10. Alabama 24 - USM 20 (1995): I debated including this one. If anything, it made me more of a USM fan. That said, the DNA of this one is pure USM, and it belongs here.
9. USM 33 - Houston 0 (1997): Yeah, "we" "won." But the hype the administration tried to generate around / after this game showed exactly how small their ambition was. I didn't buy it even back then. Skipped this one even though I was a (non-student) season ticket holder.
8. Penn State 34 - USM 6 (1998): This was a talented team that wilted in the spotlight. The sycophantic way Bower acted toward Joe Paterno was pretty misplaced, too. "Act like you've been there" is good advice, maybe the best advice.
7. USM 30 - Troy 27 (2008): The ultimate in shit bowl "wins." Fedora's inaugural team had managed to generate a lot of excitement after a poor start. USM sold its ticket allotment to the New Orleans Bowl, and then some. Those fans were rewarded with a flaccid overtime victory against barely-I-A Troy and a sickening injury that would end Deandre Brown as a real factor.
6. Tennessee 19 - USM 16 (2000): This season wouldn't really fall apart for a few weeks. This was a strong showing, but it felt a lot like the 1995 Bama game, with more intervention by the officials. It was a game that kind of pointed out just how steep the climb had become compared to schools playing in better conferences.
5. Cincinnati 52 - USM 24 (2004): This one came after USM had beaten Nebraska and made its way back into the polls, and it came in front of a big home crowd. It was a loss that knocked Jeff Bower out of the Top 25, permanently.
4. Kentucky 24 - USM 17 (2017): It might not seem worthy of being #4 on this list, but those of us who still had any optimism left went into this game hoping for a win against an SEC team in front of a big home crowd. We were instead rewarded with a price gouging clinic courtesy of Jon Gilbert. The stadium looked awful, the offense looked awful, and the crowd looked awful.
3. UAB 34 - USM 31 (2011): A lot of people think this one cost USM a Sugar Bowl, and there was zero reason the team should have lost to UAB. People point to the Marshall loss as well, but Marshall was pretty good and that game came much earlier in the year.
2. Louisville 49 - USM 28 (2000): The last 30 years or so of USM football can pretty much be divided into before this game and after. This was the game where it became clear that CUSA had figured USM out for good.
1. Louisville 13 - USM 10 (1981): USM was ranked in the top 10, and had only Louisville and non-I-A Lamar standing in the way of an undefeated regular season and a berth in a top-tier bowl. Never again would USM reach such heights. Who knows how many people wrote USM off for good after this one?