The First Loss of the Season

[Gandalfish 346]

Hope springs eternal with each new college season. Every year we have dreams dancing in our head, "If we could only get to that Nth win" -- "If we could just win the conference" -- "If we could just make the playoff" -- "If we could win the national championship".

Some years these dreams are more realistic than others. More years than not, reality does come a knocking.

It's that time of year, our first loss of the season.

In the 132nd season of Texas football, it's only NOT happened 9 times. (2005, 1969, 1963, 1920, 1918, 1914, 1900, 1895 & 1893)

In six seasons, our first loss came the last game of the season! (2009, 1983, 1977, 1970, 1913 & 1894)

This pain is visceral, like a punch to the gut or a bad burrito. I felt it when we were down 23-0 at half time. I felt it again when we failed to hold them on 3rd and 10 backed up against their own end zone late in the third quarter.

The crowd was electric, deafening at that moment. The air just got sucked out of the stadium with the 21 yard completion.

It hit hard and with finality when Quinn Ewer's 4th down completion stopped 2 yards shy of the first down with 5 minutes left to go.

We lost. We got humiliated at home. One of the biggest losses by a #1 team, at home, in history.

I'm not going to tell you that loss shouldn't hurt. In fact, I'm celebrating the hurt. It hurts because we love the game. We love the spectacle, the poetry and the brutality. We love Texas Longhorn Football.

We share the pain of thousands of fans before us felt the 123 other times that first loss of the season tarnished our dreams.

 

So, if you like, share some of those painful memories of games you attended or just have stuck in your mind over the years.

Keep dreaming big.

Hook 'em Horns 🤘

 

[GreenspointTexas 9598]

Worst offensive performance since 2017

[RollingPresidential 632]

UCLA 2010 was the most shocking loss I've been at, I think, because I was a junior and we had lost a single regular season game during my entire time in school to that point. It did not seem real. 

[Davis Lane 5578]

[CycleTex87 2965]

Too soon, but Shock the Nation Miami Cotton Bowl worst loss I've ever attended personally.

[D3zii 3675]

Tom Herman would’ve had us ready 

[John Coctostan 591]

I was about to post about Rout 66. Or that Miami Cotton Bowl. Or one of the OU games in the early 2000s.

But instead I'm going to close the laptop and repeatedly punch myself in the balls.

[troph 24781]

84 cotton bowl FTMFW

[txduck87 985]

Too soon, but Shock the Nation Miami Cotton Bowl worst loss I've ever attended personally.

Way too fucking soon man.

[83Horn 1640]

1980 SMU game.  Complete gut punch.  That season started with a nationally broadcast Monday night game in which Texas completely destroyed Arkansas.  ABC had moved that game up specifically because they wanted the Texas-Arkansas game to be the first nationally broadcast game of the new decade.  This was the game where freshman LB Jeff Leiding did his Superman imitation and almost killed an Arkansas kick off returner, and also almost killed himself in the process.  The only time I heard over 80,000 people gasp in unison over a hit.  Anyway, Texas dominates that game, wins the next 4 easily, including a pretty convincing win over OU before the bye week created by moving the Arkansas game.  So, we go into the SMU game rested and ready at 5-0, sitting at number 2 in the polls.  SMU was 3-2 and hadn't beaten Texas in something like 13 years, and was showing no signs of being able to do so this year.  The much vaunted "Pony Express" backfield of Craig James and Eric Dickerson hadn't shown much by midway through their sophmore season, so I and everybody else in DKR was expecting an easy win on our way to playing for at national championship, as all of our "hard" games were behind us.  All of this made the complete domination of Texas in this game all the more puzzling and infuriating.  It was the first time is over a decade that Texas didn't score a TD at home, and the 20-6 final score really doesn't show how thoroughly Texas was beaten down.  SMU didn't lose again until BYU beat them with a last second TD in the Holiday Bow, and Texas went on to finish the year at 7-5 with a loss in the Bluebonnet Bowl to UNC, which featured a senior LB name Lawrence Taylor.  There is no way to adequately express the suckage that was the 1980 season, and I believe it gave us Longhorn fans the first indication that there might be some kind of rot taking hold and that the wheels were coming off the machine that was Texas football.

[South Austin 52443]

The Georgia loss, while utterly disappointing, was nowhere near as bad as 1997 UCLA or 2010 Iowa State, to name just a couple home games. 

But in my lifetime as a Horn, the absolute worst game I've attended anywhere in terms of (1) shitty performance that dashed all pre-game expectations, (2) opponent, (3) weather, and (4) complete ass-kicking, was 2000 OU.

Edited October 22 by South Austin

[David Dennison 18844]

12 minutes ago, South Austin said:

The Georgia loss, while utterly disappointing, was nowhere near as bad as 1997 UCLA or 2010 Iowa State, to name just a couple home games. 

But in my lifetime as a Horn, the absolute worst game I've attended anywhere in terms of (1) shitty performance that dashed all pre-game expectations, (2) opponent, (3) weather, and (4) complete ass-kicking, was 2000 OU.

Yeah, this was just a run of the mill loss to a very good opponent.

Shake it off and win the rest.

[Wally Pryor 5261]

Four Black Saturdays in the Cotton Bowl against OU under Brown's watch.  Treating the game like a picnic instead of a rivalry. Avg score of 62 - 16. Losing to those unbridled pieces of shit and having our players scraped off the floor of the Bowl before halftime, four times, will always be the benchmark for bad losses in Texas football history.

Nothing tops them. Again, it was against OU. 

[Wilcox Cummingtonite 2935]

1 hour ago, D3zii said:

Tom Herman would’ve had us ready 

This guy?

[Tex Pete 20330]

1 hour ago, CycleTex87 said:

Too soon, but Shock the Nation Miami Cotton Bowl worst loss I've ever attended personally.

Rout 66 for me.

And some of those OU beatdowns hurt a lot. So unnecessary. So typical of Mack Brown, who always wanted to make sure the Sooner kids had fun.

[TreatyOak 16311]

1 hour ago, Gandalfish said:

In six seasons, our first loss came the last game of the season! (2009, 1983, 1977, 1970, 1913 & 1894)

The 1913 loss to Notre Dame on Clark Field still burns like it was yesterday. Seeing them dominate us 29-7 was so painful. That was really when Aggy began their road to dominance that has lasted til this day. 

 

 

[Hayduke 82]

First loss of the season is way easier to take in the expanded playoff era. It should even make the rest of the season much more interesting.

But let it be the last.

OU game my freshman year, way back. I was irrationally upset for more than a week, although it was probably worse because it was still only my second month with one leg and half my body out of my childhood home.

[Rip76 4924]

One tough one for me was Texas Tech - 1998.

 

[Dennis Taylor 18807]

21 minutes ago, TreatyOak said:

The 1913 loss to Notre Dame on Clark Field still burns like it was yesterday. Seeing them dominate us 29-7 was so painful. That was really when Aggy began their road to dominance that has lasted til this day. 

 

 

[Not a cat 5652]

1 hour ago, CycleTex87 said:

Too soon, but Shock the Nation Miami Cotton Bowl worst loss I've ever attended personally.

I attended that Miami game.  Also 2000 OU, 1994 Rice (I mean WTF, rice?), 2 losses to Iowa state (a shutout loss and the get in the motherfucker game), and a shutout loss to KState.  Saturday night wouldn't even sniff the top 5 shitty losses I've attended. 

Maybe I need to just watch on TV going forward?

[Tex Long 4382]

1 hour ago, D3zii said:

Tom Herman would’ve had us ready 

 

36 minutes ago, Wilcox Cummingtonite said:

This guy?

 

Be fair, he could do it, but he'd need to lay off the hookers jewelers and blow.

[wisertime 31]

New guy here - I'm a Clemson fan, but my gf is a Texan and me (having always been a casual Longhorn fan since I was a kid) have taken a bigger interest in you guys the past few years.  Actually attending my first UT game in Nashville this weekend.   As I told my (very saddened) gf as the minutes ticked down on Saturday night, in the grand scheme of things, that loss won't be looked at as a big deal, and may be a good thing.   In 2016, we (Clemson) were undefeated, but things just seemed off - we weren't really taking full advantage and it felt like we were sleep-walking through some of the games.  At the Pitt game, at home, and with me in the stands, we lost to a crappy Pitt team.  We were stunned.  But - it woke us up, made us realize that we could lose these things and we had a target on our back every single week.  We ended up winning out, destroying OSU in the playoffs and then knocking off Alabama in the Natty.  In hindsight, that loss was probably the best thing that happened to us that season - it showed us our vulnerabilities and woke our guys up.  And I think you guys can take advantage of the same and turn it into a positive. 

 

Also, win out and you'll be playing UGA again in the SECCG.  As you all know, it's really tough to beat the same team twice and that being said, you'd prefer to lose to them now and win in December, versus the opposite.    I think if a few things get corrected, you can run the table.   Good luck guys - I'm pulling for yall! 

[CycleTex87 2965]

47 minutes ago, Not a cat said:

I attended that Miami game.  Also 2000 OU, 1994 Rice (I mean WTF, rice?), 2 losses to Iowa state (a shutout loss and the get in the motherfucker game), and a shutout loss to KState.  Saturday night wouldn't even sniff the top 5 shitty losses I've attended. 

Maybe I need to just watch on TV going forward?

I forgot about that Rice game.  Thanks a lot. I was there also. And the Garrett Gilbert ISU game. 

[Gut Wagon 8065]

Homecoming 1976. DKR's swan song. We lost to the Coogs...30-0. I wished I hadn't gone. 

[Mr. Drummond 2198]

1 hour ago, Wilcox Cummingtonite said:

This guy?

Sure but we would have lost to Michigan and Miss St first.

[Hermanator 7032]

With the portal, NIL, and now all of the power teams other than FSU and Clemson in 2 conferences the days of the undefeated champion are mostly over. The Saban/Smart/LSU 2019 type teams of the last decade and a half wouldn't be going undefeated in this climate. You play too many good teams in conference now, especially the SEC. Then the conf title game isn't against some nobody from the weak other half of the conference anymore. It's the legit second place team. Too tough. Losses will happen but 1 or 2 won't kill your playoff chances. 

[ATXhorn17 1617]

Can you imagine Herman handling the riot the other night? He probably would’ve egged it on lol

[PTINS 3459]

Texas had a once in a lifetime opportunity to storm into the SEC in our inaugural season and knock Georgia off their pedestal, and assume the leadership role and the dominant position in the SEC and all of College Football. 

And, ...we laid a fucking egg. 

My repost from Saturday morning:

  On 10/18/2024 at 9:58 PM, BurgleBro said:

Surly in angst

Arguing runs amok

Must be Friday

I’m doing something I hate that others do… I ain’t reading all this bullshit.

I expect Saturday night to be as special as any game in our proud history.

Biggest sports night in Austin, ever.

The perfect setting.

Home in Austin, Texas, baby!

We have been through so much, for so long, and we have come so far.

Texas is a team and organization that has earned the respect of others, with the full commitment and support of so many.

Sark, and the young men who choose to honor us, as they represent us, will deliver, and we will take the place we were destined to be.

Hook ‘em!!!

2 hours ago, David Dennison said:

Yeah, this was just a run of the mill loss to a very good opponent.

Shake it off and win the rest.

For me, 1977 was the worst. My senior season, and Earl's, going against Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl. Texas was an overwhelming favorite, and got embarrassed. 

This may have been "a run of the lill loss" in some ways.

But it is the worst in so many ways.

Texas had a perfect, and unique, situation to accelerate and reinforce all the good things that have happened for the 1st time in a generation, and knock the SEC dick in the dirt in the process, and we fucked it up.

Now, we are simply one of the many floundering around trying to figure it all out, and worse, we have legitimized all the BS of the SEC! SEC! SEC!, that we, meaning you, will here about for eternity.

 

 

 

Edited October 22 by PTINS
typo

[Wilcox Cummingtonite 2935]

14 minutes ago, ATXhorn17 said:

Can you imagine Herman handling the riot the other night? He probably would’ve egged it on lol

[sidis 9822]

37 minutes ago, Hermanator said:

With the portal, NIL, and now all of the power teams other than FSU and Clemson in 2 conferences the days of the undefeated champion are mostly over. The Saban/Smart/LSU 2019 type teams of the last decade and a half wouldn't be going undefeated in this climate. You play too many good teams in conference now, especially the SEC. Then the conf title game isn't against some nobody from the weak other half of the conference anymore. It's the legit second place team. Too tough. Losses will happen but 1 or 2 won't kill your playoff chances. 

4 of saban's 6 national champions had a loss. the only two that did not were the cut down covid season (with sark unleashing najee, devonta, and waddle) and the one where garret gilbert turned the ball over a hundred times.

[Tex Long 4382]

All things considered, we did actually win the second half, 15-7.

If we and they take care of business, we can play them again, this season.

And it's even possible we play them twice... this season.

 

 

[CycleTex87 2965]

You forgot the dual birds at the camera during NSD. 

[South Austin 52443]

11 minutes ago, Tex Long said:

we did actually win the second half, 15-7.

This is what my tshirt says.

[Tex Long 4382]

9 minutes ago, South Austin said:

This is what my tshirt says.

Link to order page? 

[John Coctostan 591]

LHB won halftime, too. We practically won the whole evening.

[Bevo14 8303]

5 hours ago, RollingPresidential said:

UCLA 2010 was the most shocking loss I've been at, I think, because I was a junior and we had lost a single regular season game during my entire time in school to that point. It did not seem real. 

same but I was a freshman

[Funk Doctor Spock 12176]

Worst game I ever attended was before I enrolled, and it was 2003 Oklahoma face fucked us 65-13. 

This was literally my face, and I told myself, "Well, at least I'll get a great education". 

Edited October 22 by Funk Doctor Spock

[dcbc 14465]

Maybe not the worst, but the whiplash of emotions loss for a game I attended in recent memory was that loss to Cal after Heard (at QB) ran took it to the house in the last seconds of the game only to have Nick Rose miss the PAT.  Dead silence all the way out of DKR.

Edited October 22 by dcbc

[DanTheHorn 4913]

5 hours ago, CycleTex87 said:

Too soon, but Shock the Nation Miami Cotton Bowl worst loss I've ever attended personally.

Yes but this loss did not feel like that one. At the time we thought we were close to starting to compete with the big boys after a few years of futility. After that game we came out thinking if we had played our best game we still would have been boat raced. We were no where close in January 1991. Against Georgia we know we played a bad game because our OC and QB were unprepared but had we had a decent game we could have won.

[Paper_jam 831]

It may not be the "worst" loss, but it still feels like a kick in the balls because this was such a prominent game, at home, with national attention focused on it. We had an opportunity to demonstrate to the whole country that Texas was indisputably the best team in college football. Instead we shit all over ourselves and rolled around in it. So not the worst loss, but in it's own way, it was a deeply disappointing loss.

And in the first half, I was definitely getting "Miami Cotton Bowl" flashbacks. At least the 2nd half wasn't so bad.

Edited October 22 by Paper_jam

[Wilcox Cummingtonite 2935]

1 hour ago, sidis said:

4 of saban's 6 national champions had a loss. the only two that did not were the cut down covid season (with sark unleashing najee, devonta, and waddle) and the one where garret gilbert turned the ball over a hundred times.

Sark ain’t Saban. He’s much closer to Lane Kiffin than Saban.

[sidis 9822]

11 minutes ago, Wilcox Cummingtonite said:

Sark ain’t Saban. He’s much closer to Lane Kiffin than Saban.

the lack of 7 national championship rings across two teams as a head coach certainly betrays that fact.

but that was not my point...my point was that the revelation of national champions routinely not being undefeated has become more the rule than the exception already, well prior to the expansion of the playoff. they playoff simply exacerbates that and even creates the possibility of a 2 loss champion for the first time since lsu's nonsense 2007 championship.

since texas's 2005 undefeated national championship, of the 18 national champions, 8 of them were undefeated and 9 of them had one loss, and 1 of them had two losses.

[David Dennison 18844]

Has anyone mentioned those two Maryland losses?

Brutal.

[Funk Doctor Spock 12176]

2 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Has anyone mentioned those two Maryland losses?

Brutal.

Bro, don't do that. That hurts so bad. The epitome of Tom Herman's coaching career at Texas. 

[texastroubadour 1210]

5 hours ago, South Austin said:

The Georgia loss, while utterly disappointing, was nowhere near as bad as 1997 UCLA or 2010 Iowa State, to name just a couple home games. 

But in my lifetime as a Horn, the absolute worst game I've attended anywhere in terms of (1) shitty performance that dashed all pre-game expectations, (2) opponent, (3) weather, and (4) complete ass-kicking, was 2000 OU.

I was at that game. Freshman year at UT

[Surly Bevo 24908]

It wasn't the first loss of the year but the CU 2001 B12 Champ Game loss to a team we skillfucked 41-7 mere 6 weeks prior with a BCS berth on the line was certainly the most WTF/painful.

It's also the kind of stuff that reminds you that teams keep developing (or regressing) during a season and so all is not lost yet in 2024 with the way CFP sets things up now.

[David Dennison 18844]

The biggest ass-whipping I witnessed live was the 1991 Cotton Bowl.

Watching that disaster made it seem colder than it actually was, and it was fucking cold.

[Vertigo 20276]

4 hours ago, wisertime said:

New guy here - I'm a Clemson fan, but my gf is a Texan and me (having always been a casual Longhorn fan since I was a kid) have taken a bigger interest in you guys the past few years.  Actually attending my first UT game in Nashville this weekend.   As I told my (very saddened) gf as the minutes ticked down on Saturday night, in the grand scheme of things, that loss won't be looked at as a big deal, and may be a good thing.   In 2016, we (Clemson) were undefeated, but things just seemed off - we weren't really taking full advantage and it felt like we were sleep-walking through some of the games.  At the Pitt game, at home, and with me in the stands, we lost to a crappy Pitt team.  We were stunned.  But - it woke us up, made us realize that we could lose these things and we had a target on our back every single week.  We ended up winning out, destroying OSU in the playoffs and then knocking off Alabama in the Natty.  In hindsight, that loss was probably the best thing that happened to us that season - it showed us our vulnerabilities and woke our guys up.  And I think you guys can take advantage of the same and turn it into a positive. 

 

Also, win out and you'll be playing UGA again in the SECCG.  As you all know, it's really tough to beat the same team twice and that being said, you'd prefer to lose to them now and win in December, versus the opposite.    I think if a few things get corrected, you can run the table.   Good luck guys - I'm pulling for yall! 

Allow me to point you to the stadium good sir. 

[TexasEx 1667]

Texas v. Colorado. 2001 Big 12 Championship. That shit sucked. 

[TXpride 546]

This loss was particularly disappointing because we saw Texas get physically outclassed for the first time in 2 years. I don't see how you fix that other than getting better players. Not sure how we would stack up against Oregon or OSU, but without otherworldly QB play (ha) it's hard to imagine us beating a healthy UGA if we meet again.