OT: Most snakebit B1G football program
Which Big Ten football program do you think is the most snakebit and why?
Criteria for being snakebit is some general combination of:
-Just can't do anything right
-Unlucky in general
-Chokes in crucial moments
-Sucks overall
Who ya got? Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Iowa, MSU?
(Maryland and Rutgers discussion also welcomed.)
Thanks to Jim Crockett Promotions, looking forward to Starcade '85.
Starrcade '85 was good. But i'll take Starrcade '86 Night of the Skywalkers
"I've wined and dined with kings and queens. I've slept in alleyways and dined on pork and beans."
THATHS HAAAAD TEIMES DADDEH!
The finished quilt has about twice as many faces on it!
Does putting up with Tim Brewster for 4 years constitute a snakebite for Minnesota?
Also - Maryland's QB situation last year certainly sounds like a snakebite.
The correct answer is Minnesota. Firing Glen Mason. Hiring career TE coach Tim Brewster. Firing Tim Brewster and putting Jerry Kill on the sidelines, even though his unfortunate health situation takes him from the sidelines on a consistent basis.
Putting up with the Metrodome for about two decades too long.
Recruiting players to Siberia, selling them on the interconnecting tunnels and heated walkways that will take them from class to class.
Having two good seasons since the New Deal. A winning streak against exactly three Big 10 opponents, with two of those being at one game. Exactly one coach in the last forty years who left the school with a winning record.
They can't do anything right.
I'd also add that you can't be truly snake-bitten unless you've had some prior success to measure against how far you've fallen.
Minnesota had 3 straight national championships in the 30's, 1 in 1960.
They are the other half of one of the oldest, most well known college football rivalries.
look at them now.
Every year they loose the little brown jug just reminds them of the history they'll likely never revisit.
I'd also say they have the capability to be so much better than they are: they have Minneapolis to draw from, a large endowment, campus, & enrollment.
They should be head to head with Iowa & Wisconsin every year . . . but they're not.
They are truly East Dakota.
Firing Mason was not nearly as bad as a lot of people think. Outside of 2003, he was a .500 coach and did not show any signs of breaking through to a level beyond that. Just like when they fired Tubby Smith, you can't say "Hey you're Minnesota! Be happy with what you've got!" because no one wants to be a fan of an athletic department with that mentality. They rolled the dice on Brewster; it didn't work out.
Also, Mason was 56 when he got canned. That's not retiring age yet he has never coached again. If he was that good, I'm not sure he'd remain a free agent.
I think you could make an argument for Perry the ACL-ephant and his decimation of any and all ligaments of Purdue players. Those two programs (Iowa and Purdue) seem to have had REALLY bad luck re: injuries over the last few years.
But Iowa's RB woes do not stop at injuries, so I think they win.
AIRBHG may turn his vengeful eye upon us and smite our beloved running corps. Spare us your wrath might AIRBHG!!!
You can't blame Indiana's woes on the football field on being snakebitten when they have an athletic department that is clearly not interested in having a football program that is good at playing football.
I don't think that's choking. They usually have an easy OOC schedule and then start losing in conference play since the teams are much better.
1. Iowa with AIRBHG
2. Marylands QB fiasco where their 2nd string MLB ended up under center for a few games.
3. IU in general.
Don't forget about the Rhabdomyolysis incident.
That 3OT choke against Auburn a few years back maybe?
so a middle of the road program that lost in 3 overtimes is snake bit?? snake bit is the Bills of the 80's and 90's, not a average at best program.
Google "Randy Walker."
They've also been really lucky by their WR's being granted like 6,7 and even 8 years of eligibility without ever being injured. I.E. Stubblefield, Standeford, Daniels and Dorien Bryant to name names.
/s
I second Purdue. The closest Purdue has been to having a great year was 2004 when Kyle Orton led them to a #3 ranking only to see them blow it against Wisconsin and crap the bed the rest of the season. Since then Purdue has had one issue after another with their QB's (arrests/Blown ACL's/Academic DQ's).
Tough to say. Every team goes through stages where they just can't seem to get it right, Michigan among them. If you go back far enough, you could probably make a case for any B1G team.
I should have been a little more specific. You could make a case for any team in the B1G, but the quality of the case is up for debate.
If I had to pick, I'd say MSU. I know they've had some success, but they always seem to sink back to obscurity. To come close to making it to the next level but never do so must be tough.
Iowa, definitely Iowa. Although every game against us seems to get interesting.
Except last year's game.
I still have to go with MSU. They regularly come to the brink of relevance before completely crapping it away. Even just recently they negated their awesome punt return to the 1 yd line in the Big Ten Championship Game by roughing the punter; Wisconsin was able to run the clock out from there.
I'm not sure 'snakebit' is the right term for them, they just cannot get it completely together
Well that's what happens when you lay in the weeds.
I think it's perfectly reasonable to call them 'snakebit'
Come on, MSU has it more together than a team like Illinois that somehow falls into a major bowl every 7 years and then gets destroyed. In terms of not getting it completely together, MSU's recent success is better than Illinois or Minnesota's last 30 years.