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5 Most Painful Losses That I Can Recall


Harry

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From the 2002 UNT vs Arizona recap-

"the Mean Green’s only points came off three Nick Bazaldua field goals. Bazaldua hit on kicks of 44 and 32 in the first half and then connected on a 31-yarder on North Texas’ opening series of the third quarter."

Even if Arizona was down in '02, could last years Mean Green FG kicker have done this??

;)

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This is a good one. With that game being talked about then we can also put the NT/Navy game in there. It's just wheels off when you say yup we scored 62 points at home but we still lost by 12. Just a kick in the gut.

I can still remember talking with a friend who was very close to the program and discussing why we never had anyone spy the running back (pitch man). We had an all-conference safety then, Weathers I believe, and never did this.

It's these kinds of things that make me so deadset on wanting seven wins to be a hard and fast standard. It's one thing if you just have bad luck for three years and are almost over the hump. It's another when coaching decisions, coaching staff decisions, being slow to institute personnel/package changes, etc have brought you to this point. To put it in terms relative to my profession, if I had a guy who started out robbing banks, then robbing convenience stores, then only pickpocketing and he got probation after all this...he can only make probation work by being crime free, not by stealing the occasional candy bar and pleading that he's making "progress". His own actions took him to this precipice.

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I'll add the 2009 Army game to the list. Late in the fourth quarter I turned to my wife and said "if we don't find a way to F**** this up, we just won a football game". Well, I'll be darned if we didn't find a way to do exactly that.

I remember turning to someone after we recovered the on-side kick after our first score and saying "holy crap" Dodge is taking this gamble because he knows his defense can't stop Army and he's hoping that Army won't be able to stop us, so his only hope is to go up by two TD's early in the game.

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1) Tulsa (either one) -- but I think the home loss stings more. On the road I remember Tulsa trying to be nice before half time and kick a field goal instead of blowing up the score. Dickey calls a timeout, pisses on TU's coach and they send in their offense and score the TD just to spite DD.

2) South Florida -- jesus. I thought this game would be proof we were finally "good."

3) Troy (2001) -- We only had to beat a Div 1aa (provisional 1a) school to have a WINNING record heading into our first bowl game in 4 years? But we still can't win?one1!

4) Kansas State -- that was a long drive there and back. TTG sums it up well. However, their stadium blows and their fans were on the lame side of passionate fans. I guess that is a minor victory.

5) USM -- I thought we would see the offense peak and Super JMO be on ESPN. Instead we got a tricked up offense that didn't look anything like what got us there.

Edited by SteaminWillieBeamin
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This thread hurts. And what hurts worst is that the question asks for games within the past decade. But most agree we could fill our list with games in the last 3 years.

The Ohio game was very painful but I still say the Rice game 2008 was the most angry I've ever been at this thing. Only Joel Osteen was able to make me feel better about my life after that game.

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In no particular order:

2004 NO Bowl vs USM - I think Jamario had 90 or so yards at the half and got shut down in the second half.

2007 at OU - Lots of good feelings with Dodge coming on board. I was out of town and kept checking my phone. Everytime I refreshed, OU was scoring another TD.

2005 vs Tulsa - On a personal note, I brought my new girlfriend to her first UNT game. After hearing from me how awesome the tailgaiting is, how great Patrick Cobbs is, our defense, we get a a safety to start the game then get outscored 54-0 the rest of the way. But she still married me so it worked out. ;)

2006 vs MTSU - Got whipped at home 35-0 and I knew we had hit bottom...

2007 at ASU - Up 21-0 in the first half then leading by 3 with two minutes to go and ASU on their own 20, the 2007 defense summed up their whole season in one drive. Painful to watch.....

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Cant believe no one has said the Memphis game.

Going for 10 wins and probably would have been the peak in that era. I remember Cobbs getting a long run and it got called back and it was a back breaker. Our great defense just couldnt quite get a stop when needed in that game.

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Hmmm....I've got a couple of games in mind, but I think I'll just keep those to myself. I'm going to honor RV's request to be upbeat and positive and stop beating ourselves up over the results of the last few years.

Refreshing...thank you. I thought those comments RV were truly telling, and I think he was asking the Mean green faithful to help. RV has moved the ball forward a great deal for UNT's athletic program, and it seems to me that the Mean Green Nation should honor his request and help. "Criticize in private and praise in public"...excellent!

GO MEAN GREEN!

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Good examples by everyone. One that I would like to add - the 2001 game against Troy State. Troy was not yet in the Belt but the win would have given us a 6-5 record going into the bowl gme rather than 5-6. We lost at the last second when our field goal attempt bounced off the upright. The field goal would have put us up with no time left, allowed the Belt to have a winning team in the first New Orleans Bowl and the conference had to literally change our bylaws as a result of the debacle. That hurt.

The only other one that I would add to the games listed - Navy. The back and forth was a lot like the SMU game and made me sick to my stomach. We had zero defense to speak of.

I remember that Arizona game. I believe that FFRick had a watch party for that and we cam out strong. To this day, I think that we scored that last touchdown. The ball appeared to have broken the plane of the goal line from every tv angle that I could see.

All of these hurt.

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two losses in 1988 stand out:

Texas (of Course), but the 17-10 SFA loss is highly underrated, as we were ranked #1 in 1AA at the time.

A particular sore spot because an SFA alum friend constantly reminds me of it.

I was at both of these and have the images of these games burned in my mind.

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Cant believe no one has said the Memphis game.

Going for 10 wins and probably would have been the peak in that era. I remember Cobbs getting a long run and it got called back and it was a back breaker. Our great defense just couldnt quite get a stop when needed in that game.

We might have even been ranked at the end of the year had we pulled that one off. I seem to remember we had already received a couple votes.

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I believe that this game was in 1999, so just past the ten-year mark now, but the most frustrating loss to me was when LaDarrin McLane was running to score the game-winning TD in Lubbock that would have beaten Tech out there for the 4th time in a row. Somehow, a receiver and former QB gets caught from behind at around the 15 yard line and has the ball punched out from his hands and then Tech recovers and runs it back to midfield to basically clinch the game 13-7. Nothing else comes close to me, since we had a nice rivalry going with Tech back then. That series should have kept going, but then again, we would have gotten beat by 80 if we had played some of those Tech teams that Leach coached over the last 5 years or so.

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