And Baylor 2014 of course.
From the perspective of the immediate the aftermath of the games, I think 2008 Utah and 2009 Boise State were much worse than 2014 Baylor. We all knew how big the stakes were at the time of the Utah and Boise State games. I remember after the Fiesta Bowl thinking TCU had blown our only chance, and that we might never have another chance. At the time we didn’t know TCU would go undefeated again and then be invited to join the Big 12. At the time that game was everything, and we blew it.
On the other hand, at the actual time of the Baylor 2014 loss, that loss wasn’t nearly as bad. Yes it was awful because of the 21 lead, and yes it is always awful losing to Baylor, but none of us knew at the time that it would be our only loss of the entire season. We were coming off a 4-8 season, so undefeated and playoffs weren’t on most of our minds at the time.
However from a retrospective perspective Baylor 2014 is CLEARLY the worst out of the three. It cost us a trip to to the playoffs in a year with an extremely weak playoff line up.
-Oregon was banged up and injured.
-Florida State was NOT a great team despite their record.
-Alabama’s players admitted to not taking OSU seriously due to the QB injuries. They would have taken little old TCU even less seriously.
Plus TCU was peaking at the perfect time at the end of the year that season. TCU was also unbelievably lucky in regards to health in 2014, only 1 starter would have been out for the playoffs (BJ Catalon).
Its hard for me to imagine another season like 2014 where all the stars align for TCU (peaking at season end, being extremely healthy, a weak playoff line up). I’ll never get over not making the playoffs that season.