This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/Pollaski on 2024-07-13 15:00:23+00:00.
The Tank Job of the Week is an award for the FBS team that did the best job of humiliating itself over the weekend. Whether they blew a large lead, choked away a spot in the limelight, lost a game they had absolutely no right losing, or completely screwed everything on a last second blunder, the TJOTW winner sets the gold standard in college football misery. Over the next seven weeks, we are counting down my 100 greatest tank jobs over the last 20 years. WARNING: You will be hurt.
(video links and a link to the entire list in comments)
I hope you’re enjoying your nice, quiet, football free Saturday morning. We’ve only got a few of these left! ITS COMING!
96: BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES (lost to Wake Forest 3-0) [2015]
The now-defunct college football blog Every Day Should Be Saturday used to run a feature in the offseason called “Erase This Game”, where they highlighted the worst game a team’s ever played. Not surprisingly, many of the games they covered are also on this list, and if memory serves me right, this was the FIRST ever entrant for Erase This Game. Its not hard to see why.
And believe it or not, the scoreline does NOT do this game justice. Dave Clawson inherited a Wake Forest team with nothing in the cupboard but moths, and the combined 2-14 they went over his first two ACC seasons is just a greater testament of what he has been able to accomplish in Winston-Salem. But even in those dark times, Wake’s defense, headed up by future Duke and current Texas A&M coach Mike Elko, was occasionally able to ugly a game up so badly that the Deacons had a shot.
Such was this game. Wake had 142 yards of offense and five first downs. Boston College wasn’t exactly Oregon in this game, but they did manage to move the ball… when they weren’t finding ways to give it back to Wake Forest. Such as what happened early in the third quarter- BC fumbled on their own 5, Wake ran three plays, lost two yards, and kicked a field goal. That’s right- the one scoring drive in this entire game went for negative yards.
Boston College drove again- and fumbled. They drove again- and missed a field goal. On and on the futility went until just over two minutes remained, and BC finally got back into the Wake red zone, and drove the ball down to the 8. And then they fumbled again. All Wake needed to do was force BC to use their final timeouts, get a first down, and emerge the winner.
So of course they fumbled the ball right back.
So with 56 seconds left, Boston College sat at the Wake Forest 11, down three. They had a chance to win the game with a touchdown or, failing that, kick a field goal and force overtime. Option C was to just simply run out of time, which was the option Steve Addazio took when a running play from a yard out failed with just 18 seconds left and BC couldn’t get lined up on time.
This would prove to be Wake Forest’s only conference win of the season. Boston College wouldn’t even match that, finishing 0-8 in conference play. Then, to add to the indignity, their men’s basketball team also went 0-18, becoming the only ACC school in history to get skunked in both football and basketball in the same season.
95: OHIO STATE BUCKEYES (lost to Michigan State 34-24) [2013]
Like I indicated in my preview yesterday, this was the true final victim of the magical mayhem that drove Auburn’s 2013 title game run. After all, even after the Prayer at Jordan-Hare and the Kick Six, Auburn sat at just #3 in the polls, behind undefeated Florida State and Ohio State. Even with a win over Missouri in the SEC Championship, the Tigers needed one of them to lose.
And the Buckeyes were on a tear. Actually, that’s an understatement- Ohio State had won their last twenty-four games. Furthermore, they spent the previous year sitting at home watching Alabama pummel Notre Dame for the title, barred from postseason play thanks to the fallout of “Tattoogate”. And now they sat one game away from heading to the final BCS championship.
After a tame first quarter, the game took off, with Michigan State harassing Braxton Miller, forcing mistakes that led to two Spartan touchdowns and a 17-0 lead. Ohio State battled back, however, tying the game up in the third quarter and even taking the lead with twenty minutes to go. But from there it was all Sparty, who pulled ahead with just under twelve minutes left and then, after stuffing a Braxton Miller scramble on fourth down, plunged the dagger to seal the deal. Ohio State was out, and the Tigers were in.
You could argue either way on this one’s placing on this list. On one hand, it cost the Buckeyes a shot at the national championship, which meant they could have gone back-to-back if not for this. ON the other hand, you could argue it wasn’t even a tank job- Michigan State was an excellent team in their own right and would go on to finish ranked fourth at 13-1. You could even argue that MSU’s 2015 victory- which also cost the Buckeye’s repeat chance, as even more deserving.
TOMORROW: Officials decide that the rulebook is more of a guideline. And Mark Jones breaks out the thesaurus.