Most Demoralizing Loss??
- Thread starter every_yard
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I have to agree with this. We had the title in hand and it slipped through our fingers. I still remember the pass to the TE (Barkema perhaps) that went right off the tips of his hands that could of sealed it.
Also, demoralizing from a fan support view point. Chance to clinch the Big 12 North and we could only muster 40,000 if that. I don't care what the attendance figure was, if you were there you know what I'm talking about. It was an extremely bland crowd that didn't cheer much.
agree 100%. we win that game, it wouldn't have come down to a missed field goal at years end-we would have won the north.
I said the football loss at KU. There is no way we should have lost that game, we had a much better team. I had already planned out an awesome trip to Houston, including staying with a bunch of UH cheerleaders. I made up a bunch of T-shirts that said 'the road to houston runs through Kansas" We played not to lose and it just killed to watch. Not to mention all the crap the KU fans threw at us after the game...
All of the losses are bad, but it seems like Hampton is the worst just because every year during March, or any commercial for the big dance it seems, you always see the picture of that little troll of a coach with his legs in the air as he is being hugged by one of his players. Every time I see that, it reminds me of how horrible of a loss that was.
You could also add the Iowa game from '97 when we lost 63-20.
You could also add the Iowa game from '97 when we lost 63-20.
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I'd have to say UConn. They all suck but that one is still unbelievable to me. They had just started playing D1 football like the week before. It was terrible. Especially when you consider where we had been just weeks before.
This Mizzou loss hurt, but it wasn't unexpected. If we don't fumble the ball into the endzone every other game then the North doesn't come down to that game.
I'm not sure that the Hampton game is all the much of a shocker. It hurt. Remember, we did get knocked out of the Big XII tourney by Baylor in our first game. I'm not saying that I'm Nostradomus and saw it coming, but that Baylor game should have been some sort of indication.
That Michigan State one still gets to me after all of these years. We were so close. I know people will always say that we'll get back there again and take another shot at it. We could, but there are no guarantees. We just don't know. I'd like to believe that we'll get there again. There are few programs that can count on being back into the Final Four.
This Mizzou loss hurt, but it wasn't unexpected. If we don't fumble the ball into the endzone every other game then the North doesn't come down to that game.
I'm not sure that the Hampton game is all the much of a shocker. It hurt. Remember, we did get knocked out of the Big XII tourney by Baylor in our first game. I'm not saying that I'm Nostradomus and saw it coming, but that Baylor game should have been some sort of indication.
That Michigan State one still gets to me after all of these years. We were so close. I know people will always say that we'll get back there again and take another shot at it. We could, but there are no guarantees. We just don't know. I'd like to believe that we'll get there again. There are few programs that can count on being back into the Final Four.
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Missouri game is my winner- we had our 1st chance at North Champs in a long time and it was at home. :cry:
Kansas game was on the road and had already happened the year before, Hampton was March Madness-anything can happen.:arghh: Connecticut loss was a fitting end to a crappy ending season,besides the BSU loss in the bowl. Michigan State was just frustrating with the charge/block at the end.
PS-thanks for ruining my friday/weekend (unless ISU wins tomorrow)
Kansas game was on the road and had already happened the year before, Hampton was March Madness-anything can happen.:arghh: Connecticut loss was a fitting end to a crappy ending season,besides the BSU loss in the bowl. Michigan State was just frustrating with the charge/block at the end.
PS-thanks for ruining my friday/weekend (unless ISU wins tomorrow)
I can't believe how many people say Hampton "wasn't that crazy" because the Baylor loss was a precursor. That team won the freaking Big XII Championship and could have landed a #1 seed. Those of us watching that Hampton game at our house just sat there for what seemed like 30 minutes with emotionless looks on our faces. The worst part was that it was a late game so you had to go to bed with that sick feeling in your stomach. I can understand the 2 fb losses as well, almost as bad.
That team was EXHAUSTED. I was friends with a number of guys on the team and you could really see them tail off towards the end of the year, not just the Baylor game but a few others leading up to it. Larry was feeling alot of pressure from the previous year and really took it out on the players. So in the end, I was kinda 'prepared' for the loss....
Put me down for this game as well. This loss was especially painful because before that game I thought Mac had turned the corner with the program. "Finally," I thought, "we're right up there with the big boys. This is our chance to show that we belong." All we showed was that Mac wasn't in the same league as the good coaches and we were basically getting it done with smoke and mirrors. This game signalled the beginning of the end for me. I think that's when most fans realized that Mac probably couldn't deliver the big one to us.
Losing the last games of 2004 and 2005 was bad, and sure we could have won the North either time, but we surely would have been destroyed on national TV (again) in the title game. Had we won that 2002 game in Norman........ oh man, I shudder to think of what might have been. :sad:
I choose other:
Loosing to Boise State on the blue turf is still my most embarrassing moment. How can you loose that game with Seneca, Danielson, Whitver... I agree the UConn loss the same year was bad but nobody saw that one, this one was a bowl game. I have hated that blue turf ever since.
The year started with such promise, a near miss to Florida State the whole country saw and then winning the next 6 before the humiliation at Oklahoma, then loosing 6 of the last 7 including UConn. and Boise State, all I can say is thank you Marty Fine and Steve Bricky, OLine and OC coaches.
Loosing to Boise State on the blue turf is still my most embarrassing moment. How can you loose that game with Seneca, Danielson, Whitver... I agree the UConn loss the same year was bad but nobody saw that one, this one was a bowl game. I have hated that blue turf ever since.
The year started with such promise, a near miss to Florida State the whole country saw and then winning the next 6 before the humiliation at Oklahoma, then loosing 6 of the last 7 including UConn. and Boise State, all I can say is thank you Marty Fine and Steve Bricky, OLine and OC coaches.
Baby steps. Had we even been competitive in that game, it might have been a difference in the way we played out the remainder of the season. We competed well against Texas, beat Missouri, got smoked even worse by K-State (58-7), then lost a competitive but fumble-filled game to Colorado. But that back-alley woodshedding by Oklahoma completely emasculated us--not only for the rest of the 2002 season, but throughout 2003 and perhaps early into 2004 as well. Our team psyche was completely cracked by that one game, and has enhanced by distaste for Bob Stoops a hundred fold.
The worst part about that loss that day is that I was watching it on TV at a bar in Sioux City and it was right after the Nebraska game, so a bunch of Husker fans stayed to watch for a while. You can imagine the comments they had for us while we were getting steamrolled in the first half. Not good times.
The easy pick for me was the Hampton game. At the time I was managing the local Coop in Hampton and was a VERY outspoken Cyclone fan who enjoyed sparring with Hawk fans at every available opportunity. So, when we got beat by Hampton, needless to say I took A LOT of crap(and justifiably so) and it took a while to get over that sting. Throw in the fact that they show that coach with his legs kicked out every March so it just brings it back. Michigan St game sucked but we got that far so it was not embaressing like Hampton was.
2002 Football was quite a let down too. I had a friend who was close buddies with one of the football players that year. Take this for what it's worth, but that player(don't know who it was) attributed a lot of the second half problems with all the Heisman hype that Wallace had. As we crept up to #9, any sports report only covered Seneca Wallace and how great he was. Then MTV starts following Wallace around and he was featured on their Heisman show that year. I think this put a ton of pressure on Seneca and he sort of snapped at the OU game(on the MTV show they showed him crying in the locker room after that game) and then things went downhill after that. Add in the fact that I think the rest of the team lost a little of their intensity because Seneca was the only one getting any credit for them going to #9 so I think they lost motivation.
At the time I didn't quite believe this, but seeing the MTV show put some validity to it. I think part of the problem was Mac not keeping everyone focused and away from the media. If I were head coach, I wouldn't allow MTV to trail one of my best players now and then throughout the season because it does nothing buy add pressure on his shoulders, strain relationships with him and the other players not getting any good press, and makes it impossible to stay focused.
2002 Football was quite a let down too. I had a friend who was close buddies with one of the football players that year. Take this for what it's worth, but that player(don't know who it was) attributed a lot of the second half problems with all the Heisman hype that Wallace had. As we crept up to #9, any sports report only covered Seneca Wallace and how great he was. Then MTV starts following Wallace around and he was featured on their Heisman show that year. I think this put a ton of pressure on Seneca and he sort of snapped at the OU game(on the MTV show they showed him crying in the locker room after that game) and then things went downhill after that. Add in the fact that I think the rest of the team lost a little of their intensity because Seneca was the only one getting any credit for them going to #9 so I think they lost motivation.
At the time I didn't quite believe this, but seeing the MTV show put some validity to it. I think part of the problem was Mac not keeping everyone focused and away from the media. If I were head coach, I wouldn't allow MTV to trail one of my best players now and then throughout the season because it does nothing buy add pressure on his shoulders, strain relationships with him and the other players not getting any good press, and makes it impossible to stay focused.
Had to go Hampton, although there are many choices that could make a good case there. I hate how we are still referred to every March when they go through the famous few that have ever dropped a 2-15 game.
Wasn't that the year we lost to Baylor in the B12 tourney?
I just had a feeling that we were not right at that point in time.
At the time, the Hampton loss was devastating. But in retrospect, the loss to Michigan State is the one I wish we had back. As Moonlight Graham once pontificated, "You know we just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening. Back then I thought, well, there'll be other days. I didn't realize that that was the only day." I hope he was wrong.
Something was wrong with that team from about the Texas game on. They performed at such an unexpected high level all season that once the Texas game came around they seemed to physically just hit a brick wall, and were never the same afterwards. They then limped to the Big XII regular season championship, and after that it was pretty much over. Of course, I had to be a complete homer and take ISU to the Final Four that year (thanks for the advice, Dan Patrick :skeptical
, but honestly, I should have known better - I knew they weren't right.
