SEC Football Trivia: Which Team has Gone the Longest Without Being Shutout?

SEC Football Trivia: Which Team has the Longest Streak of Consecutive Games without Being Shutout?

Goose egg, clean sheet, nil, nada, blank, zip. When a team gets shutout, there’s no shortage of terms available to describe the misfortune. But it’s not too often we get to use these terms. With offenses getting more advanced and kickers developing stronger legs, failing to score any points in a game is an accomplishment only truly inept offenses can manage.

In fact, half (7) of the teams in the Southeastern Conference have gone more than 100 games since being shutout. Two others have gone more than 50 games. On the other hand, one SEC team enters 2013 on the heels of an embarrassing 49-0 loss to an arch rival.

Some may already have guessed which team ranks last in the SEC with zero consecutive games without being shutout, but can you guess which team has managed to score in every single game for nearly 25 seasons?

Just let that soak in for a second. How many of you can even remember back 25 years? Can you say that you’ve survived that same period of time without any monumental failures?

Before revealing each SEC school’s current streak of consecutive games without a shutout, let’s take a look at which team is most likely to be shutout first in 2013 and plummet to the bottom of this list.

I’d put my money on the Kentucky Wildcats getting shutout Oct. 12 when No. 1 Alabama rolls into Commonwealth Stadium. The second-most likely shutout scenario, unfortunately for Wildcats fans, happens two weeks prior (Sept. 28), when No. 10 Florida comes to town.

Alabama is responsible for five of the shutouts on this list, more than any other SEC team.

14. Auburn: Zero Games

Last time shutout: Nov. 24, 2012 (lost to Alabama, 49-0). Not only do the Tigers have the unfortunate distinction of ranking dead last, they are still coping with the far-too-recent wounds sustained in this beat down at the hands of the Crimson Tide.

13. Kentucky: 2 Games

Last time shutout: Nov. 3, 2012 (lost to Vanderbilt, 40-0). It’s bad enough to get shutout. It’s even worse for an SEC team to be shutout by Vandy (though the Commodores were pretty darn good last year). It’s unfathomable for an SEC team to lose to Vanderbilt 40-0! That’s how bad Kentucky was last year.

12. Arkansas: 9 Games

Last time shutout: Sept. 15, 2012 (lost to Alabama, 52-0). Absolute. Destruction. Period! There’s really not much more you can say about this game. It was hard to watch, even when Nick Saban put in some fourth and fifth (yes fifth) string players in the second half.

11. LSU: 13 Games

Last time shutout: Jan. 9, 2012 (lost to Alabama, 21-0). This game led to the following joke that surfaced days after the BCS National Championship Game: Hey, I heard LSU’s team bus has been stuck in New Orleans for a couple of days. Yeah, someone painted a 50 yard line on the road and the Tigers couldn’t cross it. It’s actually a fair assessment of the game, in which LSU mustered only five first downs and 92 total yards.

10. Vanderbilt: 21 Games

Last time shutout: Oct. 8, 2011 (lost to Alabama, 34-0). Vanderbilt made the mistake of allowing itself to be scheduled as Alabama’s homecoming opponent – not a good recipe for success. The Crimson Tide’s current record in homecoming games is 78-13-1.

9. Mississippi State: 51 Games

Last time shutout: Nov. 28, 2008 (lost to Ole Miss, 45-0). Getting shutout is bad enough, but nothing is worse than being held scoreless by your bitter in-state rival. Mississippi State only managed to gain 37 yards of offense on 56 plays. The Rebels dominated this installment of the Egg Bowl, which was the most lopsided since Ole Miss won 48-0 in 1971.

8. South Carolina: 90 Games

Last time shutout: Sept. 9, 2006 (lost to Georgia, 18-0). Though it wasn’t a huge blowout, this game is part a painful legacy, for South Carolina, of shutouts in games between these two. Of the 13 shutouts in the series’ history, Georgia was the victor in 11. Furthermore, the two shutouts notched by the Gamecocks occurred in ancient times in consecutive years – 1903 and 1904.

7. Texas A&M: 114 Games

Last time shutout: Nov. 8, 2003 (lost to Oklahoma, 0-77). This is by far the worst of the SEC schools’ most recent shutouts. The top-ranked Sooners scored touchdowns on 10 of their first 11 possessions in the rout of Texas A&M. It was the Aggies’ worst loss in 117 years of football. Luckily for the Aggies, it happened nearly a decade ago.

6. Missouri: 128 Games

Last time shutout: Nov. 23, 2002 (lost to Kansas State, 0-38). K-State obliterated the Tigers in the 2002 regular season finale. It was Missouri’s 10th-straight loss to the Wildcats. Fortunately, the Tigers no longer share a conference with those bullies from Manhattan.

5. Alabama: 156 Games

Last time shutout: Nov. 18, 2000 (lost to Auburn, 9-0). It was one of the most uneventful Iron Bowls in modern times. Two teams trudged up and down the field but were unable to capitalize with any touchdowns. Other than it being the Crimson Tide’s last shutout loss, this game holds a more important distinction – it was the first time the two schools faced each other in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Prior to that contest, all Iron Bowls in which Alabama was the home team were played at Birmingham’s Legion Field.

4. Ole Miss: 167 Games

Last time shutout: Nov. 7, 1998 (lost to Arkansas, 34-0). Ole Miss traveled to Fayetteville with hopes of taking down the No. 11 Razorbacks; however, the Rebels found out these hogs were not to be tamed. The loss was the second-worse for Ole Miss in the series. Only the 2007 game, which Arkansas won 44-8, was more lopsided.

3. Georgia: 221 Games

Last time shutout: Sept. 30, 1995 (lost to Alabama, 31-0). Yet another victim of the Crimson Tide, which dealt four of the other shutouts on this list. This game was one of the most lopsided between the SEC’s two winningest programs.

2. Tennessee: 234 Games

Last time shutout: Sept. 17, 1994 (lost to Florida, 31-0). The Gators jumped on Tennessee early in this one, piling up a 24-0 halftime lead and cruising to victory in the second half. For Tennessee, the loss was the second of five straight to the Gators from 1993 to 1997. It is the Vols’ second-longest losing streak to Florida behind the current eight-year streak that began in 2005.

1. Florida 308 Games

Last time shutout: Oct. 29, 1988 (lost to Auburn, 16-0). This game seems like an ancient memory at this point. In fact, it’s been so long that the Gators have the second-longest streak of consecutive games without a shutout in college football behind Michigan (348). The Gators are prone to being shutout by Auburn, suffering 13 in the history of the series. The worst came in 1917, when the Tigers capped a streak of five-straight shutouts against the Gators with a dominating 68-0 performance.