I saw this topic on reddit and thought it’d be fun to try it here.
What is the worst loss we’ve handed out to an opponent?
A game that we’ve won that hurt our opponent the most. Something that cost the opponent a post season opportunity, or that cost them a coach, or something they valued that we just simply shredded and mocked them for it.
I don’t have a ready answer. I’m still mulling it over. I want to see what others think.
Edit to add: Although not a “beat down”, TCU had opportunity to win that game, missed 2 field goals, and we took the air out of them with that late drive for a TD. That game, as much as any, propelled us into the PAC.
the one that comes to mind for me was in 2013 Utah defeated #5 Stanford 27-21. The Cardinal were a 10 point favorite. After that game Utah lost 5 games in a row while Stanford finished the year 11-2, won the PAC12 and went to the Rose Bowl. Utah cost Stanford a shot at a CFP berth that year. On paper we had no business winning that game.
When we beat Iowa State back there (I think it was their worst home loss in history, by margin of points), they quickly bought out the return game so they wouldn’t have to play in Salt Lake.
Not quite true. Kirk Herbstreit, while not saying we would win, said we’d hang with Alabama, and for the two days prior to the game as we explored New Orleans we lost count of how many locals told us we were going to win. One vivid one was a security guard I passed at a building in the business area as I was hustling back to the Marriott for a Ute rally who stopped me to make sure I knew we were going to win. I wasn’t that confident, but he sure was.
One from the distant past was in 1983 when Utah beat BYU in 3OT in the Marriot Center.
Frank Arnold, thinking there was no way they should lose to Utah went berserk as the game went on, at one point screaming into the face of a freshman “You’re losing this game for us” during a time out while horrified fans behind the bench thought “hey he’s just a 18 year old”.
Frank and the school ended up parting ways at the end of the season.
Utah meanwhile won the WAC title (finished in a 3 way tie with BYU and UTEP and beating BYU twice gave us the tie-breaker and auto-bid to the tourney) where we took down Illinois and UCLA before losing to Valvano’s NC State team of destiny).
Lots of terrific candidates put up here. Great job. I was at the Oregon game in 2015. The fans there all day mocked Utah, then tried to make nice when they thought about how snarky they had been. I remember just saying, “We’ll see.” Utah completely destroyed Oregon that day. Not even close. To me, that win was a coming out for Utah. The team established, “We can compete. We will beat you if you are not prepared.” I loved it.