Tennessee’s funniest game-losing blunder

A lot of hype sure is surrounding the Tennessee Volunteers right now. 6-0, just beat Alabama, #3 team in the nation, have smoked almost every team they’ve played, trounced LSU in Death Valley, and even snapped their losing streak against Florida. People are talking about how they could win the SEC East, win the SEC Championship, make the College Football Playoff, etc. etc. etc.

But we’re all Kentucky fans, and we don’t really want to ride our rival’s bandwagon. So a week away from the Big Blue Nation vs. Rocky Top showdown we’re going to take a trip down the Volunteer blooper reel when Big Orange snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and hope that maybe a little history repeats itself next Saturday. Let’s have some fun:

10/2/2010: 13 men on the field in Baton Rouge

No way they can score at touchdown on their final play—we outnumber them 13 to 11! But college football isn’t war, and not all is fair on the gridiron. Trailing 14-10 and facing 2nd and goal with 0:32 left, LSU ran the ball but got stopped short of the end zone while still in bounds, so the clock continued to run. And run. And run. For some reason as the Tigers substituted players in and out and ran around in bizarre confusion trying to set up a play, they didn’t snap 3rd and goal until there were just three seconds left. And then the snap sailed over the QB’s head and a pile of bodies pounced on the ball as time expired as LSU completely coughed up thirty seconds and two downs just a handful of yards from their end zone.

Or did they?

While Tennessee was beginning to celebrate, flags flew as the officials noticed something fishy about the game’s final play—there was a lot of orange on the field. Too many Tennessee defenders were on the Tiger turf, 13 of them in fact. This game wasn’t over. LSU was getting one more play from the 1-yard line.

One simple handoff play later, the Tigers were in the end zone and Death Valley was partying—all because of a substitution arithmetic error while LSU tried to fritter the game away all on their own. And now LSU fans have gotten to laugh about yet another premature victory celebration by the other team for the past 12 years.