Toggle sidebar

Other than our Gamecocks, what is the most painful loss you've ever seen a college football program take?

S

ScWildthing61

Active member
Jan 23, 2022
405
268
63
The loss that maybe even made you feel for their program and fanbase a little bit.

Football season isn't quite here yet, so it's still talkin' season!

As far as I'm concerned that loss Kansas State had vs Texas A&M in the 1998 Big XII championship game was as brutal as it gets. For those old enough to remember, when Bill Snyder became the head coach of the Wildcats in 1989, K-State was god awful(sports illustrated had even declared it the worst college football program of all time at that point). Snyder comes in and starts improving the program year by year, and by 1998 they're a serious national title contender, they go thru that regular season undefeated, and get into the big XII title game one victory away from playing for the national title(I still think to this day they would've beaten Tennessee had they played them in the Fiesta Bowl that year). After 3 quarters against A&M, they were up 27-12 then everything fell apart. It eventually ended with the Aggies scoring a touchdown on the last possession in the 2nd overtime to win 36-33.

If we built ourselves up from being that bad to getting that close to the national title game and blew it in the 4th quarter and overtime of say the CFP semifinals, I don't know as a fan if I'd recover from that.
 
Gradstudent

Gradstudent

Joined Feb 11, 2006
Feb 2, 2022
1,126
1,715
113
Arkansas at Tenn, 1998

Your team stinks in 1997, you go 4-7 and fire Danny Ford, and hire a new coach who starts out undefeated, 8-0, and lacking respect your only # 7 in the Nation since your team was so bad in 1997, but your next game is at Tennessee who is also 8-0 and freshly ranked # 1 for the first time in 40 years.

Your team goes up on the road, plays lights out, up 21-3 at Half and then they come back, but your team holds on and is still up 24-22, with 1:47 left, 2nd and 12 at the 49 yard line, trying to run out the clock and this happens, and you lose.

BRUTAL as far as a game context.


 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Lurker123
D

Debo77

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2022
1,860
2,900
113
Clemsux when Carolina beat them in 2022.....pretty much my entire family is Clemsux fans and I was watching the game with about 8 of them and it was a pitiful sight....glorious but yet pitiful
 
  • Like
Reactions: moouclem
F

frank.bank

Member
Nov 10, 2022
47
28
18
2007 when WVU lost to Pitt 13 - 9 in Morgantown. WVU was ranked #2 and would've played LSU for the national title had they beaten a Pitt team that was already guaranteed a losing record coming into the game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gradstudent
S

ScWildthing61

Active member
Jan 23, 2022
405
268
63
frank.bank said:
2007 when WVU lost to Pitt 13 - 9 in Morgantown. WVU was ranked #2 and would've played LSU for the national title had they beaten a Pitt team that was already guaranteed a losing record coming into the game.
Click to expand...
Rumor is that Rich Rodriguez threw that game because he knew he was going on to be the head coach at Michigan afterwards.
 
G

Gamecock Jacque

Joined Dec 20, 2020
Jan 30, 2022
4,114
4,205
113
Stanford- Cal game 1982. With Stanford's Band storming the field during the game winning kick-off return.
 
18IsTheMan

18IsTheMan

Well-known member
Jan 19, 2022
14,103
12,118
113
On a personal level, Willie Taggart's first game for FSU. It's one of the few times I recall truly feeling bad for an individual coach.

Willie came home to Florida to coach FSU after one season at Oregon. There was so much fanfare and hoopla. First African American coach for FSU. The "hometown" boy coming back to coach the team. Fans, eager to move on from the Fisher era, embraced Taggart, almost euphorically. The atmosphere before that game on ESPN was just practically jubilant. The announcers were talking him up. They interviewed coming out prior to the game you could just see the sheer joy on his face. It was truly a dream come true for him. It almost seemed like a fairytale for everyone.

Then the game started. VaTech scored out of the gate to go up 7-0, then FSU fumbled on the their next possession and VaTech scored again to make it 10-0. FSU would go on to have 5 turnovers, at one point turning it over on 4 drives in a row in the 2nd half.

I can't recall a time in my life when I have seen such a celebratory, party-like atmosphere crumble so completely and thoroughly. Taggart went from being the Chosen One to having the writing on the wall for his tenure at FSU in about one half of football. The cameras flashed to him on the sideline and I genuinely felt bad for him. You could see the life had been sucked out of him in less than one game. FSU went on to have their first losing season in over 40 years, breaking the longest streak in FBS, and missed a bowl for the first time in 37 years. The VaTech game was emblematic of all that.

It's also one of the few times I can recall watching a coach's first game with a team and getting the crystal clear sense that "he's gonna get canned." That VaTech game was a microcosm of his career there.

As a side note to all of that, Taggart is also a cautionary tale. Oregon snatched him after one decent season and one good season at USF. Then, after one ok season at Oregon, FSU jumped on him. His stock was really pumped up way beyond what it should have been and he was put in that embarrassing position with FSU.
 
I

Irvin Snibbley

Active member
Mar 24, 2022
395
281
63
Harvard Gamecock

Harvard Gamecock

Well-known member
Jan 20, 2022
2,183
2,050
113
Irvin Snibbley said:
The man who hired me to my job of 36 years was the Qb for Marshall in 1969.He couldn’t talk about it without crying almost 20 years after it happened.
Click to expand...
A very close friend of my wife was living in Hunnington at that time. She tells us for about 2 weeks you would see 2-3 funeral processions every day, and she herself attended 1 sometimes 2 funerals a day for 8 straight days. As the gentlemen you mentioned, she still breaks every time she talks about it.
 
18IsTheMan

18IsTheMan

Well-known member
Jan 19, 2022
14,103
12,118
113
Harvard Gamecock said:
Well there is loss, and then THERE IS LOSS. (Nothing comes close, Nothing)


Mike Tussey: 1970 plane crash that killed Marshall University Football Team devastated a nation​

https://nkytribune.com/2023/11/mike...university-football-team-devastates-a-nation/
Click to expand...

Went to school with this guy's 2 sons:

bcuathletics.com

1970 Marshall Player: Spared For A Reason - Bethune-Cookman University Athletics

Former Marshall football player Ed Carter wasn't on the plane that crashed and killed his teammates, and he told B-CU football players he was spared for a reason.
bcuathletics.com bcuathletics.com

He and my dad were friends and I heard him speak a few times. Amazing story. Had gone home to Texas for his dad's funeral and his mom begged him not to go back and travel with the team. Had to be surreal as a surviving player coming back to the team the next season.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3USC1801
C

Cluster Cock

Joined May 4, 2021 • Garnet Trust Supporter
Jan 28, 2022
436
1,138
93
My next door neighbor and his wife were at Marshall when the tragedy happened - he played basketball, she was a cheerleader. There's a lot of West Virginia people in Myrtle Beach. They have parties with their Marshall friends several times a year, Mrs. ClusterCock and I are invited. I bring homemade moonshine, they seem to like it. Toasts are made and tears are shed.
 
will110

will110

Joined Aug 17, 2018
Jan 20, 2022
10,405
27,052
113
The game that immediately came to mind for me when I saw the thread title was 2017 Texas A&M at UCLA. A&M was up 44-10 and lost.
 
S

ScWildthing61

Active member
Jan 23, 2022
405
268
63
Irvin Snibbley said:
The man who hired me to my job of 36 years was the Qb for Marshall in 1969.He couldn’t talk about it without crying almost 20 years after it happened.
Click to expand...

Harvard Gamecock said:
A very close friend of my wife was living in Hunnington at that time. She tells us for about 2 weeks you would see 2-3 funeral processions every day, and she herself attended 1 sometimes 2 funerals a day for 8 straight days. As the gentlemen you mentioned, she still breaks every time she talks about it.
Click to expand...
How accurate was the movie "We are Marshall" in capturing what was going on up there at that time?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Get unlimited access today.

Pick the right plan for you.

Already a member? Login
Top Bottom