toughest loss youve ever taken?

My junior year of high school we were the number eight seed in the playoffs facing the number one seed. Our HC was the typical gruff old coach, and even though it wasn't official; It was kind of unspoken that he was going to retire at the end of the year. He had a storied career (Five state titles in about 13 years). We were playing without out best player (WR/DB). They had two D1 Wide receivers that we're 6'2/6'3. It was a defensive battle. Back and forth the whole game. Now, I love offense, but I played nose, so I was pretty proud of our D. The score was 3-3 going into the fourth quarter, and they scored a long TD on a blown coverage in the middle of the fourth, and with about a minute left we were driving, but we stalled on the 20-ish, and lost 10-3. Our team was mostly seniors, and our whole team was very tight. As we were walking to the bus you could just kind of see it in everyone's eyes the disbelief that it was over. The people we spent the last 3-4 years with, and in some cases last 9-10. It was never going to be the same, so on a football level, and a personal level it's the hardest loss I've ever taken.

Years ago it was very tough to make the playoffs. You had to win your district. In case of a tie, the winner was determined by power points, the record of the teams that you beat and our district had ten teams so we each played only one game out of district. We had never made the playoffs before.

In week 9 we had beaten the other undefeated team in the district, a perennial power who was always in the playoffs. So going into the last game we were 9-0 and ranked first in the state.

Our opponent in game 10 was a losing team that had a good defense but a terrible offense. For some reason our offense was out of synch so the score was tied in a very low scoring game (I don't remember the exact score). Our defense was playing great, though, helped by the fact that their starting QB had been injured and replaced by a soph who was terrible.

We took the lead by scoring a TD with less than a minute to play. The fact that we missed the PAT didn't seem to matter. Then we kicked off. It was 1990 so situation kickoffs weren't a big thing yet. We just wailed away at it. It was a good kickoff, high and long, but a huge gap appeared in our coverage. We later found out that the two geniuses there- great athletes but between them they couldn't spell IQ if you spotted them a letter- had switched assignments on their own and, oddly enough, screwed it up.

Of course, they ran it back for a TD to take the lead. Game over. Season over.

3rd round of playoffs. We are up 26-10 with 10 min to go in game. They are driving. We catch a pick in the end zone and somehow run it out and fumble it. They recover on the 5. They score. 26-16. We got 3 and out. They score and get the 2 pt conversion. 26-24. We throw a pick. They score. Now they are winning. 30-26. We go 3 and out. They go 3 and out and punt. We muff the punt. They recover. We hold them. Down 4. 2 minutes left. We drive down and score with 34 sec left. Go up 32-30. We sky kick the kickoff. Their kid slips catching it but doesn't fall and our kids let up covering the kick. He returns it for a td. They go up 36-32. We get tackled on their 5 to end the game. So many things went wrong their at the end that any one thing different would have been the difference.

Second game of the year, second year as an HC.. We had taken over an 8-man program that hadn't won a game in five-six years and had made some strides the year before. We won our first game of the year the second year and then played the #2 ranked team in the state the next week.

We were tied with them 35-35 in the beginning of the third; just trading scores back and forth. We had just punched it in for the tie, they got the ball back and returned it for a touchdown. Then, we got the ball, marched it down the field, fumbled and turned the ball over to them on the five yard line. The pummeled us down the length of the field running Power and Iso and the kids just gave up.

We lost 70-35. Yup. 35 unanswered points in a quarter and a half after being tied with them...

What made everything worse was all of the pats the staff got on the backs from the administration and community. It fed into the mentality that losing was alright, even though we did so because the team just quit playing ball. We won one more game that year and finished 2-5 when I feel like we could have finished in the top of the three in the conference and made a play-off run if the kids could have just kept their crap together. That team could have gone a long way if they had learned how to handle adversity and keep playing four quarter of football.

It's a tie for me...

My second year coaching at my first varsity job, we are 9-0 going into week 10 and playing another 9-0 team in our district for the title. In one of the best football games I have ever been a part of we play well but lose a close one. The next week we host a playoff game in the first round vs our biggest rival who we had beaten 34-7 in week one and who had never beaten us in their existence. They had gotten better throughout the year and right before half we throw a pick six and it gave them a huge momentum swing going in at half. We still have the late lead in the 4th quarter when they start their final drive. A few plays in they throw a pass that hits our middle linebacker in the chest and he walks in for six if he catches but he drops it. Later they are in a 4th and long situation where we pressure the QB and he starts to scramble when for some unknown reason our cover 3 corner decides he has to come up and tackle him and the QB pulls up and hits his receiver behind him for a first down. Finally, they get to one yard line and on fourth down run a QB sneak that was signaled very late for the go ahead touchdown. We still do not think their QB ever got in on that play but that's how they called it. The worst part of that year was in the first 9 games we were something like +34 in turnover margin and in those last two we ended up being -8. Still may be the most talented overall team that I have ever coached on.

Later on quite a few years later still coaching at the same place we are on the road in the first round of the playoffs after an 8-2 regular season and winning by 7. Our middle linebacker gets a pick and runs it back for a touchdown late in the game to apparently seal the win. 20 yards behind the play, we get called for a clip that brings the ball back and wipes the score off the board. We go 3 and out after that and they eventually score to tie it and take the game to overtime. We play 5 overtime periods! On the last one we are second to have the ball, down a TD, and have fourth and goal on the one yard line with the best running back in school history taking the hand off after a 250+ yard night when he gets stuffed at the LOS. Might be the toughest loss ever personally for me since I was the offensive line coach and even though we had a great night up front, we couldn't finish that one last yard.

The first loss that comes to my mind actually isn't a close, playoff loss; alas, I haven't had many playoff games in general! This was more of a rude awakening as to where we were as a program at the time. At my previous coaching job, we had enough talent to where we had a decent season year 1...and then the talent level fell off dramatically and we knew we had a rebuild at that time. Second year we went 2-7 and we thought we were going to be better year 3. Get off to an 0-2 start against great competition and play another 0-2 team week 3. Thought it was a game we had a good shot at winning...and lost 42-0! As I said in the beginning, it was definitely a rude awaking in terms of how far we still had to go!

It was 1995 my junior year in HS. First round of WPIAL playoffs. We were 7-2 and #8 seed playing against 9-0 #1 seed. We were a tough scrappy bunch that didn't give a sh!t who we were playing. Not overly talented but tough as nails. The team we were playing was #1 in state and pitched 7 shutouts in 9 games. The tailback rushed for over 2,000 yards and was in his way to Notre Dame. I remember nobody believed we had any chance of beating them except for ourselves and our staff. We kicked off and stoned them...3 and out. We then proceed to march down the field in no huddle wing-t and score. They were stunned as it was first score of any kind they allowed in 5 games. I remember how loud the crowd was prior to kickoff and how quiet it got. We were pumped. We stopped then again and marched back down the field to kick a FG and go up 9-0 in the 2nd. We had a very good TE who would play at Wake Forest get hurt on our third drive and be out the rest of the game. If anyone that runs Delaware wing T you know how crucial the TE is in your scheme. It changed everything for us on offense. We continued to play great on D and held the Notre Dame Arab to lowest output if season. With our O sputtering we could not hold the lead and they scored with 4 minutes left to take a 14-9 lead. We get in the huddle and I remember the confidence we had. We were all like we have 4 minutes we can do this. We start matching down the field and our SE makes a great 30 yard reception putting us at the 11 yard line with just over 2 minutes left. Plenty of time to run the ball. We call a pass and our drag man looks to be weight open in the end zone. Flat defender reads it and picks it off 2 yards deep in the end zone and runs it back 102 yards. Game Over! They would go on to be state runner up. We were devastated and our high school never won a playoff game after that. The school consolidated last year. I think about that game I swear every day and what could have been.

My toughest loss would be the first game of the season in my second year as a head coach in 2011. We lost 18-7 to our rival in a game where we played and coached very poorly. And the disappointment wasn't just in losing that game so much as how it fit into the context of the overall season. We had a really tough schedule that year with two very good football teams coming up the next two weeks. I walked to midfield to shake hands after the game knowing we were staring down the barrel of an 0-3 start and probable losing season (finished 3-7).

In the long run, though, that loss was a good thing. We had a young team and refocused and went back to the drawing board that offseason. We installed the Wing-T and scored over 500 points the next year en route to a 10-3 state runner-up season. We also beat the beat the daylights out of our rival with basically the same personnel for both sides as the previous year. That was one of the most satisfying wins of my career, and I think the pain and disappointment of losing to them the year before really inspired us to do great things that year.

I have no words for that.

I might have fought everyone.

It didn't cost us the game by any means but we had a kid who had never scored a TD in his playing career take an onside kick to the house. They called it back because the kid kicked off before the ref blew his whistle.

Senior year of high school. We come out and return the opening kick off for a TD. Go up 20-0 in the first quarter. Team goes flat after that expecting the other team to roll over.

In the 4th quarter they score to make the game 27-26. Coach called a timeout and told us they were going to fake the PAT. They do. MLB who has a club on his arm makes a perfect read and goes to pick it off instead of knocking it down. The ball ends up popping up and landing right in the hands of the receiver behind him.

They win 28-27

2006, my 3rd year as HC. Small town Mid-Michigan football. Everyone was there. We were a lower tier team playing the best team in the conference. They had been a conference powerhouse for years.  Class HC. 

Home game, and we had them on the ropes. I had a RB who was about 5'4/130 lb. and he was eating their lunch. We drove down and scored to take the lead with about 90 seconds on the clock.

The town went berserk.  We kicked our XP to go up by six.

My stud TE came off the field looking pissed as hell. At first, I thought someone gave him a cheap shot, or he was hurt.

I asked him what was wrong, and if he was okay. He looked at me and yelled, "well, I'd like the damn ball!"

We actually tried to get him the ball on a couple of bootleg's but the QB threw elsewhere, but that is beside the point.

I said, 'dude, we're about to get the biggest win in school history, and you're crying right now?! Come on man help us get this win.'

I thought he would be inspired by my words, and I turned around to get the kickoff team ready. A few seconds later, I heard this huge explosion. You guessed it, he slammed his helmet on the ground.

At that point, I had an assistant remove him from the sideline and into the locker room. It just so happens that he was a stud DE and our opponent knew that. So, being the great team they were, they drove down the field running to the side where our stud previously played.

I tried with all my might to make adjustments in that short amount of time.

We held them to a 3rd down stop on our own 2 yd line. They scored with .7 seconds on the clock to tie it up, then kicked the PAT and won the game.

I always reflect on how I might have handled the situation differently. I was young at the time, and was big on discipline and respect. I still think I would have done the same thing, but wonder what other personnel adjustments I could have made. With a roster of 22 kids, there were only so many options that I had.

That opponent has since gone on to become a state powerhouse. But my little guys shook them up for a bit.

I think that way to go might have been the Sgt. Schultz route: "I see nothing. I hear nothing". Let the kid take it out on the bad guys. 

shocktroop34

I support your decision 100%. Hindsight is 20/20 and you're right it's possible you might have been able to calm the kid down and keep him in the mix or it could have been like a situation I had once as a young head coach.

I tried to reel a kid back in and he was just going crazy. I didn't have time to deal with it right then as I needed to get a kick team ready and then put my defense on the field. I was also getting frustrated with him and in the heat of the moment was about to pop off on him. So I said "Son we will talk about all of that later, but I have to turn you over to coach X right now".

Coach X tries to calm the kid down and the kid is just going crazy. Eventually coach X lost his cool and got the kid straight. Nothing too crazy, but enough that parents from the kid's "group" didn't like this "newcomer from another group" treating their son like that. I had to fight tooth and nail to keep his job. Wildest thing another coach from "their group" blew up on a kid from "outside of their group" and was costing us penalties and almost got me tossed for going off on a referee after already taking a penalty. The "group" had no problem with this.

I have always been pretty good about reeling kids back in, but sometimes they are just "on one" and can't be reached in the moment. One thing to keep in mind is the good of the kid can overtake what is good for the KIDS if we allow it to.

I've worked with a lot of kids who have in the heat of a "moment" tried their best to get a coach fired. LOL