I was at the 09 Bama game. I've never heard as much silence as I did in the last minute of the ballgame. I knew I shouldn't be disappointed about the loss, but a win there would have been one of the highest on my greatest games attended list.
1. UT/UGA 03 - This is where my hatred for Georgia was born. 2. USCe/Barn last year - This is where my fandom of Stephen Garcia died. No way in hell should they have beat us. 3. UT/UF 02 - Wet, cold, and bloody miserable, not to mention that UT fumbled 74827473939 times. 4. UT/Barn 04 - This was a miserable game from the word go. I have never left a game at halftime aside from this one. 5. UT/USCe 09 - That damn Jimmy Hyams lied. He said there would be no black uniforms. There were black uniforms and there was rain. Lots of rain. 6. USCe/Bama 05 - Alabama tapped our ass. Also, I left with a terrible sunburn. This was where my fascination with sunscreen was born.
It didn't really feel like that to me. It was bad certainly, but there was an air of improbability about it, and at some point I threw up my hands and just accepted that the basketball ***s willed it. I expected him to throw the ball up and bicycle kick it in before it was over. Edit: I can't type "***"? My civil liberties are infringed.
By sports. . . Football: either '09 Tech or '10 Oregon. I think Tech, because we at least competed with Oregon for a half before we quit. We were never in the VT game. And our talent level was much closer with VT than with Oregon. Bounceyhoops: '10 Oakland Soccer: 4-0 friendly loss by the USA to Spain in Boston (2011) Hockey: My first live game was an 8-1 Bolts loss in Boston. That sucked. But I've had Carolina season tickets for a year now, and a 5-0 home loss to the Devils and 3-1 to Winterpeg (that got Paul Maurice fired) were pretty bad too. For sheer pathetic-ness of the product, I think Carolina's 3-1 loss to Winnipeg takes the cake. For a gut-punch after being really excited about the team and their chances, it's either Virginia Tech football or Oakland basketball.
Gerald Jones and Denarious Moore dropped three TDs between them in that VT game. A little help from those two and we are able to lean on Hardesty a lot more and we probably at least avoid the blowout.
Without going back and reviewing rosters, my recollection tells me that: 1. VT was a lot better than we were 2. A monsoon made Oregon forget to blow us out the first half Both of those games ended the way they should have, with the better team winning handily (although the complete and utter embarrassment against Oregon was a little over the top.)
Either: - Tennessee losing to UCLA at the Rose Bowl in '08 - Tennessee losing to Maryland in the Georgia Dome in the Peach Bowl. I don't care to look back and see what year this happened, but I think the 2002 season. It was embarrassing, and I got very drunk and belligerent.
We might have won the game. Denarius Moore dropping that would-be TD pass was the end of the game. I was unfortunately at that game, and the crowd was 80/20 in favor of UT. The air went out of the stadium when he dropped that ball. That was the game.
1996 vs Florida when we were down 35-0 at halftime. The Outback bowl in 06 against Penn State was brutal as well. Staying away from games in 2016.
As far as seeing UT play: The phantom Florida TD catch in 2000. Florida may have gone on to win regardless but it still sucked to see that in person, especially considering I think that TD capped off what was close to a 90 yard drive if I remember correctly. This also happened to be my first ever loss as a Vol fan that I witnessed first hand. I had built up a nice little winning streak of going to Tennessee games at that point that included (but was not limited to) the '96 Bama game and a couple of the home '98 matchups so seeing the postgame atmosphere after this one was certainly a different experience. Casey Clausen fumbling the handoff and seeing Georgia pick it up and run 95 or so yards to the other end right before halftime in 2003. Possibly the most soul sucking and momentum turning play i've ever seen at Neyland(I wasn't in attendance for '01 Ga). The stadium went from energetic to lifeless in mere seconds. Ainge going down against Notre Dame in 2004. I know it was just a non conference game, but I felt our chances of winning that game went out the window when that happened, especially considering Schaffer was hurt and we were going to have to rely on 3rd stringer Rick Clausen. Plus it was my birthday, so that sucked. The Music City Bowl gaffe in 2010. No explanation needed. Have been to countless other bad experiences, but those are the ones that stand out the most. Would have thrown 2005 Vandy in the list as well, but the season was such a horror at that point that it numbed the pain from that one a little bit. The Peach Bowl in 2002 against Maryland also gets an honorable mention.
Had also forgotten about the 2005 SC game. I guess I blocked that one from memory. Didn't really hit me how terrible of a waste that season was until I saw Brown hit that last minute field goal to put it away.
