As we all sit and stew in our new found lack of hope in Notre Dame football, we thought it would be uplifting to talk about the 10 losses since the 2001 season that have made us the most mad. This is an average of all four of us at three guys in a basement dot com. And away we go:
No Donovan. No problem.
10. Syracuse 2003 (12-38)
We will call this the “Writing is on the Wall” game. Holy sh*t. How do you lose to Syracuse when they do not have Donovan McNabb by 26 points? What a disgrace. Also, this would have had us at 6 and 6 in 2003, but we could not even pull that off.
9. Backup College 2004 (23-24)
Our Senior Year. We had lost our previous three years to this POS team. And then we lost again. At home. Absolutely, positively, pathetic.
8. Pitt 2008 (33-36)
Notre Dame got out-coached by Wannstedt. Enough said.
7. Georgia Tech 2007 (3-33)
Coming off a BCS year. Play three quarterbacks. Not one of them had an f’ing clue what to do. One of the more abysmal performances of all time. And got completely burnt in the sun. It sucked.
Shutout by BC. F my L.
6. Backup College 2008 (0-17)
Shut out by BC? If you told me that going into this year that we would be shutout by BC, I would have literally bet that at 1000:1 odds. I am 100% serious.
5. Florida State Criminals 2003 (0-37)
After one of the more fun games the year prior in Tallahasse, we got taken to the woodshed at home in 2003. Losing by 37 points at home to a team that you beat the year previously sucks donkey you know whats.
Where's the toaster?
4. BYU 2004 (17-20)
Our Senior year. Instead of opening with Michigan, we make BYU switch their schedule to play us. This is the main reason we have been forced to play schools such as Nevada and SDSU. To top the switching if the schedules, we lose the game. Needless to say, some stuff got broken at 203 e marion st. that night. Also up the street, we have this memory of a certain tgiab.com founder: “I threw a toaster because my senior year football season was ruined. Luckily, I didn’t have any hope left for Ty at this point, so I was able to handle it better than the more recent crap games at ND.” To add to that, this person was also bleeding profusely laying a ledge on the front patio of a marion street house. Classic, yet warranted, reaction.
The Barf Bonanza crew.
3. USC 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 (13-44, 14-45, 10-41, 24-44, 0-38)
The only good thing to come out of this is the 24 points we scored in USC shortly following the 2006 Barf Bonanza. However, including that loss, we have lost by 31, 31, 31, 20, and 38 points over these five contests. What used to be one of the great rivalries in sports has been so dominated that it is hard to call it a rivalry in the last 6 years (albeit the Bush Push game). The only reason why these games are not #1 is probably because it is against USC, and there is some respect there. But if getting beat that badly and that many times doesn’t piss you off, I don’t know what will. One tgiab.com’er summed up the 2002 game: “The beginning of the end. Close at halftime and then everything (for the next 2 years) went down hill.” Another summed up the series, “That many pathetic losses to one team makes me want to rip someones head off.” Truer words have never been spoken.
2. Michigan 2003 & 2007 (0-38, 0-38)
The only reason these games are not #1 us because they were both on the road. At the 2003 game, one tgiab.com’er got kicked out of the stadium for drinking. He randomly found another tgiab.com’er wondering around the streets of Ann Arbor, looking for his soon to be fiance. Yet another tgiab.com’er summed up the 2003 game with, “Coming off a nice win against WSU and a 10-3 season, it looked like we’d continue to build, but we lost 38-0 and I had to sit by myself with the worst fans in the country. By far my worst football viewing experience ever.”
Those uni's are so awesome.
1. Backup College 2002 (7-14)
We were 8 and 0. We were coming of a 5 and 6 season, it was our second season at campus. Although in hindsight we won out first 8 games using smoke and mirrors. At the time, however, fiesta bowl reservations were being made, just an in the event Notre Dame could win its last four games. After this game ended, all four tgiab.com members were legitmately mad. Obviously sports are not worth fighting about, but there was so much anger after this game that it is probably lucky we all made it back to Knott Hall to drink our sorrows away. Although this loss is not nearly as bad as the Michigan or USC losses, this crushed our errant dreams for the 2002 season, and from then on, Notre Dame football under Tyrone Willingham did not excite me.
What a heartwarming article idea! That was a lot of fun! Looking over these last 10 games (actually 15 if you include all the Michigan and USC games), makes me sick to realize these have all happened since the 2002 season.
Maybe we will look at the “Top 10 Gratifying WIns SInce tgiab.com Entered ND” next week, but for now this fits the tgiab.com’s mindset pretty well.
Filed under: Uncategorized
10 satisfying wins for the past 8 seasons might be hard to find. Near the top would have to be the 2002 win @ FSU and the 2002 MSU game. Both of those games are memorable because of Arnaz Battle touchdowns.
I think you might have to go to other sports, such as the three-game, seven-day stretch in Men’s basketball in 2002 when as an unranked team, we beat #10 Marquette, #9 Maryland, and #2 Texas.
Or maybe the women’s soccer national title in 2004 when ND survived an own goal to win in a shootout.
I still have to think of 4 more games though. Maybe the semifinal win in hockey last April over Michigan? That was an awesome game to watch.
Hey JoePa, don’t talk about Gudren that way. She was trying to clear it.
I agree JoePa. I think the 2006 MSU win has to be up there as well. That was such a sweet comeback.
The 2005 NCAA broomball national championship was also a huge victory for Notre Dame sports, specifically highlighting the athletic careers of three tgiab.com members and others from 203 e. marion st.
One last note, because it is not specific in the article, look how sweet Carlyle looks in the 2002 BC game. Those uniforms were awesome now that I look back. Maybe just because it is nighttime, but those look so bad ass.
rsand, I didn’t mean any disrespect to Gunna.
2006 MSU comeback was awesome.
I know for me, scoring the game-winning goal in the shootout of the broomball championship was the highlight of my athletic career. It’s too bad that game wasn’t recorded.
Carlyle looks sweet always He is my favorite ND football player of all time. Those uniforms are completely badass. It’s too bad they only used them once.
2005 Broomball NCAA Championship must be top 3 wins. ND vs Michigan in the final. It was cold out and the ice was extremely unforgiving… But the good guys prevailed showing all those michigan fools who’s king of the ice.
2005 USC is my #1 most depressing loss. We executed a time killing gameplan that no one thought was possible. Corey Mays put a hit on Leinart that sent him back to the 80s. BQ performed surgery on the USC defense in the last 2-3 min of play… A drive no one talks about all because of the bush push. Just seeing that horse faced Pete Caroll say “what a great day to be a trojan” makes me want to puke. But I guess this loss misses the true intention of this blog post.
Keep up the good work guys.
The UCLA game was fun too, but MSU in 2006 was probably my favorite game since 2001.
I kind of wish for Carlyle that he would have gone to Nebraska. I loved watching him play and he never once complained, even though he probably had it worse than any other player. If he would have gone to Nebraska he could have followed Crouch and probably started 3 years, but then Zibby probably would have gone there too.
I think the super regional in 2002 has to be up there as well, and espcially the frozen four run of last year.
So basically, out of our top 10 football memories since 2001, around 5 of them aren’t related to ND football. That’s great.