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What was the biggest Hawkeye football loss in history?

That Tulsa loss was awful. After the 2010 loss to Wisconsin didn't Iowa piss pound #5 Michigan State the following week?

Yes. Then lost a lousy on at NW where NW scored two TD's the final minutes. Then loss to OSU on a 4th and 13 scramble. The story of that year was the tired DL.
 
Game was a disaster but at least our team has been good enough to get those opportunities. I'm pretty sure your team won't play in a real, meaningful, bowl game in you or your childrens' lifetimes.

Really the space shuttle disaster is pretty analogous to ISU football in general. That happened my frosh yr. of college so it's been long enough.
You have been blinded by my username. Go back and re-read what I posted but this time imagine it was posted by someone with a Hawkeye username. You might interpret it a lot differently.
 
DEFINITELY THIS, as we lost Stanzi as well. Pure heartbreaker. That was THE season in the last 20 years, maybe more so than even 2002, because the 2002 loss came right away. Man, 10-0 heading in to Columbus who was 8-2. Beat them and it was just a hop over offensively-inept Minnesota for a shot at all the glory. (and by all the glory I mean the Rose Bowl...no way we'd jump Bama/Texas)
You're probably right, but the computers did love us that year, and who knows, with all that magic going, maybe colt mccoy doesn't get that 1 second back that we needed so bad just to get into the BCS.
 
Really? Win that game and we could be playing in the NC game? There is no other game in the 30 plus years I have watched that cost us more over an entire season. The 85 and 91 seasons had the same outcome, losses to different teams. All three are equal to me, one just happened sooner? This is really just an opinion and suppose to fun...why not just troll on instead of being a DB?
We all have opinions and I sort of agree with this one.
 
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I don't know if this is the biggest but the toughest for me was 2011 @ ISU in 3 overtimes. I had to listen to Clone fans brag about that for 365 days, no exaggeration.
 
Two games that I can remember long ago was an 83-21 loss to Ohio State in 1950 and a 55-0 loss to USC in 1974. The other two games that were sickening to me were the losses to Washington and UCLA in the Rose Bowl.
 
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I vote for last years NE game. We were clubbing little red at HOME and some how we blow the lead and lose to them. They then hours later fire their coach. Thats when I realized we have sank to the bottom and except mediocrity at best. Thats why it's my worse loss it's not only a loss it showed me where the program and fans expectations are.
 
We didn't know it after the game, but if we win against ISU, we play for the National Championship.

Banks probably wins the Heisman as well.

I posted it before, but wanted to say it again: Completely disagree. We don't lose to ISU and we don't win the rest of the games, it was the stoking of the fire. And losing to ISU wasn't what separated the Heisman, Palmer was winning that all the way. (Unless in winning against ISU he ran for 8 TDs or something).
 
The Bobby Olive game. Hearbreaker. Didn't Merton Hanks have a sure pick at the end of the first half do off his cheast and into the arms of some guy for an easy score? I was at that one. Ugh.
 
1991 Michigan at home was killer looking back at it now. That was the only loss of the season. Win that and its another Rose Bowl season. At the time, it didn't seem that crucial b/c it was early.

2009 Northwestern probably takes the cake for me. The way we lost, up two TD's and then Stanzi going out with the broken leg. That naked boot in your own endzone toward Wooten up 14-0 in the 2nd quarter is one of the dumbest play calls I can remember in a long time. It ranks right up their with the Seattle pass play (instead of giving it to Lynch) from the last Super Bowl.

1990 against OSU was awful. That was the first ever game I went to in Kinnick Stadium. Have never heard a place go from that loud to that quiet since. Walking out of the stadium was like a funeral processional. No one said a thing.
 
1991 Michigan at home was killer looking back at it now. That was the only loss of the season. Win that and its another Rose Bowl season. At the time, it didn't seem that crucial b/c it was early.
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Still will never know what Hayden was thinking with that fake punt call. Fourth and 9 I think. At the 10:00 minute mark. Iowa had three TD's and 18 points. Skillett was not great that year...


 
I posted it before, but wanted to say it again: Completely disagree. We don't lose to ISU and we don't win the rest of the games, it was the stoking of the fire. And losing to ISU wasn't what separated the Heisman, Palmer was winning that all the way. (Unless in winning against ISU he ran for 8 TDs or something).

KF always lays a turd for one game regardless of how good we are. I have heard that argument and who knows....you can speculate till the cow's come home. I would like to have known if they could keep it together.
 
I posted it before, but wanted to say it again: Completely disagree. We don't lose to ISU and we don't win the rest of the games, it was the stoking of the fire. And losing to ISU wasn't what separated the Heisman, Palmer was winning that all the way. (Unless in winning against ISU he ran for 8 TDs or something).

Not sure I agree. I've seen people repeat that time after time but not sure it's fact. That 2002 team may have continued to improve anyway... Beating ISU wouldn't force us to lose against PSU or Purdue nor did what was a 5th straight loss to ISU "stoke the fire" IMO..

Fumbles seemed to be a problem early that year, and it sure was what got us beaten against ISU. Fred Russell fumbled at the goal line @PSU, where a TD would have totally put that game away, but let them hang around and make a comeback. I believe KF would have gotten the fumbling problem corrected regardless of whether Iowa lost to ISU or not. That team had the talent to be great, and they were. They just fumbled away the ISU game, literally.

Purdue - Joe Tiller's teams always gave us fits. Just was a bad match up. PSU & PU were the only real close calls I seem to remember that year. Purdue also nearly knocked off OSU last day of the season, except for a lucky late TD pass to save OSU's bacon, if you recall.
 
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As for my vote - I think I'll go with 1985 @OSU. Iowa was #1, and lost at OSU pretty far into the season. No bigger stage than that, IMO, with more on the line. The 1986 Rose Bowl loss would've been bigger IMO if Iowa had still been #1.

The 2009 loss to NW was pretty crushing, too. Iowa still lost @OSU, regardless, so I'll say 1985 OSU since that was the lone loss and knocked us out of the #1 spot. We can argue the 2009 outcome if Stanzi had been healthy and able to play those two games, though.
 
There is only one answer to this question and its 2010 Wisconsin. The program has never been the same since that dumpster fire. All those breaks we got in the early Ferentz years seemed to disappear since that game. He's always been a poor game manager, but something would always happen to bail him out or make him look like a genius. No more....
 
Not sure I agree. I've seen people repeat that time after time but not sure it's fact. That 2002 team may have continued to improve anyway... Beating ISU wouldn't force us to lose against PSU or Purdue nor did what was a 5th straight loss to ISU "stoke the fire" IMO..

Fumbles seemed to be a problem early that year, and it sure was what got us beaten against ISU. Fred Russell fumbled at the goal line @PSU, where a TD would have totally put that game away, but let them hang around and make a comeback. I believe KF would have gotten the fumbling problem corrected regardless of whether Iowa lost to ISU or not. That team had the talent to be great, and they were. They just fumbled away the ISU game, literally.

Purdue - Joe Tiller's teams always gave us fits. Just was a bad match up. PSU & PU were the only real close calls I seem to remember that year. Purdue also nearly knocked off OSU last day of the season, except for a lucky late TD pass to save OSU's bacon, if you recall.

Well of course it isn't a fact.

That season was awesome, even with the loss. My NW loss was much more devastating. :(
 
Not sure I agree. I've seen people repeat that time after time but not sure it's fact. That 2002 team may have continued to improve anyway... Beating ISU wouldn't force us to lose against PSU or Purdue nor did what was a 5th straight loss to ISU "stoke the fire" IMO..

Fumbles seemed to be a problem early that year, and it sure was what got us beaten against ISU. Fred Russell fumbled at the goal line @PSU, where a TD would have totally put that game away, but let them hang around and make a comeback. I believe KF would have gotten the fumbling problem corrected regardless of whether Iowa lost to ISU or not. That team had the talent to be great, and they were. They just fumbled away the ISU game, literally.

Purdue - Joe Tiller's teams always gave us fits. Just was a bad match up. PSU & PU were the only real close calls I seem to remember that year. Purdue also nearly knocked off OSU last day of the season, except for a lucky late TD pass to save OSU's bacon, if you recall.
I thought your 2003 team was better, but close games fell the wrong way that year. The 2002 team was poor at defending the pass. That deficiency wasn't exposed very often during the season. The 2003 team was a better defensive team in my opinion.
 
Still will never know what Hayden was thinking with that fake punt call. Fourth and 9 I think. At the 10:00 minute mark. Iowa had three TD's and 18 points. Skillett was not great that year...




That is the game early in the season where Dick Vermeil said afterwards "Iowa won't lose another game this year"...and he was right.
 
22-13 in the rain was a drubbing?

Too bad that f0$U game did not have the same officiating crew that worked the Mich (#1 vs#2) game. Iowa would (maybe) have gotten the same benefits that Michigan got with the crowd noise.
 
1986 Rose Bowl sticks in my caw too. But not as bad now as it did for years. Reflection has shined (I know it's "shone" but who talks that way?) light upon how overconfident we fans were (not the team) and just how good and tactful UCLA was. I'll elaborate just a bit on the UCLA thing. That UCLA team ended up with five 1st-team PAC-10 players, victories over defending national champs BYU and conference powerhouses Arizona and ASU, a tie with SEC champ Tennessee--and ended up with the #2 ranked defense in the nation (behind Oklahoma, which finished #1 in the polls). A very worthy opponent indeed, whose Head Coach (Terry Donahue) was a MASTER at teaching ball-stripping maneuvers--and strip they did. Iowa lost 4 of 4 fumbles--and the rest is history. Ironically, there was a Hawkeye linebacker coach watching closely that day. Barry Alvarez, when not screaming bloody murder, was taking notes. And nine years later, Alvarez used the very same stripping techniques against Donahue in the 1995 Rose Bowl, where despite outgaining Wisconsin 2-1, UCLA lost FIVE of FIVE fumbles and the game.
 
I see lots of people putting in 2002 ISU game. And it was a heartbreaker. But it's tough to put it on the same pedestal as 1985 OSU or even 1990 Ohio State because the 2002 ISU game was so early in the season. No one anticipated that it would be Iowa's only loss.

1990 OSU at Iowa, Iowa came into the game 7-1 and 5-0 in conference play. Only loss was at Miami (Fl.) back when it was the U. Iowa dominates the game, but OSU scores on a hail-mary tipped pass of Merton Hanks' shoulder pad to an OSU receiver to get a TD at halftime. And then OSU scores as time expires to Bobby Olive to win 27-26. That Iowa team ended up in the Rose Bowl with 8-3 record after a bunch of teams tied at 6-2. If Iowa beats OSU that day, no way they don't win out and go 10-1. Felt as if Hawks would never win over OSU again. Only other times Iowa has beat the Bucks since that day was 1991 and 2004.
^^^^^^
THIS

What a heartbreaker.
 
Really? Win that game and we could be playing in the NC game? There is no other game in the 30 plus years I have watched that cost us more over an entire season. The 85 and 91 seasons had the same outcome, losses to different teams. All three are equal to me, one just happened sooner? This is really just an opinion and suppose to fun...why not just troll on instead of being a DB?

My thoughts, and a few others that have discussed this, if we win that game against the clowns, we probably stumble somewhere else through the year. We are talking about the Hawkeyes after all. We typically win one or two that we shouldn't and lose one or two that we shouldn't.
 
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