This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/chanzig23 on 2023-10-05 14:47:09.

In honor of the Red River Shootout this weekend, I felt it would be a fun activity to go through every single Texas Longhorn loss in my lifetime (1998-present) and rank them in a tier list. This is my subjective opinion, but feel free to correct me in the comments if I made any egregious mistakes.

I originally attempted to pull this data from an online database, but decided that it would be a far more entertaining activity to go through manually, taking a trip down memory lane and basking in the light of every glorious loss the Longhorns have had in the last 25 years. There have been 99 glorious losses in that time span, and with any luck, the Sooners will do God’s work and make that a nice, even 100 losses this Saturday.

We’ll start out with the quick and easy tiers:

  • F
  • D
  • C
  • B
  • A

As you can see, there are no losses in these tiers. There is no case in which Texas losing does not give me immense joy. To belittle any one of the unique and special losses they have had in the past 25 years by putting them below S-tier would be dishonest and wrong. However, I will concede that just as not all infinite sets are the same size, not all Texas losses bring me quite the same level of catharsis. Therefore, I will be ranking the wins within several sub-tiers within the S-tier. These will be SC, SB, SA, SS, and SS+

SC

We’ll start at the bottom of the S-tier. These are Texas losses where they actually seemed halfway respectable or the game itself was just entirely forgettable. These mostly include games where Texas lost a close game to a good team (like their loss to Alabama in 2022), or where both Texas and their opponent were both so mediocre that the loss brought me bliss but fell short of delirium (take Kansas State in 2016 for example). While I don’t have enough time or space to discuss each of these in depth, I will be writing up a more detailed summary of the games as we get to the higher tiers.

Year Opponent Texas Score Opponent Score
1999 Nebraska 6 22
2000 Oregon 30 35
2003 Washington St 20 28
2011 Oklahoma St 26 38
2011 Kansas St 13 17
2012 West Virginia 45 48
2014 UCLA 17 20
2015 Oklahoma St 27 30
2016 West Virginia 20 24
2016 Kansas St 21 24
2021 Oklahoma St 24 32
2021 Baylor 24 31
2022 Alabama 19 20

SB

Next up, we have the SB-tier. These are your run-of-the-mill Texas losses. A few that stand out from this tier include a 7-24 loss to Ohio State in 2006, and a 9-31 loss to TCU in 2016. These also include all of their losses to Texas A&M, because while I enjoy Texas losing to one of their biggest rivals, it unfortunately also means the Aggies won, which is a bummer.

Year Opponent Texas Score Opponent Score
1998 UCLA 31 49
1999 Texas A&M 16 20
1999 Kansas St 17 35
1999 NC State 20 23
2000 Stanford 24 27
2003 Arkansas 28 38
2006 Texas A&M 7 12
2006 Ohio St 7 24
2007 Texas A&M 30 38
2010 Texas A&M 17 24
2010 Oklahoma St 16 33
2010 Baylor 22 30
2011 Baylor 24 48
2012 Kansas St 24 42
2012 TCU 13 20
2013 Oklahoma St 13 38
2013 Oregon 7 30
2013 Ole Miss 23 44
2013 Baylor 10 30
2013 BYU 21 40
2014 Kansas St 0 23
2014 Baylor 7 28
2015 West Virginia 20 38
2015 California 44 45
2016 TCU 9 31
2016 Oklahoma St 31 49
2021 West Virginia 23 31
2022 TCU 10 17
2022 Washington 20 27

SA

Now we’re getting to the losses that I feel are particularly notable, either for the lopsided margin, or due to particularly embarrassing circumstances or mistakes made by the Longhorns. Most of these are against teams that were mediocre to bad, so the margin of defeat is all the more humiliating.

A few specific games of note from this tier include:

  • A 41 point loss to Kansas State in 1998, which was their fifth largest margin of defeat in the last 25 years.
  • Losing to pre-Deion Colorado in the 2001 Big 12 Championship Game
  • Lopsided losses to mediocre Kansas State teams in 2007 and 2010
  • Blown out by their rival Arkansas 7-31 in the 2014 Texas Bowl.
  • Losing to Cal in 2015 by one point after missing an extra point with less than two minutes in the game
  • Losing 7-30 against Iowa State in 2021, which was their fourth consecutive loss of the season
Year Opponent Texas Score Opponent Score
1998 Kansas St 7 48
1998 Texas Tech 35 42
1999 Arkansas 6 27
2001 Colorado 37 39
2002 Texas Tech 38 42
2006 Kansas St 42 45
2007 Kansas St 21 41
2010 Kansas St 14 39
2010 UCLA 12 34
2010 Iowa St 21 28
2011 Missouri 5 17
2014 BYU 7 41
2014 TCU 10 48
2014 Arkansas 7 31
2015 Notre Dame 3 38
2015 TCU 7 50
2015 Iowa St 0 24
2015 Texas Tech 45 48
2015 California 44 45
2016 California 43 50
2017 USC 24 27
2017 TCU 7 24
2021 Iowa St 7 30
2022 Texas Tech 34 37
2022 Oklahoma St 34 41

SS

Now we’re at the S-tier within the S-tier. Every loss Texas had to Oklahoma is included in this tier or higher. As well, any loss by a Tom Herman team is automatically included in this tier because, y’know, it’s Tom Herman. But on the whole, the highlights of this tier include:

  • Getting shutout against Oklahoma in 2004
  • "Deep strike, got the big man! Crabtree!!! Pulls free!!! Touchdown, Red Raiders!!!"
  • Losing by 1 point to Will Grier and the WVU Mountaineers in 2018
  • 4OT loss against Oklahoma in 2020
  • Getting demolished by Arkansas in 2021
Year Opponent Texas Score Opponent Score
2002 Oklahoma 24 35
2004 Oklahoma 0 12
2007 Oklahoma 21 28
2008 Texas Tech 33 39
2010 Oklahoma 20 28
2014 Oklahoma 26 31
2016 Oklahoma 40 45
2017 Maryland 41 51
2017 Oklahoma 24 29
2017 Oklahoma St 10 13
2017 Texas Tech 23 27
2018 Maryland 29 34
2018 Oklahoma St 35 38
2018 West Virginia 41 42
2019 LSU 38 45
2019 TCU 27 37
2019 Iowa St 21 23
2019 Baylor 10 24
2020 TCU 31 33
2020 Oklahoma 45 53
2020 Iowa St 20 23
2021 Arkansas 21 40

SS+:

And now, for the final tier. These are the ones we all know and love. The true epitome of the Texas Longhorns misery over the past 25 years. I love each and every one of these losses in their own unique way. Let us reminisce:

  • Getting absolutely obliterated by Oklahoma in 2000. Chris Simms, Major Applewhite? Who cares, they’d have gotten flattened either way
  • Roy Williams, Superman. Need I say more?
  • If you thought 2000 was bad, just look at the 52 point demolition that Texas suffered in 2003 against OU. This was the largest loss margin in the entire 25 year span.
  • Losing the national championship game against Alabama in 2009. The end of their run of success and the dawn of the dark days for Longhorn football
  • More blowout losses to Oklahoma in 2011 (17-55) and then again in 2012 (21-63)
  • Who could forget their pair of losses against Kansas in 2017 and again in 2021? I’ll just leave this here:
  • Losing the Big 12 Championship against Oklahoma in 2018, featuring a ridiculous catch by Grant Calcaterra and Tre Brown sacking Sam Ehlinger in the endzone for a safety
  • CeeDee Lamb absolutely cooking the Texas defense in 2019 en route to a 34-27 victory
  • And of course, who could forget when the Texas fans wanted Caleb, and he delivered in 2021 with a 55-48 victory
Year Opponent Texas Score Opponent Score
2000 Oklahoma 14 63
2001 Oklahoma 3 14
2003 Oklahoma 13 65
2009 Alabama 21 37
2011 Oklahoma 17 55
2012 Oklahoma 21 63
2016 Kansas 21 24
2018 Oklahoma 27 39
2019 Oklahoma 27 34
2021 Oklahoma 48 55
2021 Kansas 56 57

Well, that rounds it out. Hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane, and here’s to hoping another Texas loss gets added to the list this weekend.

TL;DR: Boomer Sooner, Texas Sucks