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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/Pollaski on 2024-07-16 15:26:14+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)
90: OHIO STATE BUCKEYES (lost to Clemson 31-0) [2016]
Heading into the 2016 playoffs, the narrative was pretty clear. Alabama was going to straight up murder Washington, while Clemson and Ohio State were going to brawl it out to see who had the right to attempt to down the Tide in the championship. But the Huskies put up a decent fight, their defense frustrating ten out of the eleven Alabama offensive players (sadly, the eleventh was Bo Scarborough), and kept it close until finally the Tide pulled away late in the fourth quarter. It was enough to cost outgoing offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin his job, as a frustrated Saban relieved him of his duties and told him to just go to Florida Atlantic. I’d like to think that was one of the main reasons Clemson ended up downing Bama in the Championship. You’re welcome, Tigers.
The semifinal’s main event, however, did not live up to its hype. Clemson’s defense absolutely shut down the Buckeyes, forcing three turnovers and holding them to just 215 and keeping them off the scoreboard. Pretty much the highlight of the evening for Ohio State was early in the second half when, with Clemson again knocking on the door at the Buckeye 3, Ohio State forced a sack, and then got a missed field goal to keep the game at 17-0. Clemson would easily advance to the national championship, where they avenged their previous year’s defeat against Bama.
This is really the first entry on the countdown where I had definite options to choose from in terms of my “only one instance of a team beating another rule” as Ohio State was absolutely snakebitten against Clemson in the 2010’s. There was the 2013 Orange Bowl, where Clemson nipped the Buckeyes out in at the end, or the 2019 Fiesta Bowl, where Clemson rallied from a 16-0 defecit on the back of a controversial targeting penalty to win their fourth consecutive in the series. Its like the curse of Woody Hayes and the 1978 Gator Bowl was real.
The Buckeyes would finally down Clemson in 2020 when they won the Sugar Bowl 49-28.
89: FLORIDA GATORS (lost to Georgia Southern 26-20) [2013]
The Florida Gators were 2013’s Tank Job of the Year, and its not hard to see why. Coming in ranked #10 after a monster 2012 season, the Gators started well enough- 4-1 with their sole loss coming against a decent Miami team. But then they lost their next five in a row, including a 34-17 thrashing by Vanderbilt on Homecoming. Now at 4-6, the Gators would need to win out- including beating #2 Florida State- if they hoped to avoid their first losing season since 1979. First, they had a bit of a tune-up against FCS Georgia Southern, who was just 6-4 and unranked in their own right.
And for most of the first half, that’s exactly what this looked like- a tune up game. Georgia Southern spent most of the first act being swarmed by the Gator defense, fumbled the ball twice, and gave up another turnover on downs. Even with the Gator offense struggling and only putting up ten points on their own, the game seemed well in hand thanks to the defense… right up until two minutes left to go, when Georgia Southern finally broke through with a 46 yard touchdown run, going into the break just down 10-7.
In the second half, the floodgates opened, and GSU’s triple option absolutely rolled over (or rather, around) the Gators, finishing with a whopping 429 rushing yards without completing a single pass (they did attempt three). Florida did battle back, rallying from a 20-10 deficit to tie the game up with just over five minutes left, but Georgia Southern responded by gashing the Gators for 75 yards in just 5 plays, scoring the go ahead with 2:57 left. But the Eagles missed the extra point, leaving the door open for Florida to take one last shot at a victory to keep their season alive. They came close- working their way to the GSU 17 before a fourth down pass was dropped just as time expired, and the Eagles were celebrating while Florida assured their first losing season in 34 years. Florida State would destroy them 37-7 in the finale, confining the Gators to a wretched 4-8 record.
One funny note: the most iconic moment from this game- a right-side sweep0 that somehow ended up having two Florida players blocking each other- had absolutely nothing to do with the Gator’s defeat. In fact, that play ended up setting up a first and goal that would lead to Florida’s first touchdown. But the image has been lasting over the last decade, a burned-in memory of just how inept this 2013 Gator team truly was.
TOMORROW: Suck on THAT, selection committee! Also, history lessons about some random date in 1941 for no real reason.