That game epitomized the malaise of that period. The Hogs clearly outplayed Wisconsin (our defense dominated them in the 2nd half), yet somehow we didn’t win.

Out of the bowl losses that I have attended, I would have to say that the Music City bowl was the worse. I made the mistake of buying those tickets for my mother and brother as Christmas presents. Don’t ever buy Hog bowl tickets as Christmas presents! That game was so disappointing because we started out like we were on fire with the first drive and then didn’t do squat the rest of the game! And it was cold!

Of the ones I just saw on television, I think the Capital One stands out over the recent Cotton Bowl. With that Missouri Cotton Bowl, at least you knew a new coach was about to take over. After the Capital One bowl, you knew Nutt would be back in the fall.

The best bowl that I experienced either on tv or in person was the 2000 Cotton Bowl win over Texas (spit!). Like Ole Miss fans on January 1st 2009, I thought that it was only going to get better from here on out – hahaha. Those years did have some good moments, but SEC Championship, National Championship good like I was imagining that day.

Watching Tony Temple pick up Cotton Bowl rushing records, instead of DMac and Felix, was just embarrassing.

I too was at the 2000 Cotton Bowl with a large gaggle of friends. The game itself was wonderful – the downside, which also made it the worst in some ways, was waking up at such an ungodly hour after participating quite fully in all of the New-Year’s festivities in Dallas. As I remember, the game was scheduled for something like 10am (11am eastern) in order to be the “1st bowl game of the new millennium”. I had to drive, had just finished becoming sober enough to drive like, 8 people, over an hour to the game in a rusty ‘78 nova (college kids!). We’d heard of the nightmares of parking around the cotton bowl, but had left early enough (dear god – how early!) for it not to be a problem. Then we crammed ourselves into the upper-deck seating , the rows were close together, in the middle of a sea of burnt orange. I felt like I was turning an actual shade of green. Then, a generous UT fan gave me a couple of tums and a handful of advil, plus a beer to wash it all down with. Life improved greatly! Next thing I knew, Houston Nutt was infamously driving the Hook-em Horns into the ground and the game went wonderfully. The UT fans were gracious and generous in helping a bunch of broke college kids buy a few beers despite the defeat and we returned the favor by teaching them to sing the Arkansas fight song in three-part harmony. A great day all around!

My worst was the 2007 capital One bowl as well. I was trapped in Rhode Island at a family function amongst the group of family members I truly do not enjoy (most of ‘em are great, these are a bunch of racist/sexist pigs who make Glen Beck look like ralph nader. I’d never give the time of day to if I wasn’t related to them). I retreated to the tiny basement of my grandparent’s house with a second cousin who felt the same as me, a few scrounged beers, and a 13" TV that was missing the green portion of the RGB spectrum. And then to lose that way – insult to injury.

I was a freshman at Southwestern/Rhodes in 1966 and lost over $100 (and ate a lot of crow) betting classmates on that game. If Brittenum had not gotten hurt, I think we would have won easily.

1965 Cotton Bowl was great because I was there and we won the national championship and the 1978 Orange Bowl is so sweet it almost makes up for the Hogs’ bowl futility since then.

I thought my therapy sessions were private? I see someone got a snapshot of me and some other Hog Fans pouring out our frustration after the 2007 Cotton Bowl spanking by Missouri. I’m an optimist though. I’m canceling my therapy sessions after this season.