NCAA Football

This Week In Schadenfreude: The Continuing Malaise of the Mountaineer

Posted Dec 03, 2007 12:11PM By Brian Cook (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Tennessee Football, UCLA Football, West Virginia Football, Missouri Football

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scha·den·freu·de
–noun
satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune.
[Origin: 1890–95; < G, equiv. to Schaden harm + Freude joy]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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.

Last week on TWIS, we noted that LSU "lost its shot" at a national championship by dropping a triple OT game against Arkansas, because everyone knew that West Virginia was going to pound Pitt. The Mountaineers were four touchdown favorites. One Pat White injury and three turnovers later, LSU is back in the national championship game and West Virginia fans have a decision to make: self-immolation on the 50 yard line or on the university president's lawn?

Yes, West Virginia takes this week's Tears of Unfathomable Sadness, and many of the tears can be found right here at the Fanhouse, on Brian Stouffer's post. A winning entry:

This was the last straw. I am a 1984 grad of WVu and grew up 15 minutes from Morgantown in Preston County. I will never cheer for the Mountaineers again. Not ever. I hope they lose every freeking game they ever play from now on.

This guy has an idea how to make his newfound desire a reality that's almost as stellar as his WVU education. That, and the week in spleen, after the jump.

Right, the idea:

By the way, coach Rod-- your offense has been figured out. Try something new. Like go to Michigan and join your old friend John Beilein.

Um .. yes, please. I mean, no offense to Gerry DiNardo, Salvador Dali, and the rest of Michigan's stellar options in the wake of the Miles implosion, but that would be okay by me.

BIG TEN

The Big Ten is done, but check this space in January for a rundown of their horrible bowl losses.

PAC 10



Should this entry be for UCLA or USC? As the picture above indicates, another UCLA loss and the presumptive end of the Karl Dorrell Era is probably a worse day for Trojans than Bruins, though Trojan fans have that whole "Pac-10 champs going to the Rose Bowl thing" to salve their wounds.

UCLA? Not so much. Even the basketball team isn't helping matters: they dropped a game to Texas. But there's hope in Westwood once again. Hope and pictures of Karl Dorrell in an enormous sombrero.
SEC

LSU got what they wanted both on and off the field. Tennessee, not so much, but there's little in the way of "Fire Phil" sentiment hanging aroud these days; UT fans are a little disappointed but seem mostly content:
We knew before the game that LSU was the better team, and it should be no great surprise that they won.
Nothing to see here. Except maybe this:



What is it? I don't know. I don't care, either.
BIG EAST

The only other Big East game this week was Rutgers-Louisville, a battle between two disappointing teams no one had much riding on by this point in the season, so we'll stick with the WVU meltdown above.
BIG TWELVE

Missouri got the full-on Kansas State treatment this year, dropping from a spot in the national championship game all the way to the Cotton Bowl by losing in the Big 12 championship game.

You might imagine that Kansas getting in with their weak-ass schedule and uncompetitive loss to Missouri is a serious opportunity to be pissed off, and you would be right. Tigerboard.com is aflame with calls to fire the AD (though to be fair, everyone thinks that guy is an idiot) and rampant KU-bashing.

One Jayhawk fan tries to make peace, calling on Mizzou fans to focus their anger on the BCS's two-teams-per-conference rule:
Kansas deserved a BCS Bowl. Mizzou deserved a BCS Bowl. Oklahoma deserved a BCS Bowl. All are ranked in the top 8 in the BCS. All should be playing in a BCS game. Kansas didn't "take your spot" the stupid rule "took your spot."
This is met with a torrent of disapproval; the best riposte for sheer comedy value:
Suck it, segregationist (nm)
If nothing else, this year has provided us our first real look at the biggest little rivalry in America. You have to love grudges borne of Civil-War-era massacres.
ACC

I guess BC lost, but anyone who saw their earlier matchup against Virginia Tech could see that coming. No, let's focus on someone else ...
The Gateway Conference (!)

Hey, Iowa State fans! Remember losing to Northern Iowa in September? (And, hey, Iowa fans, remember losing to Iowa State like the week after?) Well, you may be pleased to know that I-AA #1 Northern Iowa lost to Delaware last weekend.

Some members of Panther City-State are not amused:
Farley and his O-cord are like impetous kids. "I want a touchdown, and I want it now"!

The most dominating position on this years team is the O-line. Why Farley didn't trust them is beyond me.
Just goes to show you that wherever you are and whoever you're rooting for, there's always a That Guy around. There is one difference: at UNI, having a "That Guy" can be seen as a form of accomplishment:
My University is growing up.

We now have enough fanatics that love their football program so much that they can criticize the decisions made in a game. I say Hooray! We have made it!
In 20 years, when the Northern Louisiana State coach refuses to return home to lead you to glory, or at least the occasional win over Northern Ohio State, you'll be sorry.

Programming note: with college football season at its end, TWIS shuffles off the mortal coil for a bit. Watch for a post-bowls edition in early January.

Tags: This+Week+in+Scadenfreude, ThisWeekInScadenfreude

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