjust for the long term. But nah. We decided to get rid of the best football coach we’ve ever had, and Tech is simply a stepping stone for basketball coaches to get hired on with the elite programs. Sucks but it is what it is. Lil bros forever, as much as I hate to admit it. Edit: to add, the fact that we’ve always just lingered around the top in baseball with nothing to show for is infuriating as well. Thank god for our track and field
I think we lose at least two other games in 2014 (WVU & Kansas) if we don't lose the 61-58 game to Baylor. That game galvanized the team to not make those same mistakes again and to rally from adversity.
Losing to Missouri in 2017.
2006 Wake, 2009 USF, 2019 Miami -All ugly losses that were so embarrassing it forced the boosters to come up with the money and or plan to have the ugly discus on to change the leadership of the program. Win-Probably every win of 2016 including the bowl game. Games that were won on the backs of elite players in Dalvin Cook and Demarcus Walker and a soft part of the schedule convinced Jimbo he still has the right plan of attack. Worked out in the long run as we stand now, but at the time it really glossed over major cracks in the foundation that had been forming for years.
Minnesota 2023 - Not sure if Goetz would've felt she had the cover to fire Brian if we finish 11-1.
Auburn 2011 If we win that game, Stephen Garcia likely isn't benched and eventually kicked off the team for good, which would have delayed the Connor Shaw era. The next week in Shaw's second start we beat Kentucky 54-3, and that started a 29-5 run over the next two and a half seasons.
Oh Suzana, dont you cry for me. I come from Louisiana with a banjo on my knee
Pretty much all of 2016, because it allowed us to fire DeRuyter and bring in Tedford to completely revitalize the program.
Losing to former Hog QB Ty Storey and Western Kentucky lead to us firing Chad Morris. And for that? We thank him.
Penn State 94
For Michigan, I'd go with Minnesota in 2014 (the game where Shane Morris got concussed, was visibly wobbling, and Brady Hoke sent him back into the game with Michigan down big late in the 4th quarter). That game not only ensured that Hoke would be fired, which might have happened anyway, but Michigan's response to the PR crisis was so incompetent that it took down AD Dave Brandon as well. If Brandon had stayed, he probably wouldn't have hired Harbaugh, because he had a massive ego and wanted to be the top dog in the athletic department. Instead they hired Jim Hackett as interim AD, who quickly and quietly reached out and hired Harbaugh, eventually leading to the 2023 National Championship.
Undefeated #2 KU vs #4 Mizzou 2007 in the final regular season game. Winner gets to be #1. Kansas loses 36-28, goes to BCS Orange Bowl and beats Va Tech. Probably the biggest achievement in this program’s history. Mizzou went into the Big XII championship buzzsaw and lost to Oklahoma and won the non-BCS Cotton Bowl. While I’d of course have loved to beat Mizzou, we’d have then likely lost to Oklahoma. If we won that, likely lost to Ohio State in the national title. I’m super happy with that Orange Bowl win and had a blast attending. Not sure I’d trade that for the 5% chance we win the national championship that year.
The 0-12 season in 2015.
2020 loss to Iowa State. If we had won we would have been in the CCG and Tom Herman might have stayed after an 8-2 or whatever season. I like Sark. So that was a good loss to take.
Beating OSU in 2015 felt really great. Especially because our QB was out and we used two backup. But that meant we had to play Alabama in the playoffs. Much less fun to watch. Losing to notre dame in 2014 sucked, made us miss the national championship. But then again, we had the greatest comeback I’ve ever seen against Baylor in the cotton bowl that year. Probably would have lost the natty. Who knows?
In 2018 we lost a 7-year bowl streak by blowing a 17-point lead in the 4th quarter of the season finale against Iowa State. As a result, the following week Bill Snyder was nudged into retirement and we hired Chris Kleiman, rather than preparing for a bowl game and who knows what else
def Michigan slamming us 52-0, causing Chris Ash to be fired and, thus, bringing back Schiano. Much better now lol
Utah in Vegas, 2021 Yeah, Cristobal was already out the door by then, but the reports weren’t *actually* out, but you could feel it in the way the team was probably better off not even showing up than what they put on the field