Worst Gator Losses

[Escambia94]

I have been bemoaning last week's game as one of the worst football games I have ever watched. Before I move on, I decided to rank the worst stinkin' Gator performances of the modern era.

1. 1996 Fiesta Bowl, 24-62, Nebraska Children of the Corn. Nebraska was favored by 3, but ESPN was in love with the Fun N' Gun. The Children of the Corn were simply too large and too strong. The Gators were out-rushed -28 yards to 524! The Gators played pretty well, but they were vastly outclassed. This one hurt, because it was for the national championship. In all fairness, this Nebraska team is considered to be among the greatest of all time.
2. 1980 World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, 21-26, Georgia Leghumpers, "Run Lindsay Run". I hate hearing that every stinking year. The underdog Gators were mere seconds away from upsetting the powerful Bulldawgs. With only seconds left on the clock, Georgia QB Scott Belue found Lindsay Scott over the middle for a 25-yard TD pass. As time expired, Georgia announcer Larry Munson could be heard yelling "Run, Lindsay, run!" as he took that 25-yard pass for a total of 93 yards and an improbable touchdown on their way to a national championship. Every stinking year we have to hear that sound bite.
3. 2009 SEC Championship Game, 13-32, Alabama Gumps, "Saving myself for the NFL". Not even the greatest Gator field general, Timmy Tebow, could rally this group of selfish prima donnas. Once the sissy Gators realized that the Gumps were hungrier for a win they they were, they decided to let Superman do all the work...alone. The Gators had to save themselves for the NFL draft, right? By halftime, those selfish punks were already counting their paychecks and Tim Tebow's heart was shattered as he essentially stood alone on the field trying to win the SEC. Timmy threw for 237 yards, and ran for another 63 (Demps, Rainey, and James totalled 25 yards). It broke my heart to watch Mr. Tebow cry at the end of this game.
4. 2012 World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, 9-17, Georgia Leghumpers, "WTF?". The Gators were riding high 7-0, while UGA was still smarting from its loss against South Carolina. In one of the ugliest games in recent memory, the Gators decided they did not want the SEC East, and they gave the ball to the Leghumpers six times and dared Georgia to lose the game. Aaron Murray almost obliged by tossing 3 INTs. Time will tell how bad of a blunder it was to let Georgia win this one.
5. 1976 World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, 27-41, Georgia Leghumpers, "4th and Dumb". The Gators dominated the first half and were leading 27-13, and then all of a sudden the Mighty Gators failed to convert a 4th and inches. A few plays later, the Leghumpers scored to make it 27-20, and then the Dawgs went on to score on every drive while the Gators struggled to keep up.
6. Honorable mention: 1994 Choak at the Doak, 2000 Mississippi State, 1992 Mississippi State.

What say you? What are the worst Gator losses that give you nightmares?

 

[DRU2012]

You pretty well hit all the "lows" and got them in the right order--EXCEPT, despite how painful and hard-to-watch, I would STILL place last Saturday's NOT at #4 but at #6 here--just below (or at worst maybe even-with) 1994's "Choak at the Doak", which was absolutely MISERABLY frustrating to LISTEN to at the time (on a radio in the background at Zilker Park, in the 2nd half of a game that was supposed to be "in the bag"--33-to-nothing for us, wasn't it?-- and I was SUPPOSED to be paying attention to a very lovely young lady with whom I was spending the afternoon--driven to irritated (and, I suppose, irritatING) distraction, I pretty well blew THAT "first impression"...Oh well, at least probably a slightly amusing story now, right?)...Actually, a lot of my life takes on similar associations: In fact, on further thought it's possible I might consider switching off between #1 and #2, ONLY because even though #1, the '96 Fiesta Bowl was by far the "worse loss" in numerical terms (not to mention the "What was the POINT?"-factor), #2 somehow seemed so damned "personal" in its disappointment, with so many talented players showing their true colors (selfish, mercenary prima donnas) at the last, and TT crying for all of us on the sidelines. Meanwhile, I was AT #3's 1980 Cocktail Party "Run Lindsay Run" game my senior year--saw them LIVE do this sort of thing AGAIN to us just as they had in '76, my FRESHMAN year (also there in person), and am even sicker of that play-back as I was then at the same old last-second outcome. I was ALSO at our dismantling by Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl, but at the '96-game I had hooked up with a stone-fox Gator-girl from Albequerque and, both seeing "the writing on the wall" by the Half, we took off early, headed back to the Hilton and emptied the minibar, etc.--so even with Letterman making jokes about us the next night, this one wasn't nearly so painful as it might have been...Even now, I know where to go for solace--and when to go there: I take these losses badly, as y'all know, but in this way I am able to avoid the worst of the "nightmares" you refer to...
For me, you see, there is more to "how bad a loss" than what happens on the field, or even the larger public context: There is also the PERSONAL context associated with each. Am I alone in this? Somehow I doubt it.

 

[Leakfan12]

I can list some others like the 1985 UGA as the number one team in the country (though didn't really because SEC and the NCAA hammered them prior to that.), 1984 Miami, 2003 FSU where the refs gave the Noles the game (in G-Ville no less), 2008 Ole Miss game, 2007 LSU, 2006 Auburn, every loss in 2010 and 2011 (every game those seasons really), last three games in 1999. OK I listed enough.

 

[DRU2012]

(laughing) We could ALL go THERE, Lf...As I (eventually) decided, though, I could EASILY change my vote to match yours, #2's 2009 "Off come the masks"-game as my #1 vote--but it turns out that isn't possible with this particular set-up. Anyway, (for reasons given) it's close enough for me to live with it unchanged.

 

[Leakfan12]

The 1976 game cost them the SEC title. Only if Dickey PUNT THE DAMN BALL. 1980 well enough said. 1996 Fiesta Bowl that was just sad. I wish they had the Defenses like they did in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, and this season and see if Nebraska would do with that. Hopefully not much though the Cornhuskers did win three national titles in four years and one field goal away from four out of five. Still like to see the 1995 Nebraska O vs the 2008 Gators D. Last week was a bitter pill to take two big mistake cost them nine points. However, Escambia94 I think it's a slap in the face said the team didn't want to win the game. D came out and play and the O well yeah they got expose. Not to mention that THE REFS THREW THE GAME FOR UGA. I MEAN SERIOUSLY I BELIEVE DRISKEL'S ARM WENT FORWARD IN THAT "FIRST FUMBLE" that set up the first touchdown and that BS INTERFERENCE CALL AGAINST EASLEY THAT SET THEIR SECOND TD. MISS THAT Escambia94 of course you think allowing 150 passing yards is getting litted up yeah 25 years ago get with the times old man. I do agree 2009 SEC title was the most painful. They could have been a dynasty if they won that game because I believe they would have beat Texas. How do you not get motivated being a step from going to a second stragiht national championship game with a strong chance of winning? Granted Bama was number two and motivated after what happened last season when they were close in 2008 but Tebow and the Gators took over in the fourth quarter and knock Bama to the Sugar Bowl where they got their @$$ beat by Utah. However, I will also agree despite trailing by six in halftime, the Gators seem to shut it down. Also I pretty Tebow wasn't the only one crying after that game. Also losing game was the beginning of the end (until this season) when Urban had his health problems, retire then came back. 2010 looked promising then came the first game vs Miami (OH) where it went south very fast. Then came Urban up and quitting and another season of disappointment and Cheeseburger Charlie wasn't no better than the current Temple coach.

 

[DRU2012]

Leakfan12 I pretty well agree with every point you've made about how we left points on the field (at LEAST "9", and I could argue it up higher than that with little effort) last Sat. AND got jobbed by the stripes filling an "order from on high" one more time, but we ALL have our own ways of dealing with pain, anger and disappointment...As one with his own, um, "idiosyncrasies", and a tendency to go off on my own feeling-filled extremes at times, I have learned the hard way that it's generally not a good idea to "rub another fellow's rhubarb", even in jest--not when it's a fellow Gator, and especially when that Gator is working through the same darkness hanging over all of us (a two-edged blade all around here, I'd say). I've taken issue with several declarations E- has made in the last few days, but I also know and understand the impatience driving them that has emerged from that same "pain, anger and disappointment" we all shared this last week.
OK--In less than 10 hours (!) we begin to learn exactly what happened last Saturday--"Over-Hyped Losers Collapse" or "Young Victims Panic During 'Perfect Storm'"...neither are good, but one you can recover and learn from. After everything that's been said, we now get a chance to "turn the page", just as THEY do. Well, not "JUST like", but you get the idea. We begin to have our thoughts, questions and pronouncements answered, and the players get to to both answer their critics, on the one hand, and beyond that get to "wipe the slate clean" and move on, at least to SOME extent. In my view, ALL concerns can be addressed, questions answered and most interests satisfied by a big beefy effort at a daring, breakthrough offensive display. As I have said elsewhere, that goes for both the team and its fans, equally frustrated and in need of putting the period to and separation with last Saturday's meager floundering. It isn't the ONLY way to get us back on track and headed in the right direction, but it IS the quickest, strongest, most satisfying and CERTAIN road there, I am sure. The "risk/reward ratio" just towers over the alternatives.
(Hey! This discussion belongs over on either "Gator Bites" or today's "GameDay" thread. Did I do that? Or did I just follow YOU down that path? Well, See y'all over on "GameDay..." later on regardless.)

 

[Escambia94]

The only reason I put Choke at the Doak as honorable mention is that the Gators still won the SEC that year. SEC losses are more important to me than geographical rivalries. FSU and their fans are obsessed with geographical rivalries--to me acknowledging those losses is validating the Nole Nation's childish obsession with beating Florida at all costs.

I do agree that Driskel's arm was moving forward and the refs threw the game. I, too, am stewing over that as well. That games deserves to be in the worst losses, because it came against a real team (SEC), and it took away Florida's ability to control its destiny in the East and in the SEC. I am not saying Florida would have won the SEC this year, but I do think that the referees' "script" was to make sure that Georgia gets a rematch against Bama this year.

I totally agree that the 1976 game would have been Florida's first SEC title. I should add that statement to the original post.

Leakfan12 Aaron Murray lit up Florida. That secondary cannot stop Murray! Do you know it is called when a QB throws 3 interceptions and still passes for 150 yards? It's called getting lit up--especially when your team LOSES. Guess what? Last year, EJ Manuel lit up Florida for 97 yards! Do you want to know why it is called getting lit up? Because Florida LOST. The only reason last year's crap-fest is not on the list is that nothing was on the line--no national title, no conference championship, no divisional title. If Mizzou throws for 5 yards and beats Florida, guess what that is called--getting lit up. The QB's job is to do his part to win the game. When Florida decides that it does not want to win the game, they are daring the opposing QB to have the worst day possible and still win. Well, congratulations, Florida Gators. Aaron Murray went home that night a winning quarterback. He got laid that night after telling his toothless girlfriend that he lit up Florida for 150 yards and 3 INTs, and is a winner! Jeff Driskel on the other hand threw for almost 200 yards and 2 INTs, but went to bed a losing QB on that day. He did not light up anybody last week. If he throws for 5 yards today and wins the game, he can go to bed a winner that lit up Mizzou. I love statistics as much as anyone, but the most important statistic is the win.

 

[DRU2012]

Escambia94, Leakfan12 (laughing) OK, OK, "Lit up" it is/isn't! I lit you up, you lit me up, he/she lit us up, we lit them up, they lit us up...Planning on getting "lit" for today's game...("You UP for the game?" "Been UP all WEEK, man"=good as place as any for old Carlin joke/routine)..."semantics" spoken here, along with non sequiters..."Damn the daffodils, God save the Queen!"...
Uhhh, can we move on to the "Gameday" thread soon, sans "lit up", etc.? I mean, when y'all are ready to leave this "discussion" behind on the what is it, THREE threads it has spread to so far? 'Course, I'm one to talk: You'll find me on every one of 'em...
(No rush, I s'pose--'nother 5 hours 'til Kick -off: Just leave behind when you do show up, right? 'Tsall that I ask...Later, Gators--See you over there!)

 

[Escambia94]

All I can say is that last week the Gators were on the edge of something special. Never having to leave the state of Florida in the months of October and November? How often do the Gators get that kind of schedule? Having the fans travel and cheer them on to victory in road games, in a period where fan support had been dwindling? Yes, 7-1 is still good, but victories buy back fans. It is hard to go 7-0 and 8-0 in the SEC. Look at next year. I doubt the Gators go 8-0 next year, with back-to-back road trips to Death Valley and the 'Zou. Don't forget the away game with Miami earlier in the season.

One more time to reiterate--the Gators also stunk up the field against Georgia. If I were at that game I would have demanded a refund. That was an embarrassment to SEC football. Even if the Gators had won that game, it was so darn sloppy. Neither team deserved to win. It should have been declared a no-contest. For Florida to have gone from 7-0 to playing crappy football in one week is a waste of opportunity. If the Dawgs had played a great game and beaten Florida, history would have recorded that Florida had a nice run, but was still a year ahead of schedule to rebound from two disappointing years of tumultuous change. With that loss, I wonder if the Gators are remotely close to rebounding from these past two years, at least on offense.

 

[DRU2012]

Escambia94 Man, the bottomline point made in the 1st paragraph above was the knife-to-my-heart right then and all week, E-, and the one I've been staying away from as something unspoken I just have to leave lying there, like someone's beloved pet left dead by the side of the road...It just hurts too damn much to even think about, you either get it or you don't: Yeah, "something special", a shot at "Undefeated" and straight-line control of your own destiny on the road to the SEC championship--That IS rare and, no matter how improved you just CAN'T "expect it to happen again next year". Yeah, 7-1 is real good in your SEC regular season schedule ANY time, but I don't even have t0 LOOK at next year's (or any OTHER year's) schedule to know that another real shot at 8-0 is AUTOMATICALLY unlikely. As for what really HAPPENED and what it did signify, as I say much of that will be answered directly today. That at least is a blessing: we don't have to wait very long to find out.

 

[Escambia94]

DRU2012 On a side note, when did you add the "UF Liberal Arts..." to your signature? I just noticed it today.

 

[Escambia94]

I will go out on a limb and say that the only SEC teams that can beat the 2012 Florida Gators are the 2012 Florida Gators and the 2012 Alabama Crimson Tide. The Gators beat themselves last week, and lost out on something special.

 

[Dale J. Rodriguez]

I have to agree with Escambia on every point. To me personally Last Saturday, was the worst Gator Offensive performance I remember seeing.

The fiesta ball loss was horrible.

 

[DRU2012]

DRU2012 On a side note, when did you add the "UF Liberal Arts..." to your signature? I just noticed it today.

I was playing around the last couple of nights, and decided finally to pull the trigger and have some fun with it and some other profile-details in a couple of places...Btw: I thought of a NEW "entry" for us in our profiles that, as with the best of this sort-of-thing imo is to have some fun AND still give fellow members actually interested some insight into your personality, might be entitled, "My own epitaph/gravestone might read..."
There've been some good ones I've heard or read myself over the years (call it morbid, but I've toured or visited "famous graveyards" all over the world, from Forrest Lawn in Los Angeles to the above-ground Mausoleums of New Orleans, from Pere-Lachaise in Paris where Jim Morrison (The Doors) is buried, to the maze-like underground Christian catacombs of Istanbul you visit carrying torches in gondola-like boats on a tour of 2000-yr-old Roman-built sewers, some of them funny (W.C.Fields' is probably the most famous: "I'd rather be here than in Philadelphia"), some poignant...
Mine I was thinking might read, "I was having too much fun to notice it was over...", but I was in a smart@$$ mood and probably should and would perhaps give it some more thought before putting it up there--or reserve the right to change it at some future time, a "luxury" we WOULDN'T have in real life/should-say-"death", of course, when things really ARE "Written in stone"...So: What would YOU do with that one? (And is it too weird to even consider seeing about adding?)

 

[Leakfan12]

I will go out on a limb and say that the only SEC teams that can beat the 2012 Florida Gators are the 2012 Florida Gators and the 2012 Alabama Crimson Tide. The Gators beat themselves last week, and lost out on something special.

Don't forget to add the SEC Referees of the 2012 UGA game as well. Heck, I believe the refs beat the Gators more than the Gators beat themselves or UGA beat the Gators. Of course not the only time the refs beat the Gators (2006,2011 Auburn games, 2003 FSU, and the 04 UT games).

 

[DRU2012]

Don't forget to add the SEC Referees of the 2012 UGA game as well. Heck, I believe the refs beat the Gators more than the Gators beat themselves or UGA beat the Gators. Of course not the only time the refs beat the Gators (2006,2011 Auburn games, 2003 FSU, and the 04 UT games).

Leakfan12, Escambia94
While y'all argue "no. of angels on the head of a pin" or whatever is the latest short-hair you're splitting, did you happen to notice what was going on in these 2 teams' respective contests Saturday evening (Alabama vs. LSU, UGA vs. Ol' Miss)? Well, their respective opponents had no CHOICE, as they were going thru' the kind of officials' treatment usually reserved for the Gators in such games. Watch replays of these games during the week for no more than ten minutes in each case and you will see at least SOME sort of eg. of the sort of thing that you're talking about, Lf, the kinds of calls tilting the outcome that were so frustratingly deplorable against US now called against UGA's NEXT opponent and, in the case of the SEC's (with full knowledge and approval I am SURE of their awkward ally, the NCAA's) preferred match-up, Alabama's "perfect season" kept intact, and 1-loss Georgia about to move back into the Top 5. Sigh...meanwhile we've continued ourselves to wander in the wilderness, having no right or inclination to wonder wistfully "what might have been" now, then or tomorrow--at least not until we somehow either awaken ourselves or someone ELSE inadvertantly snaps US out of it.

 

[Leakfan12]

Well UGA doesn't need help from the refs against Auburn. I just hope Bama doesn't lose until the reach the National Championship and Florida wins out then the Gators go to a BCS Bowl.

 

[Escambia94]

I am torn between wanting an SEC team to win the national championship and not letting Bama win another one. The more the SEC wins national championships, the more the SEC gets strength of schedule (SOS) points, which helps the Gators out in a couple years if they have one loss and are vying for BCS points against the likes of undefeated Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida State, Oregon, Kansas State, or USC. We can safely assume that this is a very realistic scenario that could get played out. The counterpoint would be that Bama winning another NC distances themselves from Florida and the rest of the SEC. I would counter that counter by saying that Coach Muschamp can get Florida to a level where it is winning multiple championships in the near future, but it will need help getting there through strength of schedule. Once the playoff system is in operation, that SOS will be the tiebreaker for determining who gets into the playoff, and from there it will be up to the Gators to take care of business on the field.

As for this year, Florida absolutely needs to take care of business and beat FSU. From there, Florida has no control over what happens next. Honestly I do not think UGA will lose to Auburn and open up a path for Florida to the SEC CG. I do see UGA getting shellacked by Bama and them going from 1-loss SEC #2 to 2-loss SEC #3 or 4. Where does that leave Florida? SEC #2! Yes, losing to Georgia essentially knocked Florida out of the running for the SEC CG, but we are still the SEC East co-champions! The way the flawed BCS system works today, Florida could still be ranked as SEC #2 and get into the Sugar Bowl. I would imagine that Georgia will look ugly against Bama in the SEC CG. Florida can find redemption by schwacking FSU and stealing that SEC #2 slot and getting into a BCS bowl game, the Sugar Bowl. If Florida loses to FSU, or if Georgia looks good against Bama, then Georgia can still get the BCS Sugar Bowl and send Florida to the non-BCS Capitol One Bowl. Most of the BCS experts do not foresee a 2-loss Georgia getting the BCS bowl.

 

[DRU2012]

When does that SEC#2 vs Big12 #2 game commence? Not 'til 2014, same year as the playoff? With its big $ pay out (bigger than Cap 1 and the other "also-Bowls", anyway--and there's talk already out here of them sweetening it further), higher profile and more attractive TV match-up, that opens up another spot for an SEC team to play a presumably high-ranked Big 12 team with a better chance of enhancing its final ranking. Given the SEC's dominance, this game will in the future be an attractive and important annual alternative/outlet for the SEC "oddman out" from playoff and Sugar Bowl opportunities...Never did like that sudden quality-drop-off "due to circumstances..."
Until then, it's pretty well, the Championship, The Sugar Bowl, and a bunch of other crap...More than ever, you can see how this system leaves good teams at the top of a superior Conference with little but crumbs. Hell, FSU might well turn out to BE our "Big Game" this time around (we're ALWAYS theirs). Until then it's back to the grind, take care of business doing what we do to win--and worry about that one when they're the next team we face. Everything else is beyond our control--that's what laying an egg against Georgia bought us.
While I'm trying to be realistic about what we have left to work with in developing a passing game, there HAVE been signs of something there in the last couple of games--long TD-passes that were called back for penalties away from the play--that future opponents ignore at their peril; either way, they help to open up other things. Even in this last third of our season change, elaboration and improvement, are possible--with this Head Coach, I imagine, expected. We ARE developing depth along our O-line in the bodies of our future STARTING front-wall. The freshmen are talented, it is experience with each other and/or the seniors who are still in there that they have lacked--something that could well have changed substantially by the end of this month. One more thing to "set aside and let happen" as this team soldiers on.
The new BCS is on just as I finish this: There couldn't BE a better demo of what we're facing here, a 1-loss team from the SEC vs "everyone else". Look:
(4) Georgia
(5) Florida
(6) LSU
(7) South Carolina
Each team's losses are from the other SEC teams in the top 10--USCe has TWO from the two teams directly above it, showing in just what high regard ALL of them are held by voters...and with each week, less and less chance of the SEC cannibalizing itself any further. Yet what will be the reward for all but ONE of these (assuming Alabama wins out--which, if wrong, they'll either change places with one of these, OR allow ANOTHER place in the BCS to slip from our collective grasp), but to ultimately scramble for those NON-BCS crumbs I talked about. This has ALWAYS been my argument to those who were anti-playoff. They talk about keeping the per-game value of the regular season, but for a long time, the reward for too many SEC teams who won a BUNCH of "big regular season contests" has been a trip to some 2nd-rate bowl that's a smaller deal than any of those.
A four-team play-off, plus openings in a BCS-Bowl, plus that SEC/Big 12 match-up together at least partially redress the inequity. Until that starts, though, we're now stuck in a virtual sweepstakes for a shot at 1 extra "meaningful game".

 

[Leakfan12]

Escambia94 Texas A&M is the best chance to beat Bama before the SEC title game. I hope Sumlin and company watch the Bama-LSU game or have the game film and see the LSU offense tore up the Bama D and use that to their advantage.