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What loss still burns you the most as an Iowa fan?

I think I choked on my own tears after that as we had the jaws of victory around Penn State and he needles a pass that 9/10 times would never hit and of course he hits it then the jackass does the baseball home run swing .. be original at least
I was at that game, no one said a word as the crowd left the stadium.
 
Among those not mentioned - 2005 @ Northwestern.

This one stings quite a bit...I vividly remember watching this game at the Washington DC Iowa club bar...packed with Hawk fans. Chris Spielman was doing the game on ESPN and noticed the Iowa players were joking and smiling on the sidelines with a few minutes to go. I remember stating to the people sitting next to me that Northwestern has the momentum and will score, recover onside kick, and win the game. I pissed a lot of fans off...but I knew my gut instinct was right...unfortunately.:(
 
Bobby F'in Olive....OSU 1990....literally right in front of me.


I'll go with this. It just felt like we kicked ass all game and then that.

With the BTCG, that was such a good game. I fully admit it was a nad kick for completely different reasons, but an entertaining game throughout.
 
I lm sure this will appear a lot but I would say the 2015 B1G Championship game with the rose bowl behind it. When CJ hit Smith on that long pass I thought we were going to be playing for a trip to the natty. The rose bowl just felt like a gut punch after a major in kick in the balls.
1990 - Ohio State
 
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1. MSU B1G Title Game
2. '02 ISU game
3. Outback Bowl Screwjob vs. Florida
4. 1990 Rose Bowl
5. 1986 Rose Bowl
6. Alamo Bowl vs. Texas
7. 1991 Holiday Bowl Tie vs. BYU
8. Wisconsin (Pick a Fuggin' year)
9. Arizona in the desert
10. N.C. State kickoff classic

#9…that would be 0-3 for me. Two losses at Arizona and one at ASU. Road trip. Shmoad trip
 
I'm 38 years old and these all stand out to me.

In no particular order.

1996 at Tulsa
1997 at Michigan
2002 vs Iowa State
2005 vs Michigan (the first ref screwjob of that season)
2009 vs Northwestern
2009 at Ohio State
2010 vs Wisconsin
2015 BTCG vs Michigan State
2016 vs North Dakota State
 
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BTCG
Fake Punt - Wisco
NDSU
PSU - pick one
The Bo Pelini Game - Fired for beating Iowa
OSU 2009
Wisco - Pick one
Black Saturday vs. Michigan

Honestly, far too many than there should be for a program the caliber of Iowa.
 
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* 2015 Big title game
* 2010 Wisconsin fake punt / every loss to Wisky since
* 2010 Ohio State
* 2009 @ Ohio State
* 1985 @ Ohio State
* 1986 Rose Bowl
* 1991 Rose Bowl
* Penn State (so many, so close)
* 1981 Minnesota
* NDSU, Western Michigan, Tulsa

[BTW: It's OK to mention Jacksonville on the football board, IMHO, because it probably kept Iowa from winning the national title.]
 
2015 B10 Championship.
2005 Michigan game that Witvoet & crew threw the game to end Iowa's nation leading 21 game home winning streak.
2006 Outback Bowl game that the crew threw the game.

I know the crews are biased and sometimes officiate to a desired outcome (2016 Northwestern game) but the meaningless ones don't bother me as much as the ones that mattered.
 
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Any 22 play drive is a punch to the gut.

A 22 play drive, capped by a run that was so dead the announcer thought it was over, to lose a Big 10 Championship and trip to the playoffs is....a Mike Tyson uppercut to the balls.

Being in that stadium and feeling the numbness was sickening.
I still can't bring myself to watch a replay of that game. Will. Not.
 
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I lm sure this will appear a lot but I would say the 2015 B1G Championship game with the rose bowl behind it. When CJ hit Smith on that long pass I thought we were going to be playing for a trip to the natty. The rose bowl just felt like a gut punch after a major in kick in the balls.


02 ISU game. That was the ultimate gut punch that got more and more painful as the season went on. Win that game and we may have been playing Miami for the NC. Debatable, but with OSU barely avoiding so many losses, I think we jump them in the polls if undefeated.
 
Loss to Sparty in Big Ten Championship

Loss to Penn State mentioned above.

Loss to Debby at home 2014, 37–34OT, 3rd on my list. Only consolation was Debby shooting them self in the foot by getting rid of Bo.

Losses to Wisconsin/PSU/Purdue/NU in 2018 still bug me...Stanley wins 2 of those and he goes down as a close 2nd to Long as best ever. Just couldn't get it done.
 
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2010 Wisconsin game was brutal

It's absolutely this game. Believe it was Brent Greenwood who intercepted Wisconsin late. That game should have been in the Iowa
win column a couple of times. Effin fake punt game with Monte Ball,
then Melvin Gordon, who was committed to Iowa, reneged to Wisc;
Couldn't have been more brutal, really. Was a nice day/nite tho.
 
I tried to come up with some dark horses. A lot of obvious games listed; high-profile and extremely consequential games. But what about those games that occur when you might still be expecting the team to be really good, then you realize "good God, we suck"? Maybe they don't bother you as much now, but at the time just made you want to puke:

Here's a few:

Oregon '89
Purdue '92
Illinois '93
Indiana '94
at Northwestern '97
Iowa St '98
at Iowa St '05
Northwestern '06
at Iowa St '11
Central Michigan and Iowa St '12
Northern Illinois '13
Iowa St '14
NDSt and Northwestern '16
Purdue '17
 
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Among those not mentioned - 2005 @ Northwestern.
Omg yes, Brian's Sr yr if I recall. I remember Greenway or someone raising the roof on sidelines with a few mins left and I'm thinking this is far from over. ISU that yr was brutal....almost broke my hand punching the arm of a couch.

16 NW at home deserves mention, could be worst officiated loss I can remember besides FL outback
 
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2015 BTCCG
2002 ISU

Those two games cost us legitimate shots at a NC.
02 I think we would have been left out of NC to those programs anyway, but with how unimpressive OSU was down stretch it would have been interesting. After winessing rose bowl from 4th row and how MSU got destroyed
I think we woulda had no legitimate shot a NC. Miniscule, maybe

02 ISU was bad enough on own....that was 5 in a row vs them. I still can't believe we gave that away at home with a big lead and all that talent
 
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That 2014 Nebraska game still chaps my ass. Totally dogshit season, everything about the program was stale, lost all the trophy games and got STOMPED in the bowl game. But still, we win that one like we should have if we just didn’t punt right to Demornay Pearson El, and we have a 7 game win streak over little red.
 
Omg yes, Brian's Sr yr if I recall. I remember Greenway or someone raising the roof on sidelines with a few mins left and I'm thinking this is far from over. ISU that yr was brutal....almost broke my hand punching the arm of a couch.

16 NW at home deserves mention, could be worst officiated loss I can remember besides FL outback

I was at that 2005 Northwestern game. It was Greenway and Shada grabassing on the sideline when we were up 13 with 4 minutes or so left.

tenor.gif
 
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I lm sure this will appear a lot but I would say the 2015 B1G Championship game with the rose bowl behind it. When CJ hit Smith on that long pass I thought we were going to be playing for a trip to the natty. The rose bowl just felt like a gut punch after a major in kick in the balls.

I agree B1G 2015 title game is #1. My beloved Hawks finally come to town and lose a "thrilla in manilla" type game vs MSU.
 
That 2014 Nebraska game still chaps my ass. Totally dogshit season, everything about the program was stale, lost all the trophy games and got STOMPED in the bowl game. But still, we win that one like we should have if we just didn’t punt right to Demornay Pearson El, and we have a 7 game win streak over little red.

And we are talking about 7 in a row against Neb instead of just 5
 
02 vs the clowns and 15 BTC versus Michigan State. Both cost us a shot to play for the national championship.
 
I punched a stop sign outside of Kinnick after the Iowa St. game. Man oh man that one got to me.

NW losses in 05 and breaking Stanzi's legs made me mad.

Kinnick was dead silent after the PSU game. Tired of losing to them.
 
Only two people have mentioned 2009 Northwestern.

I think that game was so traumatic that everyone has completely blocked it out of their memory.

Felt the most rotten after the 2015 B1G championship though.
 
Only two people have mentioned 2009 Northwestern.

I think that game was so traumatic that everyone has completely blocked it out of their memory.

Felt the most rotten after the 2015 B1G championship though.
I felt absolutely zero about the 2015 loss because I knew 100% for fact they were going to lose it. they were having horrible third down conversion rates all year despite being undefeated. then in that game they went like 3 for twelve on third down conversions or something . so then the rose bowl was not a big shocker also except for the fact i did not think one guy would single handedly destroy them.
 
Ah, Adam Shada, the best CB of the Ferentz era.

He was so terrible, yet so cocky.

I remember that game well; ESPN showed Shada on the sideline celebrating and strutting around after making an interception. Chris Spielman scolded the Hawks for prematurely assuming the game was over, and boy was he right.

The other one that sticks in my craw is ‘08 (?) @ Pitt. Iowa had no business losing that game, other than sticking with Jake Christensen for far too long. His performance that day may rank as the worst I have ever seen in 40+ years of watching college football.
 
Most any loss to Purdue, NW’ern, WestKanSin & the B1G ship to MSU.. that should have been Iowa getting the snott beat out of them by ‘bama! Frankly I would have liked to see us play MSU again and Bama play Stanford that year..
 
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