As Mizzou fans we suffer a lot of defeat so much so that I thought I would make up one list but ended up having to divide it into two, a football list and basketball list. Sorry Norfolk St. and Tyus Edney, you will have to wait your turn. I am also sure there were some terrible defeats before my time so keep in mind this is just in my lifetime. Without further ado, here we go.

10. 2008, Loss to ku to end the regular season:

2008 was supposed to be our year. Following arguably Mizzou greatest’s season, the Tigers started the season ranked in the top 4. But after two losses already all hopes of a national title had already ended. And so we were just trying to not lose to ku in order for the season not to be a complete disappointment. Spoiler alert, it was a complete disappointment. This was actually a great game, especially if you like offense. Neither team could stop the other one and the scoring was back and forth all game. Unfortunately, the jayhawks got the ball last. Todd Reesing threw a td with less than 30 seconds left to stupid Kerry Meier to take the lead 40-37. Mizzou didn’t have enough time to score. A close loss to our most hated rival to end the most disappointing season in Mizzou history…why isn’t this higher you might ask. Well this is actually the same day I became a father. My wife asked if we won and I said no and she said I’m so sorry and it was like it is all good, we just had a kid. She was impressed that I didn’t care about the game since we were having a baby. I am not sure what that says about my fandom but I am thinking it says it is maybe borderline unhealthy. Anyway, it is sort of the perfect way for a new little Mizzou fan to be born into the world, in utter disappointment. The Tigers still somehow made the Big 12 championship vs Oklahoma. For some reason they decided to talk a lot of crap before the game and then they lost by like 40.

9. Mizzou loses to Auburn in Overtime this year:

While this game doesn’t have a big impact on the overall Mizzou history, but it is such a classic Mizzou game it had to be included. The teams combined for 12 consecutive punts in the second half. As the game was coming to a conclusion, Mizzou drove down to kick the game winner. But Mevis who is one of the best kickers in school history missed a 26 yarder. Then Auburn got the ball in overtime and the Mizzou defense held to a fg attempt. The Auburn kicker missed but we were offsides so he got a second chance and made it. We got the ball and our running back made a great run all the way to the 1 yard line when he fumbled and the ball rolled out of the end zone for a touchback and we lost 17-14. If this game doesn’t epitomize Mizzou Football, I don’t know what does.

8. Weird Kentucky Losses

I am sort of cheating with this one. But it seems like every time we play Kentucky something weird happens. The two most prominent ones are this year and 2018. In 2018, Drew Lock was our quarterback and we were up 14-3 at halftime. We had 8 possessions in the 2nd half and had a solid 8 3 and outs. Our defense kept us in it. They even got a stop as time expired but got called for a questionable pass interference. They got the ball at the 2 with no time remaining for one last play and scored a touchdown giving the Wildcats the game 15-14. All we needed was 1 first down. Just 1 first down the entire second half and we would have won this game. But an offense featuring Drew Lock couldn’t get it done.

This year down 21-17 we forced a punt that would give us the ball back with a chance to win the game. Kentucky snapped the ball over the punter’s head. The ball went all the way to the goal line. The punter just grabbed it and one of our players tackled him as he tried kick it and it was called roughing the punter. Technically he was still in the tackle box even though he was 40 yards behind the line of the scrimmage. You can’t make this stuff up. Two brutal losses to Kentucky and I am sure there have been others and there will be more in the future.

7. 2010 Loss to Nebraska

We had just beat #1 Oklahoma with Game Day on hand in perhaps the biggest win in Mizzou history. We were in the National title hunt and we were heading to face hated Nebraska. I some how scored 3 tickets for the 50 yard line. My dad, brother and I met up and made the drive from Mid Missouri to Lincoln. Seats were great. Weather was great. The fans were, eh. Nebraska fans back then were a lot like Cardinals fans. They are “the best fans” in sports because they show up every year to watch their winning team perform. They are also snobby and wear entirely too much red. And this is coming from a Chiefs fan. Anyway, all was well until the game started and they basically knocked the crap out of Blaine Gabbert for 4 quarters. If you don’t remember Roy Helu Jr., let me remind you. He is the guy that ran for 307 yards on our defense. I am pretty sure Gabbert got a concussion and kept playing. In fact, I am pretty sure Gabbert still had a concussion the next week when he played awful against Texas Tech and we lost to them too. Anyway, it made a rough exit to the game. Nebraska was leaving the Big 12 and fans were like hey try to stay relevant and maybe we will play each other again sometime. Well guess what Nebraska…you suck too so neither of us are relevant. Take that Cornhuskers.

6. SEC Championship loss against Auburn

In just our second year in the SEC we won the East and made it to the big game. It was exciting and to make things even more exciting, we weren’t playing Alabama or LSU and so we might actually have a shot. It was a back and forth game full of offense and the 3rd quarter ended with us trailing by just 3 points, 45-42. Unfortunately, the 4th quarter was not good to us and we lost 59-42. We gave up 545 rushing yards. 545 yards!!! We actually had 534 yards of offense ourselves. But we could not stop Tre Mason. He had 304 yards himself. To add insult to injury, Mason said that we changed our defense and if they players had just stayed home, he would have had no where to run. Ouch. Auburn went on to lose the national championship to Florida State. It was great year but this game made it feel like it could have been so much more if we could have just at least occasionally stop the run.

5. Oklahoma State loss that ruined a would be great season

The year is 2008. We were 5-0 and ranked #3 in the nation. We had Heisman finalist Chase Daniel, Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman on offense and we were unstoppable. Until we weren’t. Hosting #17 Oklahoma State was the beginning of the end. Chase threw 3 interceptions and we couldn’t finish drives. While we were on offense, Mike Gundy wasn’t even paying attention to the game. He was drawing up plays for their next offensive possession. After all, he’s a man. He’s 40. Anyway it worked. We scored with like 5 minutes to go to pull within 5. But we never got the ball back. It was a tough loss. But it was also the beginning of the end. We got rolled by Texas the next week, lost to ku at the end of the year and got rolled by Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship. It was a disappointing beginning to what was supposed to be an awesome year.

4. South Carolina 2013, double overtime

This was a crazy game. We had just beat Georgia at Georgia and Florida at home. James Franklin got hurt so we were rolling with pre drug selling Maty Mauk. Things started off well. We were up 14-0 at the half and had one of our longest td’s in school history when one of my all time favorite Tigers, L’Damian Washington caught a 96 yard touchdown pass. We were up 17-0 going into the 4th quarter. Then the dreaded back up quarterback came in. We are historically bad against back up quarterbacks. Connor Shaw was hurt but came in anyway. He led them to 17 unanswered points which led to overtime. We scored quickly and easily. It was SC’s turn with the ball. It was 4th down and forever and Shaw was almost sacked before launching it to the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. In the second overtime we held them to a fg. Unfortunately, we couldn’t score a td and had to settle for a fg ourselves. Andrew Baggett kicked the 24 yarder off the left upright and we lost. This is literally the only blemish of the regular season. We could have been 12-0. Luckily we bounced back and won out and still made it to the championship game but it was rough way to lose…especially in that end zone.

3. Big 12 Championship 2007

This game was brutal. We had lost a close one to Oklahoma in Norman earlier in the year. I remember being in a bar in Colorado watching the game and there was this annoying Oklahoma girl talking crap through the whole game. I told her we would see them again and I was right. Unfortunately the outcome was worse. It was tied 14-14 at halftime but it felt like we had missed some opportunities. But we just couldn’t do anything in the second half. Their defense was one step ahead and they ran all over us to a 38-17 victory. We were #1 in the country but only scored one td and were held under 30 for the first time all year. Although not as depressing because it wasn’t a close loss as some of the others this one hurt because this was arguably our best team ever and the closest we have ever been to a national title game. It was a sad loss and one that hurts even more considering how disappointing the next year was. The second half of that game was the first non fun half of football all that year.

2. The Fifth Down:

While I am thankful for this event as it gave me a clever name for a blog, this loss was ridiculous. Again, you cannot make this stuff up and it couldn’t happen to anyone but us. On 1st and goal they spiked the ball to stop the clock. On second down they handed off to no one other than Eric Bienemy who did not score. At this point Colorado took it’s final timeout and this is where the problem began. The chain crew never flipped the down marker from 2nd to 3rd down. So now things get really confusing. They hand off to Bienemy again and he does not get in on what is actually 3rd down but marked as second down. Charles Johnson gets the team to the line and spikes the ball again on what is actually 4th down but marked as 3rd down. On the actual fifth down, Johnson keeps it himself. He appears to be stopped short of the goal line but the refs say he is in. Did you get all that? At this point the refs realize there is an issue. The officials huddle for like 20 minutes and then finally say the touchdown counts even though it happened on 5th down. Like I said, you can’t make this stuff up. Now if this happened today there would be challenge flags and replays and people yelling in the officials ear to correct the down marker. But this was 1990 and our nation was only borderline obsessed with football as opposed to completely obsessed like we are today. The officiating crew was suspended for one week. The Buffs ended up being co-national champions and we went on to continue to be a terrible program. So how is this not number 1 on the list? I mean the blog is named after it. Well I was only 11 years old. I didn’t really hate Colorado and I wasn’t obsessed with Mizzou football yet. But what if something just as bizarre could happen against a team you hate a few years later when you are all in on Mizzou?

The Flea Kicker:

I was a freshman in college and was in Columbia for some reason. I didn’t go to the game but watched it at I believe Apple Bee’s with some friends and family. We were playing #1 Nebraska who was 8-0. We weren’t good but we were good for us as we were 6-3 going into the game. We were competitive from beginning to end. We had not beaten Nebraska since 1978 and it was 1997. We were up 38-31 late in the game but couldn’t get a first down to seal it and were forced to punt. Nebraska got the ball back with just over a minute left. They drove down the field and were at the 12 yard line with 7 seconds left. Scott Frost, who was a terrible coach for Nebraska, but a pretty good qb for them threw a pass. He hit a kid named Shevin Wiggins in the chest but he dropped it. It was falling to the ground when it hit a Mizzou player’s foot and bounced back up. As Wiggins was being tackled the ground, he kicked the ball back up in the air and stupid Matt Davidson dove and caught the ball. This should have been called an illegal kick but instead the refs let it stand and the game went to overtime. In OT, they got the ball first and Frost ran it in. When it was our turn, on 4th and 7, Corby Jones got sacked by no other than Webb City grad, Grant Winstrom. Bad enough we lose on a game ending sack but it was by a kid who was from our state. Nebraska went on to win a co-national championship and I realized that this was just the life of a Mizzou fan. It’s what Mizzou does. We rip defeat from the jaws of victory.

This was a hard list to create as there are so many others to chose from. But these are my top 10. What’s on your list that didn’t make it?