Kansas State is not the first team to struggle mightily after a loss in Dublin
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- K-State fell to 1-3 after a Dublin loss, mirroring past Aer Lingus losers' slumps.
- Since 2022, no Aer Lingus Classic loser has recovered to post a winning season.
- Coach Klieman downplayed the trend but noted mental and logistical challenges.
An eerie college football trend has hung over the Kansas State Wildcats ever since they suffered a 24-21 loss against Iowa State at the start of this season in Dublin.
Since 2022, when the Aer Lingus College Football Classic became an annual kickoff event, none of the teams that lost that game in Ireland have been able to recover from it and record a winning season.
Nebraska got the trend started with a 31-28 loss to Northwestern and a 4-8 season. Navy followed with a 42-3 loss to Notre Dame and a 5-7 campaign. Then Florida State lost 24-21 to Georgia Tech and stumbled to a 2-10 record.
K-State football coach Chris Klieman didn’t seem worried when he was asked about those results after the team returned from Ireland.
“I don’t look at a lot of that recent history on things,” Klieman said, “because I think those are teams of the past. It all depends on how you handle it coming out.”
Fair enough. Some will certainly dismiss those numbers as coincidence or a small sample size. And that very well could be the case. But one has to wonder if the luck of the Irish only applies to the team that wins in Dublin now that K-State is 1-3 and off to its worst start since 1989, while Iowa State is 4-0 and ranked in the top 15.
No doubt traveling thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean for a marquee game and suffering a frustrating loss was physically draining for the Wildcats. Could it also have hurt them mentally?
“There’s been not great seasons with teams that have won out there, too,” Klieman said. “It’s a challenging game, regardless. Matt Campbell and I talked about it before the game. It makes your fall camp weird. It was just challenging.”
For the record, teams that have won the modern edition of the Aer Lingus Classic have gone 7-6 (Georgia Tech), 1-11 (Northwestern) and 10-3 (Notre Dame).
Once again, Klieman didn’t seem worried about a season-long Dublin hangover when he was last asked about it a few weeks ago.
He remained confident that K-State could “have a really good season” if the Wildcats responded in the right way. That didn’t happen. To his credit, Klieman hasn’t used Dublin or the bizarre schedule that followed as an excuse for his team. Injuries, poor blocking and a lack of clutch plays have bothered him much more.
Still, the similarities between Florida State in 2024 and K-State in 2025 are strikingly similar.
Florida State followed up its loss in Dublin with two more defeats against Boston College and Memphis before it got to 1-3 with a win a close win over California.
K-State avoided disaster in Game 2 with a 38-35 win over North Dakota, but then the Wildcats dropped a pair of close games against Army and Arizona.
The Seminoles only won one more game, a 41-7 victory over Charleston Southern in November.
Can the Wildcats avoid the same fate? Time will tell. But the idea of a Dublin football curse will linger if they fail to turn their season around.
This story was originally published September 19, 2025 at 12:35 PM.