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Were ranked the worst four loss team in the country. I don't entirely disagree, look who we've beat:
MTSU-when they were lost in the beginning of the year, 5-5
Minnesota-1-8 with losses to a AA team
North Texas 1-7
ULL 1-7

if you take MTSU away our three wins come against people with a total of three wins. that's not very impressive. I guess I'm still hungover from the ULM loss

Pac-10 vs. SEC debate continues to shape 2007 season - columnist - ESPN

Best And Worst, By Record
Best undefeated team: Ohio State (14). Not a terribly difficult call.

Worst undefeated team: Hawaii (15). Not too tough to call, either.

Best one-loss team: LSU. Coin flip over Oregon, after seeing both play in person.

Worst one-loss team: Boise State (16). Loses coin flip with UConn. (The Dash still believes that the nation's worst one-loss team is better than the nation's worst undefeated team; it'll be decided in Honolulu Thanksgiving weekend.)

Best two-loss team: Virginia Tech (17). Because, unlike Michigan, the Hokies haven't lost to a I-AA team. And unlike Georgia and USC, they haven't lost at home to an unranked team.

Worst two-loss team: Virginia (18). Five wins by two points or less, and a 20-point loss to Wyoming. Forgive The Dash for not getting too excited.

Best three-loss team: Florida. By a little over neighbor South Florida. All three losses came to teams currently in Top 25.

Worst three-loss team: Western Kentucky (19). But the Hilltoppers will definitely take 6-3 in their first year of transition to I-A.


Rex Brown/Getty Images

The Dash thinks Steve Spurrier coaches the nation's best four-loss team.

Best four-loss team: South Carolina. Victories over Georgia and Kentucky give it the edge over Kansas State (beat Texas) and Oregon State (beat Cal).

Worst four-loss team: Florida Atlantic (20). The good news is that the Owls are 3-1 in Sun Belt play and still in the fight for the New Orleans Bowl. That's got to count for something.

Best five-loss team: Colorado (21). The Buffaloes beat a top-five team (Oklahoma) and have played a big-time schedule (Arizona State and Florida State nonconference).

Worst five-loss team: Memphis (22). The Tigers are 0-2 against the Sun Belt and three of their four wins are by a total of seven points.

Best six-loss team: Washington. The Huskies are 3-6 against the toughest schedule in the country and remain the only team to beat Boise State since 2005.

Worst six-loss team: Nebraska (23). Sure, New Mexico State, Louisiana-Monroe and Army are probably worse – but at least they haven't quit like the Cornhuskers.

Best seven-loss team: Mississippi (24). The Rebels have played five teams currently in the Top 25, and actually scared a couple of them.

Worst seven-loss team: North Texas (25). Mean Green provided the only wins of the season for both SMU and Louisiana-Lafayette.


AP Photo/Michael Conroy

Charlie Weis and ND don't have much to smile about.

Best eight-loss team: Iowa State (26). When you've upset in-state rival Iowa and jeopardized the Hawkeyes' chance of earning a bowl bid, you've at least done something worth celebrating.

Worst eight-loss team: Notre Dame (27). Because Louisiana-Lafayette, Colorado State, Northern Illinois, SMU, Marshall and Duke don't have an NBC contract.

Best nine-loss team: Minnesota (28). Three losses by three points or less for gory Gophers. It's all they've got to hold onto right now.

Worst nine-loss team: Idaho and Utah State (29) will settle this on the field in Moscow on Nov. 24. Be there. Or not. (Florida International is absolved for having scheduled Penn State, Maryland, Miami and Kansas in nonconference play.)



Kentucky, You're On The Clock
Now that Navy (30) has beaten The Program Ruined by the Scourge of Humanity, Ty Willingham, (31) (more on that later, as you might have guessed) for the first time since the Kennedy Administration, we have a new poster program for futility within a rivalry.

Step up and own it, Kentucky (32).

The Wildcats have lost 22 straight to Tennessee (33), the new longest active losing streak in an annual series. Sure, that's an eye-blink of misery compared to what the Midshipmen endured – but try telling that to Wildcats fans.

Last victory was in 1984. The last Kentucky coach to beat the Volunteers, Jerry Claiborne, has gone to the Great Locker Room in the Sky. Since then, Bill Curry, Hal Mumme, Guy Morriss and Rich Brooks have all gone oh-for-Big Orange.

Along the way have been multiple moments of memorable misery:

Tennessee 24, Kentucky 22, 1987. Losing coach: Claiborne. Down 24-20, Wildcats run Mark Higgs into the line four times from inside the 5-yard line in the final minutes, fail to score. Volunteers take safety on final play. Kentucky misses bowl game.

Tennessee 34, Kentucky 31, 1995. Losing coach: Curry. Cats cough up 15-point third-quarter lead.

Tennessee 38, Kentucky 35, 2001. Losing coach: Morriss. Cats blow 21-0 lead and fumble away potential game-winning drive in Tennessee territory late in the fourth quarter.

Tennessee 37, Kentucky 31, 2004. Losing coach: Brooks. Vols score 15 fourth-quarter points to pull out comeback victory, including the winning touchdown with 38 seconds left.

Tennessee 17, Kentucky 12, 2006. Losing coach: Brooks. Cats win the game in first downs, total yards, time of possession and turnover margin but not on scoreboard. Potential winning drive scuttled inside Tennessee 5 by delay of game penalty.

Between those heartbreakers have been many blowouts. Curry's teams were outscored 100-0 in 1993 and '94. Mumme never held Tennessee to fewer than 56 points in four tries. But Kentucky has managed to keep the Vols under 40 for six years in a row, so that's progress of a sort.

This season's game: Nov. 24, in Lexington. If not this year, the streak might reach Navy-Notre Dame standards.

Until then, let's get back to the mockery that has become the Fighting Irish.

The Scourge might be the world's worst recruiter. And he's believed to be responsible for the Hollywood Writers Guild strike. And it was probably his idea for Scott Boras and A-Rod to hijack Game 4 of the World Series.


AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams

ND going for it on fourth made Dashette Veronica Varekova chuckle.

But even a knucklehead like The Scourge would have tried to kick the winning 41-yard field goal instead of asking the miserable Notre Dame offense to convert a fourth-and-8 with 45 seconds left from the Navy 24. Hell, Dashette Veronica Varekova (34) would have sent out the field-goal unit with a snap of her well-manicured fingers.

Charlie Weis (35) – whom The Dash hears is one helluva recruiter – blew off the field goal. And when 5-foot-9, 196-pound sophomore linebacker Ram Vela (36) – what was his recruiting ranking coming out of high school? – launched himself over a blocker to help take down Evan Sharpley … well, it was time to second-guess that decision.

Or, if that option proves unpalatable, Notre Dame fans can go back to blaming it all on The Scourge. Who beat Navy three times. And whose intolerable 21-15 record in South Bend is now just .003 percentage points worse than the guy with the 10-year, $30-million-plus contract.



And Now For Something Truly Scary
For another example of why the SEC could use a dose of perspective, check out this rifle-wielding Arkansas fan (37). Disturbingly good aim, too.



Putting Out An APB For …
… Former Nebraska defensive tackle Rich Glover (38), who certainly wouldn't recognize the Cornhuskers' defense that gave up 76 points to Kansas on Saturday. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the 1972 Outland and Lombardi trophies winner, please apprise The Dash.

Meanwhile, The Dash is pleased to report that last week's APB subject, Notre Dame linebacker Wes Pritchett from the 1988 national champions, is alive and well and sent an e-mail to The Dash. Pritchett reports the following:


"I went to work on Wall Street in 1993 in NYC for Kidder, Peabody [& Co.] in a training program to trade and sell mortgage back securities. I currently live in Atlanta, Ga., and am Senior VP at Countrywide Securities, where I am an Institutional Fixed Income Bond Salesman, specializing in mortgage-backed securities. I am also very involved in real estate. I am currently developing a specialized large-lot green neighborhood in Charleston, S.C. In addition, I own numerous commercial buildings in the Charleston area and buy and sell foreclosed houses in the Atlanta area. I have two young sons, Lawson Kenneth Pritchett born 9/2/04 and Marshall Charles Pritchett born 1/24/06. I married Megan Lawson Pritchett on 7/21/01."


Friends of Pritchett also report that he occasionally hits golf balls and softballs prodigious distances.



Point After
The Dash spent quality time in Oregon for the first time last weekend and came away quite impressed. Pretty cool when you see people walking off the light rail system in downtown Portland with their skis on their shoulders. But on to the pertinent stuff:

When thirsty in Portland, The Dash recommends sucking up a few in-house microbrews at McMenamin's (39). The Hopicidal IPA was especially righteous.

And when thirsty in Eugene, The Dash recommends a pint of local microbrew Mirror Pond Pale Ale at Rennie's (40), a classic college joint near campus. The Rennie's Lemonade came highly recommended and wasn't bad – but this is a beer-centric column. Get your fruity drinks – even ones with about four types of alcohol mixed in – elsewhere.


(The Dash thanks the eager and hospitable Ducks fans who showed off their town to a first-time visitor. Good show, guys.)


Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at [email protected].

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Re: ESPN

At least they're paying attention to us.

President of the No Homers Club. Keepin' it real since 2001.
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Re: ESPN

CanadianOwl said

At least they're paying attention to us.

This is true.

Two of our losses come to Kentucky and South Florida, which are ranked in the Top 25 (or did USF drop out?). Oklahoma State loss seemed more respectable until Troy dropped a deuce on them and the ULM game… well, we all know how we feel about that.
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