1998 Tennessee vs Syracuse

[HOFCeluck]

 

[xc84]

Still refuse to watch the replay having been to the travesty in person

watch the next game then... Michigan

 

[MikeSU02]

watch the next game then... Michigan

Then skip ahead to the Miami game after that.

 

[SWC75]

Then skip ahead to the Miami game after that.

And skip both NC State and the Orange Bowl. That's what drove people crazy back then: we could look like national champions in one game and a last place team in others.

 

[djorange1989]

And skip both NC State and the Orange Bowl. That's what drove people crazy back them: we could look like national champions in one game and a last place team in others.

The Orange Bowl was so bad, even Spurrier felt bad for us and took his foot off the gas. We were awful. No comment on NC State

 

[Dick_in_MI]

And skip both NC State and the Orange Bowl. That's what drove people crazy back them: we could look like national champions in one game and a last place team in others.

And what has driven people crazy in the 18 seasons since P was fired is fact that we have seen only 5 winning seasons and only 3 seasons with 8+ wins.

Being driven crazy by occasionally looking like National Champions, much less having more than a rare good season, is a luxury that is now decades in the rearview mirror.

Maybe fans have simply been beaten into submission and are no longer driven crazy by it. I don't know. We are all looking forward to the day when being good again is an annual expectation or at least an annual realistic hope.

 

[GoSU96]

Not counting the Tennessee game. For the 90s to be considered our "golden era" we sure did lay a lot of golden eggs. And after watching some of that OP Game, I will be more grounded about our offensive line. It is clear that this has been an issue for us no matter the coach. I knew Mcnabb hid a lot of our issues, but wow.

They won the national championship and the game came down to a long fg at the gun. It was a great game.

How is that laying an egg?

 

[SWC75]

And what has driven people crazy in the 18 seasons since P was fired is fact that we have seen only 5 winning seasons and only 3 seasons with 8+ wins.

Being driven crazy by occasionally looking like National Champions, much less having more than a rare good season, is a luxury that is now decades in the rearview mirror.

Maybe fans have simply been beaten into submission and are no longer driven crazy by it. I don't know. We are all looking forward to the day when being good again is an annual expectation or at least an annual realistic hope.

The most painful game of my 60+ year rooting career was the 1998 NC State game. I really thought we were going to run the table and win the Heisman and then the national championship. I actually wondered if it was worth it to care so much.

 

[GoSU96]

And skip both NC State and the Orange Bowl. That's what drove people crazy back them: we could look like national champions in one game and a last place team in others.

Last place team, Jesus

 

[Dick_in_MI]

They won the national championship and the game came down to a long fg at the gun. It was a great game.

How is that laying an egg?

It's not

 

[IthacaMatt]

Not counting the Tennessee game. For the 90s to be considered our "golden era" we sure did lay a lot of golden eggs. And after watching some of that OP Game, I will be more grounded about our offensive line. It is clear that this has been an issue for us no matter the coach. I knew Mcnabb hid a lot of our issues, but wow.

It seems like even with their best teams, Pasqualoni & DeLeone would drop one or two games early in the year just about every year that we would have hoped to win.

 

[sufandu]

The Orange Bowl was so bad, even Spurrier felt bad for us and took his foot off the gas. We were awful. No comment on NC State

He also shook McNabb's hand after the great play he made on the one TD he threw.

 

[sufandu]

They won the national championship and the game came down to a long fg at the gun. It was a great game.

How is that laying an egg?

You saw the first sentance, right? He didn't say we laid an egg in that one.

 

[Dick_in_MI]

The most painful game of my 60+ year rooting career was the 1998 NC State game. I really thought we were going to run the table and win the Heisman and then the national championship. I actually wondered if it was worth it to care so much.

Well for starters, as it pertains to your last sentence, it's not worth it to care so much. It's really not. Unless a member of your family is playing in the game, or unless you yourself can directly affect the outcome, you have to put it in perspective. I'll freely admit not always having been able to have that perspective myself, but it is true none-the-less.

I was also pretty deflated by the outcome of the '98 game vs NCSt. In addition, I was pretty deflated the end of the 2021 season. We only needed to win one of the final three to go to a bowl. We were blown out of all three games. Yeah, two of them were against teams ranked on the 20-25 range, but still...

At the end of the day, I try not to be too emotionally devastated by stuff like that anymore. As I say, I'll freely admit to not always being successful. But I try just the same. There are plenty of things in the world worth driving yourself crazy over but the older I get, the more I realize that the players and the guys making a lot of $$$ to coach a game that little kids play for free should be shouldering that burden and not I.

 

[Cuseregular]

The most painful game of my 60+ year rooting career was the 1998 NC State game. I really thought we were going to run the table and win the Heisman and then the national championship. I actually wondered if it was worth it to care so much.

yep hey lets give the ball at the goal line to the 165lb rb and not the 245lb fullback!

 

[Chip]

And what has driven people crazy in the 18 seasons since P was fired is fact that we have seen only 5 winning seasons and only 3 seasons with 8+ wins.

Being driven crazy by occasionally looking like National Champions, much less having more than a rare good season, is a luxury that is now decades in the rearview mirror.

Maybe fans have simply been beaten into submission and are no longer driven crazy by it. I don't know. We are all looking forward to the day when being good again is an annual expectation or at least an annual realistic hope.

The last 3 P seasons weren't winning seasons either. And only 1 in the last 6 with 8+ wins.

I don't bring that up to dredge up the past (I swear), but just pointing out that your metrics of mediocrity run even longer.

There was still more hope though in those times. But I recall 2004, hosting Bobby Bowden and FSU in a Saturday night game, and the attendance was 40k.

 

[dollarbill44]

yep hey lets give the ball at the goal line to the 165lb rb and not the 245lb fullback!

That was a different year. 1998 we got wasted by a not good NCSU team on a Thursday night at Carter Finley.

 

[Dick_in_MI]

The last 3 P seasons weren't winning seasons either. And only 1 in the last 6 with 8+ wins.

I don't bring that up to dredge up the past (I swear), but just pointing out that your metrics of mediocrity run even longer.

Mediocre, yes. Still, the last two, while not winning seasons, were 6-6. Today that would have gotten us a bowl and...from what JW has said...probably it would have kept P his job.

How about this for a metric of mediocrity...those last two 6-6 seasons are tied for the 6th best season in the past 20 years. Half of those 20 seasons ended with records of 4 or fewer wins. I don't even think of those seasons as mediocre; I consider them bad.

 

[sutomcat]

 

[OrangeDW]

The most painful game of my 60+ year rooting career was the 1998 NC State game. I really thought we were going to run the table and win the Heisman and then the national championship. I actually wondered if it was worth it to care so much.

Amazing that we scheduled like that.

Start off with Tennessee, then go to Michigan and to NC State? For what?

If we scheduled like VT, we probably go 11-1 about 3 times in a row.

 

[sufandu]

Well for starters, as it pertains to your last sentence, it's not worth it to care so much. It's really not. Unless a member of your family is playing in the game, or unless you yourself can directly affect the outcome, you have to put it in perspective. I'll freely admit not always having been able to have that perspective myself, but it is true none-the-less.

I was also pretty deflated by the outcome of the '98 game vs NCSt. In addition, I was pretty deflated the end of the 2021 season. We only needed to win one of the final three to go to a bowl. We were blown out of all three games. Yeah, two of them were against teams ranked on the 20-25 range, but still...

At the end of the day, I try not to be too emotionally devastated by stuff like that anymore. As I say, I'll freely admit to not always being successful. But I try just the same. There are plenty of things in the world worth driving yourself crazy over but the older I get, the more I realize that the players and the guys making a lot of $$$ to coach a game that little kids play for free should be shouldering that burden and not I.

I'm with you. In the moment I'm yelling and screaming at the TV, but after the game I can move on fairly quickly. There are just too many actually important things to focus my life on.

 

[OrangeDW]

That was a different year. 1998 we got wasted by a not good NCSU team on a Thursday night at Carter Finley.

They weren’t bad though, they went 7-5 and beat an 11-2 Florida State team at home too.

Torry Holt was incredible.

 

[sufandu]

Amazing that we scheduled like that.

Start off with Tennessee, then go to Michigan and to NC State? For what?

If we scheduled like VT, we probably go 11-1 about 3 times in a row.

Well, the conference was solid but not great that year, since everyone had at least 3 losses and nobody finished ranked higher than 20. NC State hadn't been all that great leading up to that game with only 3 wins in '95 and '96 and 6 in '97. Michigan and Tennessee were big time but if you want to be great to have to play other great teams. We weren't a rebuilding program at that point. For the previous 10 years we had one of the best records in the country. If not for screw job refs, we beat Tennessee and we had no business losing to NC State. We were better than them. We had beaten WVU the previous three years but couldn't get the fourth. The schedule was fine for a team that was expected to be really good and had an elite talent at QB with a bunch of other future high draft picks on the roster.

To answer your 'for what' question. Imagine how excited the fanbase and community would've been and how much espn would've been all over us had SEC refs not screwed us and then we blew out Michigan like we did. We would've been a top 5 team.

 

[SWC75]

They weren’t bad though, they went 7-5 and beat an 11-2 Florida State team at home too.

Torry Holt was incredible.

Which is why you might want to cover him on 4th and 26.

 

[GoSU96]

They weren’t bad though, they went 7-5 and beat an 11-2 Florida State team at home too.

Torry Holt was incredible.

Lit up a damaged secondary.

Tried to make it McNabbs Heisman showcase when they couldn’t stop Konrad anymore than SU could stop Holt.

McNabb sh...*t the bed.