Recently, an Auburn message board asked its readers "What is the Most Heartbreaking Defeat in Auburn's history?" The 2002 UGA vs. Auburn game ending in Michael Johnson's catch was in first place the last time I looked among their readers. (Image: MediaKnows)If I were going to do a similar poll, I wouldn't even know where to begin. So I'm taking nominations. I'll narrow the options to about six games before posting the final poll. To help me narrow the list, you'll need to describe the scope of your heartbreak for the game in question in vivid terms (in the comments):
Of the top of my head...some ideas for the list:
- 2005 - Auburn: The Tigers basically convert 4th and 60
2002 - Florida: Edwards and Foster blow it
2001 - Auburn: Richt's dumb goal line call in Athens
1999 - at Georgia Tech: "Jasper Was Down" (aka The Fumble)
1995 - at Tennessee: Robert Edwards Breaks his Foot
1993 - Florida: "Timeout Florida" in the rain
1993 - South Carolina: The Dive at the Goalline
1983 - Auburn: Two top 5 teams in Athens.
1982 - Penn State: Nothing goes right
1981 - Pitt: Marino kills the Dawgs at the end
1971 - Auburn: Undefeated AU vs. UGA, but AU prevails
(NOTE: I said "Heartbreaking" not "Enraging." That's another poll entirely)
PWD
99 comments:
As a recent-vintage Dog fan, I really only have memories of the last four. Auburn 05 wasn't so much heartbreaking, because, as much as it hurts to say, they deserved to win as much as we did.
Auburn 01 was just annoying, but the expectations weren't there that year.
And Tech 99 wasn't heartbreaking. It was rage-inducing. It's the reason that rivalry doesn't need balance to be a rivalry.
Which leaves Florida 02. I remember thinking as soon as Edwards missed that catch that he had missed his opportunity to be this generation's Lindsay Scott. Although I think if we'd won that game, we wouldn't have won at Auburn. The pressure would have been too much.
'02 Florida...and it's not even close for me.
I was in a depression for a week over that loss.
We were so much better than they were across the board. Every Dawg fan KNEW that was the year we were finally going to not only beat the gators, but destroy them.
And everything went horribly wrong.
Definitely Florida '02...so close to the National Championship game that year...
This goes back a ways, but 1965 losses to UF and AU. We were 1 play away from winning those games. Change those 2 plays and we are SEC Champs.That is the team that beat Michigan and Alabama.
It's Jasper all the way. Most crushing loss in a sports event EVER. Any loss to Tech would do but, I still almost puke when I think of it.
'02 Florida as it was the worst drive back to the hotel and then drive to Athens I ever experienced. Also, it was my senior year and FINALLY, we started to show some signs of where UGA football should be. Luckily, we still ended up with the SECC which was a great way to end my years at UGA!
I can't believe you left the 2004 Tennessee game off the list. I have never been more down as a fan than at the conclusion of that game. The week before we pounded defending national champs LSU, and came into the home game against a team with a freshman QB who had not looked remarkably good up until that point in the season on a roll. The wheels proceeded to come off, and a game where it seemed that Greene and Pollack had been out the night before drinking went down. I still remember sitting in the west endzone after the final heave downfield that Greene took didn't work and we lost. I've never been more heartbroken as a fan.
Actually, that was the 2003 game. My bad.
I say its the '95 game where Edwards breaks his foot. After all those years of losing we were finally going to beat the Vols, and then Edwards pulled up lame and the Vols came back to beat us. Plus there is that image of him going down on the sideline after he tried to come back in, while the Vol defender holds on to and "possibly" twists his foot before letting it go, that will always be ingrained as just one more reason I will always hate the Vols.
Another nominee, 2000 Georgia Tech. Seeing George Godsey run untouched through a pack of future NFL players was both enraging and heart breaking. The heart breaking came from the fear that Jim Donnan had already gotten a vote of confidence from the AD and was going to stick around in the future. Fortunately, Mark Richt was on the horizon. Donnan is a good man, and has represented UGA well since being let go, but I can't begin to describe the depression it was putting me in to think about a continuation of the crap that led to Godsey looking like Forrest Gump.
The 2004 Tennessee game, following a destruction of defending national champ LSU, and when Tennessee was coming with a true freshman QB in Ainge who looked horrible a week earlier against Auburn. That was also pretty discouraging.
Of your list, my vote is for 2005 Auburn and 95 Tennessee. The string of bad luck on that last play of Auburn, between the big conversion, Oliver hustling to force a fumble which didn't help, all of it, hurt. 95 UT for the what could have been if Robert Edwards stayed healthy.
The two 93 games are also pretty strong memories (with the rest coming before my time--born in 1980). But both 93 games are more enraging than heartbreaking. Both games had a bunch of venom for the refs following that bs dive at the goalline and the timeout that was called mid play.
99 GT has honorable mention for me. It could be hearthbreaking, except I bet on Georgia and got 3.5 points. We lost by a field goal, so I covered on what was a LOT of money. I was pretty heartbroken we lost, but the $$$ helped ease the pain.
Blackertai, you were right the first time, it was 2004 vs. UT.
Gotta go with 04 UT. But I'd put 05UF on the list too. What kind of luck do you have to have for Shockley to go down with an injury the week before? Heartbreaking even before the opening kickoff. Sick to my stomach when Milner dropped that pass (the first one) too.
-- RF
To me, heartbreaking implies that it involved "bigger picture" issues (SEC championship, MNC, etc). As ticked off and upset as I was at some of the losses in the 90's (which is when I was first old enough to really follow the sport)I can't really classify many of those as "heartbreaking" because we weren't in a position where the loss took anything away other than pride and bragging rights. The UT game in 92 when we couldn't hold on to the ball, the Florida game in the rain in 93, and the 94 Alabama games were all frustrating and maddening, but not heartbreaking, because even if we won, all we have is bragging rights (which are certainly something, don't get me wrong). Using that line of thinking, the '02 Florida loss and the '04 Tennessee loss were the worst for me. The '04 Tennessee game, especially, because we had such high expectations for that season, and there were SO MANY things that went wrong in that game, and if any of them go differently we probably win. It's still excruciating for me to think about today.
Definitely 2004 Tennessee game. I was a senior, we had just crushed LSU the week before, and life was awesome. I was certain this was going to be our National Championship year. Then the Vols come into town and squeak by us. I still remember sitting in the front row of my fraternity block in section 311, on my knees with only my head over the concrete wall, watching our last play as David Greene threw the ball to... no one. That one hurt bad.
We watched the 02 FL game at RV spot with about 100 other folks. I can remember when that pass fell thru Edwards' hands. We had partied since Thursday and I have never been more up for a game--especially one I didn't even attend.
The 2004 TN game was brutal, too. I had a choice of going to the LSU or the TN game that year (Couldn't go to both) and I picked TN. It was just a bummer all the way around.
1. '02 Florida. I just threw up again.
2. '83 Auburn. Absolutely no offense, but a glimmer of hope at the end.
3. '04 Tennessee. Classic letdown after blowing up LSU.
4. '83 Sugar Bowl, Penn State. This isn' higher only because of the passage of time.
5. 1976 Ole Miss. We just beat Alabama 21-0 and went to Oxford and never woke up.
6. '93 Florida "time out." The gods loved Spurrier.
7. '82 Sugar Bowl. I was in the end zone when John Brown caught the ball from Marino. As the ball was snapped, you could see the TE just run unblocked for the post. I screamed "nooooooooooooooo!" Then chugged my stanky Dixie Beer I had been nursing.
8. '99 Tech. That play would have been overturned today.
9. '00 Tech. Mr. Egger couldn't have said it better.
10. '81 Clemson. Buck's interceptions and Herschel's fumblitis. That game had no business being as close as it was. Clemson went on to win the MNC.
nachaboy,
The UT loss in '92 prevented us from going to the 1st SECCG. We lost to Tenn & Fla that year and each team in the East had 2 losses, I believe. However, Fla went to B'ham to lose to Bama who won the MNC against "teh bestest team evuh!!1!1!! led by Gino Toretta". I think there were 6 turnovers and the classic 4th & 13 conversion near the end.
I grew up a Bama fan, but by 93 (my junior year), I finally had UGA #1 in my heart over the Tide. So for me, I think the 93 Time Out game is the most heartbreaking. I mean, we won that game. Zeier and Shannon Mitchell had heroic performances. With no running game to speak of Zeier continued to move the Dogs in monsoon conditions as water cascaded down the stairs in the Gator Bowl. I think Mitchell tied or broke the single game reception mark for UGA if not the SEC that game.
Then to have some BS time out called after we scored the winning TD, was total crap. For 15 seconds, we got to enjoy a huge win over Florida, then it was taken away... only to see Zeier's next pass a little behind the receiver who got a hand on it, but couldn't reel it in.
In some of the games, the other team beat us, in some we beat ourselves, but this is one of those when the refs beat us.
The 02 Florida game probably would have been my #2 since, we should have won that game and it probably would have helped turn the tables on Florida a lot earlier.
This comment by Andrew is (seriously, every detail) exactly 100% true for me too. I really thought that was the year. That should definitely be on the list.
"Definitely 2004 Tennessee game. I was a senior, we had just crushed LSU the week before, and life was awesome. I was certain this was going to be our National Championship year. Then the Vols come into town and squeak by us. I still remember sitting in the front row of my fraternity block in section 311, on my knees with only my head over the concrete wall, watching our last play as David Greene threw the ball to... no one. That one hurt bad."
UF '02. We were the far better team, we were undefeated, and we came into J'ville looking forward to a bite or two of gator tail along the way to a national title. The walk back to the hotel from Alltel Stadium has rarely been enjoyable, but it has never been worse than it was this night.
Honorable mentions: Tech '99, Auburn '05.
'93 UF.
We have to do a redo because they claim that bastard nephew of Ronnie Lott called a timeout after we had already won the game . . I drank an entire bottle of Vodka and blacked out for three hours that night.
I have to go with Florida '02 due to the fact that we were undefeated coming in to that game and I think we would have run the table had we won the WLOCP.
Runner up is '04 Tennessee as we were undefeated coming in to that one as well and coming off of a huge win over LSU.
'05 Auburn was bad because of the way we lost, but we had already lost to UF the week before.
2005 - Auburn: The Tigers basically convert 4th and 60
2002 - Florida: Edwards and Foster blow it
2001 - Auburn: Richt's dumb goal line call in Athens
1993 - Florida: "Timeout Florida" in the rain
1992 - Tennessee: Hastings fumble
1982 - Penn State: Nothing goes right
1981 - Pitt: Marino kills the Dawgs at the end
No explanation necessary.
My Personal top 3 would be the 93 Florida game(Total BULL$H1T), the 02 FL game (I blame only 1 person, Terrance Edwards), and the 05 Auburn game (Tra Battle and Greg Blue).
At first I was going to say Tech in '99 but then I considered your enraging vs. heartbreaking contexts. The Jasper non-fumble was enraging more than heartbreaking (not to mention that the Tech player who recovered the "fumble" stepped back into the endzone under his own power with out being touched and downed the ball which should have been a safety.)
For me the most heartbreaking would be the '81 Sugar Bowl when Marino ripped our hearts out. Steve Kelly gets beat deep on basically the last play of the game. I was only 10 years old but I remember crying myself to sleep that night in my New Orleans hotel room after that crushing defeat. I also attended the '82 loss to Penn State in the Sugar Bowl. That was just frustrating but it was a slow constant death over the whole game so it wasn't really heartbreaking to me. Losing on the last play of the game the previous year was much more painful for me. Just as winning on the last play is much more exhilarating.
Can I also add that the officiating in the UGA/UT '04 game was absolutely atrocious? And that we lost about 10 seconds in the last minute because the clock operating dopes forgot that time stopped on a 1st down?
Ugh. Screw that game.
JasonC - you're right, I had actually forgotten about the implications of that '92 UT loss...such a frustrating game. We were even fumbling when there was nobody tackling us (Hastings, I believe).
My God, this is a depressing thread.
I think you have to go with games that cost us something (other than an Outback Bowl bid over a Peach Bowl bid). Therefore, I'd narrow the list down to:
UF 2002-Cost us a MNC game appearance.
PSU 1983-Cost us a MNC.
Clemson 1981-Cost us a shot at the MNC, though we didn't beat Pitt so I guess it didn't matter.
UF/UT 1992-Two fourth quarter collapses that cost us an SEC title game appearance and a shot at Bama; had we won that game we likely would have played Miami for the MNC. Who knows how different the '90s might have been just by winning the East that year?
USC 2007-Worse in hindsight, but we lost to a horrendous team and cost ourselves the SEC East and possibly the SEC and MNC titles.
Honorable mention: Any late-season loss to Auburn that cost us an SEC title.
I'm having a hard time finding a loss to Tech that actually mattered in the grand scheme of things (other than bragging rights; I'm not saying losses to Tech aren't completely unacceptable).
Knoxville '07
Just thought of another one from the 90's that I don't think has been mentioned...Auburn 97. We were coming off the glorious win in Jax, the crowd was ridiculously off the chain, Bobo hits Allen for an early lead, visions of SEC championships running through our head. And then fricking Damieuyeniene Craig (I don't care to spell his name correctly) starts running the SAME FREAKING PLAY over and over and over again, we never adjust, give up 45 points, and end up in the Outback Bowl.
All these are good options...here's a couple that I'm a bit surprised no one has mentioned yet.
'01 South Carolina: Good grief, if Terrance had only caught that ball in the endzone. Our redzone offense was terrible that day. Watching our defense, who until the last drive had been superb that day, give up THREE 3rd down conversions to them on the last drive still gives me nightmares. I think Brewer just caught another pass.
'03 Florida: The football gods were definitely not with us as we watched UF's kicker's last field goal start out looking like it would be wide left, then at its midway point, slice back to the right for a game winning Field Goal. If I can recall, a win in that game would have put us back in the hunt for a national title. Felt like '02 all over again.
'07 South Carolina: Soooo many missed oppurtunites, reminiscent of the '01 USCe game. No need to go over them. I'm hurt already.
I'd submit the '06 UT game. UGA has the lead going into the 4th quarter, at home, following a dominate 1st half. Destiny seemed on our side with a kickoff return for a TD and a punt return for a TD. Then we melted down in the 4th and lost the game big. Anytime 50+ gets put on us in our house its heartbreaking.
Also, I'd sumbit last years SC game. We never caught a break. Dropped balls, poor blocking, bad tackling.
The '83 Sugar Bowl loss and the '02UF game are far and away the most heartbreaking because, if we'd won those two, we'd have at least one, maybe two, more national championship trophies at Butts-Mehre.
02 Florida and it ain't close. They just ran another bubble screen and I threw up in my mouth a little bit. I have NO doubt that if Florida had not had a bye the week before we'd have beaten them by 20.
04 UT was bad, but to me I could live with it because it felt like everything we'd been living on at that point in the Richt era (bad red zone offense, kicking FG's instead of scoring TD's, ungodly 3rd down defense) finally caught up with us.
I'm going to add 98 UT, when we should have known for sure that we weren't going to get where we wanted with Donnan, and the first LSU game in 03. That LSU game was an absolute war, and I think was the most physically violent game of the Richt era. Had we just punched a few of those drives in the endzone in the first half and made LSU have to throw, that game would have been very different.
Reading all of these is just making me nauseus. I'm gonna go read some stuff about how good we're gonna be this year...
Only one game has ever caused me to stop watching TV, reading the newspaper or the web, and listening to the radio for a full week after the game, just so I could avoid hearing anything about Georgia football. And I was living in Virginia at the time, so the chances of that were slim. That was 2002 Florida. My friends still say they have never seen that side of me before or since.
I graduated from UGA in the mid-1980's and both the Pitt and Penn State Sugar Bowl losses were heartbreakers, especially since we would've won another NC if we beat Penn State. The 2005 Auburn game also hurt just ebcause we had the game won and let them convert on 4th down and an eternity. However, another game that sticks in my mind was our last second loss to Alabama on national TV in the 1985 season opener. We played poorly all game long, but in typical Dawg fashion, mounted a 4th quarter comeback. Then Webster blocked a punt and after kicking the ball 20 yards downfield, Ruff recovered it in the end zone for a go ahead TD. The stadium wents bonkers! We kicked-off and Bama had the ball with 50 seconds and had to march 70 yards because they needed a TD. I'll be damned if Mike Shula didn't lead them down the field and they scored a TD with 10 seconds left and broke our hearts.
2006 Vanderbilt Homecoming game still makes me want to forget that entire season. Even though we finished 9-4, there were several games that season that could have easily gone the other way.
Your first commenter nailed it. Florida '02 was heartbreaking; we had multiple chances to just run all over Zook's Gators that year and just pissed every last one of them away. I was up all night after that game, my stomach roiling, wondering how it could've happened.
But GT '99 was enraging. I don't think it's really proper to call yourself "heartbroken" when your first instinct is to go out and commit multiple homicides, and that's what mine was. That game is pretty much the reason I hate Tech even worse than Florida or Auburn, even now; at minimum we have to stretch our current streak to 10 before I'll be satisfied.
I don't care what it cost Georgia as a team. "Heartbreaking" implies emotion, not logistics. I didn't expect us to win 02 Florida so it didn't hurt too badly. It cost us a national title in hindsight but at the time there were a lot of teams still in the national title hunt. The only scare that week was Miami almost losing to Rutgers.
I'll second the 06 UT game. After that first half, I really thought Georgia was in great form and that we weren't rebuilding. We were reloading. I was thinking that 06 team was every bit as good as the 05 team. Maybe even better. Then the rest of that game made me realize how very wrong I was. It was the beginning of the slide that took us all the way down to the darkest moment of the Richt tenure: the loss to Vandy. To me, it was more heartbreaking because for the first time in my stint as a Georgia fan (which only stretches back as far as the firing of Goff), Georgia fell way below my expectations of them. (And I know it was unfair of me to have those expectations at that point but we are talking emotion, not logic.)
Florida '02. Can't even speak about it today. However, helped heal the pain.
But after the '82 Sugar Bowl loss to Pitt, my friend and I got in my car, checked out of our roach motel and drove straight home in driving rain. Didn't speak the whole way. Losing on the last play is the worst.
For me it was Auburn in 05. First of all the catch was bad enough and then Oliver caused the fumble that led to the refs putting the ball on the 4 yd line which was like slowly dying on a knife. I don't think we had any time outs but knowing that we were about to lose by one on a fg for 3-4 minutes after Shock had played out of his mind was gut wrenching for me.
I still wish that Penn Wages had called it a td which would given Shockley ample time to lead us to a win.
It may not have had the ramifications of other years for the DAWGS but Auburn 2001 almost had dire personal implications for me. I was a junior at UGA and my then girlfriend and now wife were about 5 rows off of the field in the endzone with the "horror" unfolding right before our eyes. After having been through the Donnan era and having become entirely cognizant of UGA football during the Goff regime I thought here we go again and proceeded to burst into a 12 hour stream of profanity that still hangs above Sanford Stadium to this day. My then girlfriend now wife would not speak to me for 4 days after the tirade and told me that if I ever did that again...she was gone. Fortunetly, it did allow here to see just how important UGA football is to the psyche of a state as she is from Chicago and did not fully grasp such things. Also, fortunetly for the DAWGS and myself such play calling blunders have become much more rare as Richt has matured and now Bobo has taken the reins. As for my wife, she doesn't go to many big games anymore and I have had to tone down a modicum with a daughter in the house.
I'd like to add a personal not-so-favorite. The 1994 Alabama game. We beat the crap out of the Tide for 3 quarters and then Jay freakin Barker converts what seemed like 4 3rd and longs in a row scrambling on the last drive.
I'm gonna pull one out of my ass here, but the 1987 Georgia-LSU was quite the bummer. I think it was the first heartbreaker I witnessed in person, and I'd almost completely blacked it out until this post came up (thanks, Paul).
We were down 16-3 and rode Rodney Hampton back to a 23-19 lead over the course of less than three minutes. Then Tommy Hodson, he of the "earthquake game," tosses a five-yard TD in the final minutes to cast a pall over Sanford Stadium. LSU went on to beat Nebraska in the Fiesta and we continued our sleepwalk through the post-Herschel hangover of Dooley's final years.
Ugh. Anyway, Stafford, Moreno, Massaquoi! Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.
1995 at Tennessee, also known as "Brice Hunter can't catch a cold"
the 05 sugar bowl against west virginia.
I'd like to add one more:
1996 opener against Southern Miss.
Jim Donnan was supposed to be the savior after the "Goff Great Depression."
Donnan's super offense goes scoreless until the fourth quarter...managing one touchdown in an 11-7 loss.
Leaving the stadium that day was like leaving a funeral.
2005 Florida kills me the most, because Florida was eminently beatable that year. Joe T had the miracle catch from Thomas Brown for the TD in the Third that got us back in. Florida had two quick scores, and then punted or fumbled the rest of the game. Just a heart-ripping defeat.
As for the Yech games, 98-00, they never happened, and therefore, can't be included on this list.
Suck it nerds.
1997 Auburn.
02 Florida was my first WLOCP. Needless to say, we know what happened...
One of them that I can't believe is on here:
2003 LSU (first meeting in BR). We outgained and outplayed them all day. Billy Bennett misses 3 field goals that he probably would have normally made. We lost by a TD. If we had beaten them, then we would have played Ole Miss in the SEC champ game instead of a rematch against the Tigers. Not only would that have avoided the whooping we received by them in the CG, but we probably would have beaten Ole Miss, and then been in LSU's position to play OU in the NC.
Though by far my top is 02 UF. That game made me seriously sick to my stomach. I remember the feeling vividly. I guess my list would be like this:
02 UF (missed NC)
03 LSU (see above)
03 UF
04 UT
99 Tech (ANY loss to Tech is terrible. Thankfully the memories of what it's like to lose to them is quickly fading)
05 UF (Shock gets hurt the week prior; they get 2 quick TDs early and Joe T almost leads a comeback)
07 USC (I didn't realize how much this game hurt until later; just an overall disappointing performance)
All of the above, but I would give an edge to all the Fla. loses. It is a depressing read.
the west virginia sugar bowl was terrible. has any team ever had a worse 1st quarter!!???! greg blue spent all night partying apparently and forgot how to take any sort of angle to make a tackle. he talked smack all week and he singlehandedly made us eat it. he made steve slaton look absolutely incredible that day (much like justin vincent in the 03 sec championship) and he hasn't done squat since. and for shock to battle the rest of the game only to have it come down to the most obvious fake punt to everyone in the dome except the georgia bench. it was awful. tack on taking 3 hours to get from the dome to dunwoody on marta. plus, now i work with 3 wvu grads and that's all they talk about. no one remembers the score to that game, espeically the media. espn treated that game like the final was 56-7 the whole next year in talking about how awesome the big east was. no one remembered that it was 38-35 and we almost won that. not only did georgia get crapped on that game, but the entire sec got crapped on too. plus, this is the big east's signature win, ever (add ou fiest bowl this year, too).
That '85 Bama reminder, wow. What a game. I was forced to sit with a Bama friend of the family who wanted to leave immediately after we recovered the block punt. I insisted we stay for the end to celebrate. During those 55 seconds - I learned for the first time that the clock stopped in college football on first downs. My dad didn't speak until Tuesday.
Auburn 05 for me sticks out for me. That effin play made me throw my hotdog. I'm not proud of it, but I did it. And I was hungry. And drunk.
Tech 99 made me punch the closest nerd. Because I was mad. And drunk.
Cocktail 92 sucked bad for me because it was my 21st birthday. Somebody broke my car windows while I was at the game and stole my booze. I missed Panic break out Sabbath at the Georgia Theater(remember it was Halloween?). I ended up hooking up with a gator chick because she was hot. And drunk.
Suck on that gators.
m1979 loss to Wake in Athens. I have a brother in law that played for Wake. I made some statements before the game that still come back to haunt. Alcohol was no solace.
1977 lost to Bama in Tusc. Ran out of quarterbacks. Ended up with a second string safety calling signals. We had no MoJo the whole year.
Drago
Anonymous 6/10/2008 10:11 AM
Personally, I'll be damned if I'm gonna put up with lip from a woman after I DAWG cuss Georgia for blowing it. Particularly a yankee. Damn son, if you keep that rage pent up inside, you'll die before next season is over and miss the national title.
Take a look at Anonymous 6/10/2008 12:32 PM for ways to vent your emotions other than cowering in the corner while your wife watches the View.
'05 Auburn was pretty darn bad. And to make it worse, after AU completed that long pass play, some jack@ss from the upper deck threw a hot dog and it hit my girlfriend in the head!
After reading all this, I had to go here to feel better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYryffNvDaU
Well if it's truely "Heartbreaking nor Enraging" then Tech '99 gets cut from the list.
But I'd have to pick Auburn '01becuase we did it to ourselves.
1. 2002 FLORIDA
2. 1992 TENNESSEE
3. 1993 FLORIDA
4.-8. BIG GAMES QUINCY WAS QB
9. 1992 FLORIDA
10. CAROLINA LAST YEAR
(IT ALWAYS HURTS SO BAD!!!)
Dawg19 -
Anytime I have to relive any Dawg-related misery, I click this here link and feel instantly better.
The 2001 Auburn call was the one where I said I don't think he's the coach for us. That was a Ray Goff call.
A couple others to consider:
Clemson '86
Clemson '87
LSU '87
For me any time we lose to the chickens it's gut wrenching because I live in SC and most of my family, friends and co-workers are chicken fans. So I have to hear it for an entire year. Don't even get me started on the hell I went through in 2000 and 2001. However the '02 UF game caused me to be kicked out of my own house because of me yelling obscenities at the TV. From George Foster dry humping the UF lineman to Shockley staring down the receiver and throwing a pick 6 . Not to mention the Edwards drop. I was sick because we clearly had the better team. Oh and UF had a freshman QB named Chris Leak. Wasn't this also the game where a TD got called back due to an "illegal forward pass"? When Pollock intercepted a pass and lateraled it to another player who returned it down the sideline for a TD. Or was that '03? In short
I'm going with the '02 UF game. The '82 Sugar Bowl would probably rank up there if I hadn't been 8 at the time.
I’m doing this before reading the 63 comments already posted. That way my feelings will truly be my own.
The best way I can describe the aftermath of the 2005 Auburn game is thus: I am not exaggerating when I say that except for 2 security guards, I was the last person out of Sanford Stadium that night. I’d gotten separated from my friends pre-game and didn’t see them until much later. I sat and watched as the Auburn players and fans celebrated. I couldn’t move. People talking to me on the phone have since described my state as if I was in mourning. I don’t remember talking to any of them.
I was asked to move several times, but I think the kind man in charge of emptying Section 110 took some pity on me. I’ve only felt that way 2 other times in my life, and each of those instances left me with one fewer grandparents.
It was well beyond hatred for Auburn and Brandon “flicks off opposing fans” Cox. It was well far past shock of the extremely quick momentum change. It wasn’t infuriating like UF ’02. I’ll never forget the way I felt then. I’ll never sit in the 9th row again. The shirt I was wearing that day has been retired.
Honorable Mention: UT ’04.
64 comments? Can you imagine how many responses you'd have had if this were a Gamecock message board and you asked the same question?
Heartbreaking as in a young wr dropping a probable national championship winning pass ?{all losses hurt , none like this one did}aka Penn st.'83 btw herschel's fumblitis ? You do recall he was wearing a cast on a broken hand rt.? get real
99 Tech.....I was raised to HATE tech, and this , was the worst way you could lose to the nerds..This game sent me on a four day drinking binge that my liver has yet to recover from. The only thing that helped me get over this game was the fact that we beat them in basketball a few weeks later, and the officials stopped the game and reviewed the tape to get the call right... I really think that most of these people on here have never physically been at a tech game in atlanta when they have won...Losing to tech would have to be close to being in hell.....I hate tech, and just thinking about that game has me wanting to go rip a tech fans head off...
As a relatively young fan, the '02 UF game hurt the most of the ones given. However, the one that hurt me the most was definitely the '04 Tennessee game in which the Dawgs were ranked #3 and had HUGE expectations that season. I was going to school in Florida, living amongst Gators and 'Noles, and the Dawgs were the team that year with a loaded team.
My buddies were throwing a huge toga party later that night (I went to a small school, Stetson University) and 300+ people were showing up (unheard of at my university). I was so depressed by the lost hopes of a national championship that I locked myself in my apartment and sulked for the rest of the weekend.
On top of hearing about the Dawgs' loss, I had to hear about my buddies' 10-kegger and numerous hook-ups with beautiful co-eds that weekend. Oh well, we had a good year, but that game cut deeply.
I am shocked to see only a couple people mention the 05 sugar bowl loss. the fact that WVU will be hanging there hat on that win for decades to come makes me want to scream. I had the pleasure of living in the lovely little town of Morgantown WV last year and they act like they killed us. Not like they were a fake punt away from giving up a 28-0 lead.
I have a hard time singling out one, because there are so many over the 14 years I've been closely following Georgia football that have stung, and for a variety of reasons. So instead I'll do as a few others have done and just rattle off the ones that instantly come to mind, in no particular order.
Tennessee, '04 - this was probably the most frustrated as I've been after a loss. It knocked us out of national title contention and virtually ended our SEC title hopes because Tennessee had a very easy (as easy as an SEC schedule can be, anyway) schedule to finish the year. It doesn't hurt as badly in hindsight because Auburn proved to be the cream of the crop in the SEC that year, but I had a hard time sleeping the night of this disastrous game.
Florida, '02 - Obviously hurts because it cost us a spot in the national title game and was another loss to the Gators, but the way we lost made it agony. Grossman just pecker-slapped us with those damn bubble screens all night.
Florida, '03 - CMR just wouldn't open it up in this game. He's gone conservative at times, but this was ridiculous. It almost seemed like he was scared to win.
Georgia Tech, '99 - as others have remarked, more infuriating than heartbreaking. You didn't feel frustrated so much as victimized, which is a far worse feeling.
Vanderbilt, '94 - watching them come into Athens and ring up 43 points was just disheartening. This was my first year as a fan, and while I knew it was bad to lose to Vandy then, it's hard to imagine now the program being that down.
Florida, '05 - simply because we would have run them out of the stadium with a healthy Shockley.
Auburn, '99 - the most egregious no-show I've ever seen from the Dawgs. Down 35-0 at the half to Ben Friggin' Leard and a sorry Auburn team Between the Hedges.
Dishonorable mention: Kentucky and Vandy, 2006; South Carolina, 2000; Auburn, 1997
AU01, was the most heartbreaking loss I remember being at. Overall for what it meant I would have to say '02 cocktail party.
After the 05 Florida game I actually cried.
2005 L to UF because if DJ had played, I'm sure we would have one. It was heartbreaking to know that.
2005 AU - 4th and 60.....
1993 (Senior Year) against UFag.
i didn't list the Sugar Bowl in '05 because I had that one in the enraging camp along side
'00 South Carolina (5 ints)
'99 GT (both lists)
'94 Vandy
'05 WVU
'95 Auburn (ray calls TO to kill us at the end in the cold)
Those are 5 that sent me off the deep end...but nothing compares to 2000 SC. I made an ass out of myself after the game.
oh...another heartbreaker...2000 against AU. Edwards and the white QB who's name escapes me came close to winning that. VERY close.
2002 Florida. Many of the other losses listed (good to see at least one person mentioning '96 Southern Miss) were painful, but 2002 Florida is the only one I still haven't gotten over to this day. We were vastly superior to Florida, who was even playing without Taylor Jacobs. Still, it was the same old story in Jacksonville, only this time, we had everything on the line.
That loss even put a damper on my enjoyment of the SEC title and Sugar bowl victory that year, and it's tough for me to think about the 2002 season without thoughts of sitting in Alltel as the sun set on UGA's national title hopes. That one still hurts to this day, and I don't anticipate that hurt to go away until UGA wins a national championship.
'99 Tech was the first time I ever felt sick after losing a game.
'02 UF game hands down. I haven't been to Jax since.....
'02 Florida. The thing that stands out in my mind was the QB rotation. Greene was in rythem and then Richt pulled him for a series for Shockley. Shockley forces a pass and it is intercepted by Scott who runs it for a TD. After that the play calling was designed to set up to kick FG's. 2 of which Billy Bennett missed. 0 for 13 on third downs. Foster humping that guy, Musa's TD called back for illegal motion, Tony Milton dropping 4th and 1 and Edwards's dropping the wide open pass just killed me.
When I left the stadium I had bunch of 'turd fans up in my face yelling "overrated and 12 out of 13".
of that list, uf 02 but 2006 tenn was awful for me cuz i had more expectations than most ppl i think.
also 04 tenn was bad..
I believe the QB you are referring to was Cory Phillips paul.
And I'm surprised no one has mentioned Tennessee from this past season. We bring up the SC loss as costing us a chance at LSU in the SEC C and possibly a national title, but if we beat Tennessee, the SC game doesn't matter. That game had the added effect of a complete and total humiliation. We were absolutely dominated by David Cutcliffe that game, and it sent the pretty much every Dawg fan off the deep end. That game felt like being a small, feminine man sharing a cell in maximum security at Ft. Leavenworth with Shaq-sized rapist.
Here's the most enraging game I have seen... the infamous 2007 Alabama-Georgia basketball game. Most heartbreaking game ever has gotta be that 2005 Auburn game... however, I got over it a year later when we basically decimated them on a rainy day Jordan-Hare. What a day that was in 2006!
I hate UT 04 too. If my memory serves, I think Leonard Pope was called for holding on a kickoff return by Thomas Flowers. I also believe Pope ran the wrong route to end the game. I remember all of my friends and I were on the steps. We just knew we were going down the field. But Pope ran one way, Greene threw it somewhere else.
One or two others hit on my number one... 1992 Florida. That year we fumbled away a win against UT. But later in the season Arkansas and Alabama beat UT and put us in the driver's seat if we could beat UF. We went to Jax with the best running back in Div 1 who was the Heisman frontrunner. Goff/McDuffie (rest his soul) only gave Hearst the ball 13 times and we lost 24-26. Also cost Hearst the trophy. Leaving the stadium, some Jorts clad Turd ran past me holding up 3 fingers and said "How do you like that?" indicating 3 straight wins. Well, I didn't like it at all, friend. He kept running. Anyway, at that time we really did not expect the series to get so whacked for the coming decade-plus and I really hated that loss. It cost us a trip to Birmingham for the inaugural SECCG and a shot at the Sugar Bowl/MNC.
Auburn 1983 hurt. A win would have put us in Sugar Bowl. Was my senior year in HS and I was in Sanford with a bunch of recruits. We were in the locker room after the game and heard the consoling voice of God, I mean Coach Dooley. Very moving.
UF 2002. DJD. But ESPN would have voted Miami and OSU into the MNC Game regardless, so we would have ended up getting Auburned. That would have likely spelled the end of the internets as UGA message boards would have melted all WWW infrastructure like a thermite incendiary. See? Silver lining and all that.
1983 sUGAr Bowl. Should have been National Champs. Got badly out-coached.
One other Heartbreaker... Sweet 16 loss to Syracuse. They hit a buzzer beater 3-pointer (after our big 3-pointer) to send to OT. Then hit buzzer beater for the win. 'Cuse went on to lose to Kenticky in the Finals. That was painful. we had a great starting 5 that year.
For me, the emotion breakdown goes like this:
05 Sugar Bowl - rage had left the building and watching the Dawgs fight back from that first quarter was emotional. To fall just short on a fake punt? Like a movie.
05 Florida - Watching JoeT and the Dawgs fight their hearts out while DJ was hurt...
02 Florida - It still feels terrible to remember all the grief Edwards got after that one drop, while the whole team should have had us ahead by two touchdowns by then. Roller coaster of hope and despair type game.
83 Penn State and 02 Florida. I was in school at UGA is 83 so that one stands out for me since it cost us the National Championship. 02 Florida was just sickening.
wow. 87 comments. You're practically turning into "IDontLikeYouInThatWay" here, popularity-wise. Or perhaps, as Jim McKay used to say, "the agony of defeat" is something that just burns itself into your memory. Why is it the highs are never as high as the lows are low?
the Sugar Bowl loss to Pitt/Marino was the most agonizing for me. I, too, was sitting in the end zone and watched the ball hang for what seemed like an eternity before the wide ass open TE caught it without breaking stride. I've hated Bill Lewis since that day. It took him a couple of years to wreck Erk's defense, but the deep heartbreaking TD was the hallmark of Bill Lewis's defensive style (see Penn State in the Sugar Bowl the next year, Al Bell and Mike Shula torching us in under a minute in 85, Ricky Nattiel torching us for about a 175 yard TD pass in (I think) 84 in Jax.
Also frustrating: Clemson 82 (we had about 30 turnovers and were somehow still in the game), Auburn in 05 (to give up a 65 yard score on 4th and 15 in the last minute still makes me ill) and Florida 02 (we used to WIN games like that under Dooley. It was the death of 1000 paper cuts. I hate the bubble screen) And, of course, the WVa Sugar Bowl. I sat in the middle (literally) of about 10,000 Mountaineer fans. I knew and THEY knew we were going to complete the comeback in the 4th quarter....until the fake punt. Worst first quarter ever, then we get teased with a comeback only to get suckered at the end. Bleah.
there are lots more of course, and I wont rail on the rage inducers. That's a whole other thing.
Anyone else notice how many times it has Awbarn has been mentioned. I am ready to beat those rednecks down again right now. Any chance we could use our superior intelligence to convince them to black out their own stadium?
PWD,
I thought I was the only person who remembers that 95 AU game. I was 14 years old, sitting with my dad and when Ray called that time out my dad looked at me and say "He has absolutely no idea what's going on"....pretty much summed it up. 00 SC was bad too, I drove up to see my girlfriend that was going to school at Berry, she broke up with me, I got a speeding ticket on the way back to Athens, then got stuck in dead still traffic on 285 and listened as Quincy threw #5. I remember thinking "This is the perfect ending to a horrible day."
Wow, posting on this list and reading the other comments has really been cathartic. I live in Texas and my wife doesn't understand this at all. This is like a support group.
Anyway, some other notables:
Any UF game in the 2000s, save for the ones we won. 2002, 2003, 2005 editions were giant kicks in the balls that kept me from speaking until the following Friday.
Anytime we lose to Auburn, but especially '83, '97 and '05. I'm from Columbus. Ask any Dawg fan from Columbus -- the earth is a cold, dead place when we lose to those guys.
'82 Sugar Bowl. It is an exquisite pleasure to me that Dan Marino retired from the NFL ringless.
'84 Tech. The sight of Bill Curry and John Dewberry with hedges in their teeth is probably the most lurid image of defeat ever burned into my brain. That's my first memory of losing to Tech, so it counts as a heartbreaker. Subsequent losses all fall in the "enraging" category.
You know, I was never really upset over Auburn '05. Yeah, I hate losing to those goobers, but in retrospect...
1) We de facto clinched the SEC East earlier in the day. (Yeah, we needed to beat UK the next week, but they sucked, and we sleepwalked to a big win.) Florida's loss to South Carolina, in which their beloved SEC officials drove in the final stake, was glorious irony. Anything after that was icing on the cake. I know, I know, I'm supposed to hate Auburn with a burning passion, but there it is.
2) It made Auburn out to be some sort of People's Champ, so we got to hear a month-and-a-half worth of Tigger fans bleating and moaning about how truly great they were...up until getting the crap stomped out of them in the Capital One. Beautiful.
3) It severely lowered my expectations of Georgia's ability to stop the run. I thought LSU was going to walk all over us, so the SECCG win was even sweeter. And then the Dawgs proved my point anyway in the Sugar Bowl. Oh well.
On the whole, it was a freaky loss by a team who had a ton of wiggle room to go to Atlanta. Whatever ownage Auburn may have thought they had over us after that game has been lost completely by the '06 and '07 Georgia romps.
As for UT '04...
"If my memory serves, I think Leonard Pope was called for holding on a kickoff return by Thomas Flowers."
I was so POed that I don't remember the call much, but I think it might have been Jeremy Thomas.
"I also believe Pope ran the wrong route to end the game. I remember all of my friends and I were on the steps. We just knew we were going down the field. But Pope ran one way, Greene threw it somewhere else."
I was in that EZ. It was just a lousy play. The idea seemed to be Greene would toss it up, and Pope would just get it. Yeah, the Pope had some six inches on everyone, but UT saw it coming and surrounded him by 10 guys. Would have rather seen Freddie on a fade, but oh well.
worst heartbreaking basketball loss ever?
Easy one for me. Winter 1981, I'm studying for the bar exam in Athens. UGA is at home versus UK. Nique was a junior, the team had a little buzz. UK was UK, with Sam Bowie and Co., and we hadnt beaten them since about 1923.
Less than 30 seconds left (pre-shot clock era), UGA has the lead and the ball. One Eric "Sky Dog" Marbury is dribbling 30 feet from the hoop, unmolested. Suddenly, he sees a crease to the basket. So, naturally, he decides to take it to the rack. Unfortunately for Sky Dog and UGA, Sam Bowie met him in the paint, snuffed the shot, UK recovered the loose ball and took it down and scored the game winner. Talk about your bitter, bitter losses....
I know it's just basketball and no one really cares compared to football, but damn, that one hurt.
honorable mention: Howard Carter of LSU buried a 3 at the buzzer in OT from about Watkinsville to beat us in (I think) the winter of 1980 in Athens. And Jacky Dorsey almost singlehandedly blew (note to power forwards: dont try to beat a full court press by dribbling behind your back and hacky sacking the ball off your heel) a 4 point lead at home with the ball and less than 10 seconds left against Alabama (which had a great, ranked team) in Athens in the winter of 1976 to lose in regulation. Ouch. That isnt easy to do.
1/1/1983.
Nothing else comes close.
93 vs. Fla 'Timeout Game'. This was brutal. My first GAvFL game in several years and since a mere child. My first GAvFl game as a college student and without my parents present. One of my best friends, a Seminole!, went to Fl because of scholarship, stood with me and the dawg students. Ever after this game he has bled fl orange...I kinda, sorta miss that guy.
But anyways, it was miserable rain yet I wasn't feeling a drop due to the 15 second victory...only to have it taken away. Seconds later a receiver not able to come up with a SECOND game winning score...IT STILL BITES!!! I HATE FLORIDA!!! After the game, the gators that taunted us, still burns. Win with class, especially if you have to win with a call like that. I also affected the SEC race and the SEC championship that year. A big game, against, according to this south ga boy, our biggest rival, in the rain, by that crap. It has to make your top 5 list. The week after the game I used a gator for 12 gauge buckshot target practice...this a 7 foot gator I shot from a pond with a 30-06. I was 'venting'. I'd like to vent more this October.
nope, all of you have it totally wrong. the '06 sugar bowl loss to WVU is the most heartbreaking. Shockley's last year, but with that loss, we legitimized that conference forever. BC and Miami had just left the conference, i believe,people were questioning why they got an automatic bid and we go in and lose the way we did legitimized their argument forever....this is a quote taken from wikipedia:"The game is thought to have raised the Big East's profile". that's the most heartbreaking.
I've lived through them all but the 02 FL game was the absolute worst. The losing streak and Zook. I was sick for a week.
Here's an odd one for you seeing how it ain't a defeat ... 1996's win over Texas Tech. I was a freshman, and the student section went bonkers as if we had just won the SEC title and not just beaten a mid-level Big 12 team.
It was almost as heartbreaking in the sense as it made me realize just how pathetic the 1990s were.
OK, this has all been good for the soul. Now everybody take a deep breath, close your eyes, and picture the moment it all turned around. 2001, Knoxville.
There, doesn't that feel better?
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