On This Week In Schadenfreude we explore the sputtering rage, gibbering condemnation, and resigned ennui of the college football fan who has recently undergone humiliating defeat. Because even in your darkest hour, someone else is suffering too, and probably worse than you. Unless you are a Michigan fan who has just finished watching the Appalachian State game.scha·den·freu·deDictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
–noun
satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune.
[Origin: 1890–95; < G, equiv. to Schaden harm + Freude joy]
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
LSU lost its shot at the national championship this week, losing to Arkansas in triple overtime. Normally this would make them a slam dunk for this week's Tears of Unfathomable Sadness, but you know what? This happens every week. Some team, MNC game bid in hand, gacks it up against a markedly inferior opponent (or, I suppose, a markedly uh ... ferior opponent if you're Kansas. No offense, Jayhawks) and sends their fans into a tailspin of recrimination.
It's still fun to watch, but it's getting to be old hat in this season of infinite improbability. Anyone who was even a little surprised that Arkansas ran past LSU just hasn't been paying attention. So, how about something completely different?
OUTRAGECommodore Nation? No. Surely it couldn't be ... it is! Ladies and gentlemen, Vanderbilt (Vanderbilt? Vanderbilt!) is your Tears of Unfathomable Sadness victor this week.
Commodore Nation should be incensed right now. We didn't just get beat by Wake Forest, we got destroyed.
Yes, the Vanderbilt Sports Line deviates from everyone's well-worn stereotypes of Vanderbilt fans-basically, that they are either Cornelius Vanderbilt himself or hottttt southern belles with no interest in anything except parasols and mint juleps-in shocking fashion. The post goes on in full-on rant mode. The highlight:
Please share your thoughts on what went wrong and where to go from here, and don't forget to vote in the "Should Bobby Johnson Be Fired?" poll.Emphasis mine. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment in college football this year has been Bobby Johnson guiding Vandy to a 5-7 record without his starting quarterback and getting roasted for it. Remarkably, the commenters ("this was an absolute disgrace from the get-go", "this team threw in the towel", "this whole season is a huge disappointment") are in 100% agreement with the VSL rant. Go figure.
One last item before we move on. This comment may be the best thing anyone's said all year:
After holding season tickets for over 3 years, this was the first game I've ever walked out on... just infuriating.Emphasis mine. Vandy fans: over three years of dedicated not walking out!
| BIG TEN |
The Big Ten has completed its season, but anyone looking for two fanbases spiraling out of control can just check out Iowa and Michigan. Unusually, fans of both schools are horrified at the idea Kirk Ferentz will be the next coach at Michigan. Black Heart, Gold Pants has the Iowa perspective: This move makes no sense and would make nobody happy. While Iowa fans would be ambivalent upon his departure, we'd start getting awfully nostalgic when Ferentz is winning his old familiar 9 games in Ann Arbor and Mark Farley's putting the finishing touches on a 4-8 campaign.Meanwhile, Shooting Blue's author made a list of the guys Michigan would have called if he was in charge and Tedford/Stoops/Miles was off the table: 1. Greg Schiano, RutgersYou left off "6,120,100,103. Mike Debord." |
| PAC 10 |
Oregon. Yeah, a guy named "Leaf" is still quarterbacking Oregon. The result:  AtQ follows up with a post-apocalyptic entry: It has sunk in that we have gone from the best team in college football to quite possibly the worst in two short weeks. And I'm not angry about it. There is nobody to blame. Its just really, really sad, to the point where watching the game last Saturday was just plain depressing. I don't blame the players. This isn't like last year; the players are giving 110%.The result of a loss with no one to blame: malaise, lethargy, and depression. Is it any wonder anger is usually the order of the day amongst the jilted and disillusioned? |
| SEC |
Alabama. Last week, the Capstone Report raged at everyone from the players to the old coach to the fans; this week Alabama lost to Auburn for the sixth straight time. This should be entertaining. Ready? Go! Another season is gone. Another missed opportunity for excellence. This season should have been substantially better, but the malaise hanging over the Alabama program is more substantial than the malaise days of Jimmy Carter. This Alabama team underachieved not just because of lack of talent, but because a lack of character.Perhaps the current 'Bama players should have eaten their greens. With 'Bama's bowl bid precarious and likely boring anyway, attention now turns to offseason pursuits like recruiting and watching "the disgraceful manner in which Tommy Tuberville is treating Auburn." Meanwhile we've got a home-grown bit of schadenfreude here on the Fanhouse. Ryan Ferguson pointed out a new comment on his ULM-'Bama post. It was left after the Auburn game. It is magnificent: i want to thank Saban for destroying my family.(A couple paragraph breaks added for clarity.) I ... wow. Wow. I want more of this. Someone find this guy and have him replace Mark May. Please. |
| BIG EAST |
Syracuse got hammered by Cincinnati last week, bringing their season to its merciful end. But that won't stop the pain in upstate New York: Greg Robinson is likely to return as head coach. Whereas other flailing outfits have cut bait (see: Texas A&M, Nebraska, Ole Miss) as soon as the regular season ended, Syracuse did not cut Robinson. The implication is clear. The happiness level is about what you might expect. From Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician: All in all, if they do indeed officially bring Greg back it will likely be 70% over money and 30% over not wanting to look bad for canning Robinson after only three years. Still, Syracuse firing Robinson wouldn't look bad at all in the current market and would be overshadowed by Ole Miss' and Nebraska's firings anyway. So you can probably blame the person who signed Greg to that contract for forcing Daryl Gross to keep him another year.Orange 44's Matt Glaude takes a look at the decision that hypothetically still faces the Orangemen, noticing that hey, this Robinson guy sure seems to lose a lot of games, and that makes children cry, and why does the Syracuse athletic department hate children? |
| BIG TWELVE |
Anyone in Kansas who's the slightest bit upset at Mark Mangino (other than buffet owners-fat joke say what ZING!) needs to be shot into space. But the natives are getting ever so slightly restless at Texas. Losing to a moribund A&M program about to cut its coach loose will do that to you. Burnt Orange Nation in the aftermath: Texas football is mediocre this year. It was Alamo Bowl mediocre last year.I have to admit to liking this version of the Big 12 much better than the early 90s version when you watched (or, in my case, did not watch because some Big Ten game was on ABC) the Red River Shootout and that was the whole season, but I can see how Texas and Oklahoma fans might prefer the old days. |
| ACC |
Miami has featured here the past couple weeks as the 'Canes got annexed by Virginia, but this week it's similarly disappointing instate rivals Florida State that got housed. Chant Rant previews Tim Tebow's Heisman acceptance speech: "I want to thank my family, coaches and teammates. But in particular, I want to thank FSU. They made a pretty darn good quarterback look like a superhero with amazing supernatural super powers. I couldn't have done it without them."Meanwhile, Scalp 'Em-um, yikes on the blog name-surveys the damage: In an effort to improve the well executed defensive strategy of Won't Somebody Please Tackle Somebody came the suggestion from the couch "Maybe we can play Preston Parker on defense."I don't know who Preston Parker is, but I do know that when you're looking for a defensive savior he probably shouldn't share a name with some kid playing polo at Eton. |
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-26-2007 @ 2:46PM
Gamecock Man said...
Fire Bobby Johnson? Get a grip, Vandy. With their academic restrictions, it's a damn miracle that Vandy can compete with I-AA teams, much less with major conference teams. I'll bet there a more than a few programs who would trade their head coach for Johnson.
Reply
11-26-2007 @ 3:19PM
August West said...
If you take the time to check the results from that poll, you would have noticed that only one person thinks Bobby Johnson should be fired.
Also, as the author of 'the best thing anyone's said all year', I'm glad I could give you some laughs... it's not easy being a life-long Vandy fan (feels like being an abused spouse during most Novembers), but this was the year it seemed everything was lined-up for us to make a bowl game.
(Also, as a matter of context, I wasn't saying 3 years was a long time, that's just how long it's been since I got out of college and started buying season tickets! 3 years also marks the beginning of Vandy's recent turn-around towards a respectable opponent in SEC play.)
Reply
11-26-2007 @ 3:47PM
Seamus O'Toole said...
As the author of the "Outrage" post on VSL, I stand by my comments but wish to state for the record that I do not think Bobby Johnson should be fired, and have never called for his head. Offensive coordinator Ted Cain is another story.
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