Schadenfreude on full display
By Mark Nagi
Saturday, August 30, 2025, was one of the great days in Tennessee football history.
I mean, it’s not like January 1, 1986, when the Vols beat Miami 35-7 at the Sugar Bowl. It’s not like January 4, 1999, when the Vols beat Florida State 23-16 to win the BCS National Championship. And it’s not like October 15, 2022, when the Vols beat Alabama 52-49 to snap a 15-game losing streak to the Crimson Tide.
This was a different “great” day because of some events on the outskirts of Tennessee football.
Of course, the biggest reason Vols fans were happy was what they saw from their team in Atlanta. Tennessee beat Syracuse 45-26 in the 2025 season opener. The offense was clicking under new QB Joey Aguilar, the defense was aggressive, and just maybe this is a Tennessee team that will be able to exceed expectations this year.
But that was only one part of it. There were events taking place later that day in Tallahassee and Pasadena which gave Tennessee fans a feeling of schadenfreude.
Schadenfreude is a German word that means “pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.”
And misfortune perfectly sums up what’s happening to Tennessee’s biggest rival.
Life without Nick Saban has not been pleasant at Alabama. New head coach Kaleb DeBoer is now a woeful 5-5 in the Tide’s last 10 games. That includes losses to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma last year. The latest embarrassment? A 31-17 loss at Florida State in their season opener. Remember, the Seminoles went 2-10 in 2024.
It wasn’t just that Alabama didn’t win, but how they lost. The Tide was whipped at the line of scrimmage. Their QB, Ty Simpson, played hard but was running for his life most of the day and looked scared to death. The Tide played undisciplined football, receiving multiple penalty flags.
This looked nothing like the Alabama we saw for over a decade and a half. Alabama ruled the world of college football during Saban’s 16 years in Tuscaloosa, and now those fans must accept the reality that their team will no longer be the dominant force in the sport. No team was more of a victim of that stretch of success than Tennessee. So, watching Crimson Tide fans with glum faces at FSU, and listening to clips of them this past week on social media complaining about the state of their program… well, that’s just a delight.
Alabama isn’t dead yet, but they are not the big bully on the block anymore.
But there were even more reasons to revel in the failures of others for Vols fans on this day. Well, not day but night.
Nico Iamaleava was Tennessee’s QB in 2024, but when his family tried to bleed Tennessee out of more cash this past spring, he was kicked off the team, landing back home in Southern California. Iamaleava signed with UCLA, had to take a pay cut, and was the new leader of a fledgling Bruins program.
Over the last couple of months, there has been a campaign with some program-friendly media members to rehabilitate Nico’s image (Pravda would be proud). The new look UCLA Bruins opened the season against Utah … and the ball don’t lie.
Iamaleava completed only 11 passes for 136 yards, with one TD and one INT. He took four sacks in Utah’s 43-10 shellacking of the Bruins. The announced crowd was only 35,032, and approximately half of those fans at the Rose Bowl were wearing Utah red.
It’s going to be a long season for Iamaleava, and his struggles will be met with glee from most Tennessee fans.
Tennessee wins. Alabama loses. Nico fails.
August 30, 2025, was a good day.
