Had the question been "Top 5 Wins and losses that still gets to you" Im sure we would have nothing but Notre Dame and historic Auburn losses for the losses part. So with the phrasing like this we probably have more parity. SO from 1983-2006 Here are my top 5 Wins and losses. What are yours?
Losses
#1) 94 SECCG- This one is bound to show up a lot. If there is one criticism of CGS it is he was too old school. Not allowing Jay Barker and Homer Smith to light up the scoreboard vs one of the weakest Spurrier teams in the 90's is one thing, but not going for 2 is one of the most mindboggling decisions to this day.
#2) 97 Auburn- Another one that probably will pop up a few times is this one. We should've known then what we know now about Dubose
#3) 2003 Tennessee- Any Tennessee loss is a very bad day, but good god this one was horrible,
#4) 02 Oklahoma- Just because we had that game won, and blew it vs a very good Oklahoma team
#5) 2006 Tennessee- I debated between this one and 95, but this one is worse
dishonorable mentions:
95 Tennessee
99 La Tech
93 LSU
Wins: To leave on a good note.
#1) 92 National Championship- What more needs to be said
#2) 99 vs Florida in the Swamp- A team going into a hostile place against a team no one gave them a chance against, and beating them while having to survive stupid coaching decisions on their sideline is a pretty epic story
#3) 02 Tennessee- I hate Tennessee and Revenge against Phatlock after 7 years of torment ranks pretty high for me
#4) 92 SECCG- Amazing game
#5) 1985 Auburn- Before my time, but its hard to justify any Top 5 list without it
"SOME" Honorable mentions
1985 UGA
1994 UGA
1999 SECCG
2001 Auburn
2001 Iowa St
2005 UF
2005 Tennessee
Questions like this often reveal the age/generation of the poster, ha ha.
I'll do this in two posts because of commentary:
LOSSES
1) 1986 LSU
Of the hundreds of Alabama games I've seen, this was the most FRUSTRATING loss I can recall, and it might have marked a turning point in our history, too. It's kind of forgotten except for one play (which I'll cover below), but it was a damaging and costly loss all the way around.
You have to get into the mentality of the time. Immediately upon Coach Bryant's retirement and passing, you had Auburn pretty much putting the best team in the country on the field in 1983 (and getting jobbed in the title vote). Auburn was the AP preseason #1 in 1984 and moved up to #1 after the first game of the 1985 season. Alabama, meanwhile, had consecutive four-loss seasons (82 and 83), the first losing season since - oops - Auburn won the 1957 national title (ending our long bowl game streak), and it's often forgotten we were not even ranked going into the 1985 Iron Bowl despite a record of 7-2-1 and a head-to-head win over #20 Georgia, who was also 7-2-1 (go figure).
The program was in its darkest period since prior to Bryant arriving. From 1982-1985, we were 0-4 against Tennessee, 1-2-1 against LSU, and our 2-2 mark against Auburn could just as easily have been 0-4 (Pat Dye's coaching malfunction in 84 and Tiffin's kick in 85 bailed us out). It was almost like the two programs had switched places - not exactly but close to it.
So 1986 comes along, and we begin to right all the wrongs. We finally beat Notre Dame (and handily), we dominate a Florida team that began sinking but had probably been the best team in the country in 1984, and we exact major revenge on Tennessee with a 56-28 stomping that puts us at #2 for the first time since October 1982. A rainy day against Penn State - the same day Bill Buckner's name entered history as a goat - and we get thumped by the eventual champs, 23-3. But we have a talented team with a senior QB, the best kicker in the country, the best linebacker in the country, and two up and coming backs with Heisman potential, Bobby Humphrey and Jerk Who Took Money From Auburn To Lie About Us.
If we beat LSU, we win the SEC (even if we lose to Auburn) and go back to the Sugar Bowl for the first time since 1980. It would have been a benchmark on the way back to the top. And we absolutely owned them that night except in the way that counts.
We outgained them in yards, 387-237. LSU only had 71 total yards in the second half.
Humphrey became the first back of the season to go for over 100 yards against LSU.
We had one touchdown called back on a holding penalty and settled for a field goal (-4 points)
Van Tiffin, who was 13 of 16 otherwise on the year, missed a 44-yard FG (-3 points)
Shula threw an INT into the end zone on a first down play from the LSU 13 (-3 to -7 points depending)
Humphrey got a first down at the LSU 20 and fumbled away to the LSU 17 (-3 points minimum)
And then came the play everyone remembers: Humphrey actually broke Johnny Musso's career yardage record on the play from the LSU six. He got to the one-yard line and as he was going down and would have crossed the goal line for a TD, he got hit from behind and fumbled into the end zone, where LSU recovered. As Tiffin never missed a PAT in his entire career, that's easy to call a 7-point mistake.
Mistakes cost us 20-24 points in a game we lost by a score of 14-10. There is NO QUESTION we were the better team that night, although I can credit the LSU defense for rising up at the right time. (By contrast, LSU was better than we were when we stole the 98 game from them, too).
That loss turned the Auburn game into "must win and hope LSU loses," which they never did. It cost us the Sugar Bowl, which we probably would have beaten Nebraska that year, and even had we lost to Auburn, we would have ended the year in the top five (the Huskers were 10-2 and finished at 5).
We blew a 17-7 lead to Auburn, but the LSU game is the one that cost us Bourbon Street. However, the game also featured one of the most hilarious things my then 17-year old brain had ever heard, courtesy of Mike Patrick: "Tom Hodson jerks off the helmet and runs off the field." Yes, that's exactly how he said it.
2) 1987 Memphis State
If ever anyone doubted that hiring Bill Curry over Bobby Bowden was a colossal mistake, this ended that doubt. Amazingly enough, we slaughtered Tennessee the very next week.
3) 1995 Arkansas
While this may not turn up for some other folks, it bothers me because I had the misfortune to live in Arkansas from 1993-97, a wonderful state and awesome base.......but fans who make the Beverly Hillbillies look cultured. No matter how bad they lost, they'd insist they should have won the game. They insist to this day that Barker was over the line when he hit Sherman Williams to beat them in 1994, but he wasn't (to be fair, I thought he was when I first saw it). Make no mistake - Arky outplayed us, and we were having some problems dealing with the fallout from the sanctions. But to lose the way we did - first with 12 men on the field and secondly the disputed JJ Meadors trap/catch.......and then to have to live with those jerks for the next three years not even acknowledging that the game could have gone either way (they murdered us that day - if you hear their version of it).......it was awful for me personally.
4) 2000 UCLA
Again, the context is crucial.
Thanks to Shaun Alexander and Chris Samuels (and a fortuitous fumble by Florida), we looked great in 1999 after the La Tech debacle. Dubious began thinking he was the next Vince Lombardi or something. We go in at 3 as heavy favorites...and the highlight of the year is Milons's punt return for a TD. The amusing part all these years later is that most people forget that we actually led that game, 24-21, in the third period, and UCLA lost their starting QB on the first series with a separated shoulder.
As the year unfolded, this loss was not so bad. AT THE TIME, however, it was like someone walking into your living room and smacking you across the face.
5) 1997 Iron Bowl
Poor Ed Scissum, and I mean that sincerely. When that poor fella dies, his obituary is going to say something like "best remembered for a fumble in the Iron Bowl," and it's not fair to him. He didn't make the play call, it was higher risk than necessary, and I'm not 100% convinced he had possession of it anyway. It was third and eight, and Auburn had no timeouts left - with 55 seconds remaining.
You have Shaun Alexander as a running back. I mean, the only thing dumber would be to not run your horse from the one-yard line with the Super Bowl on the line,
not that anyone is that dumb.
I knew at that moment that Mike Dubious was in WAY over his head.
I'd suspected it prior to that moment, but I knew it for sure then.
