After Nifae Lealao's boast, everything went downhill for Derek Mason, Vandy

[BrentVU]

Nifae Lealao was one of the highest-rated recruits ever signed by Derek Mason, a 6-5, 315-pound defensive lineman out of Sacramento. I believe he was the first Polynesian player ever to play for Vandy (several others followed). He played on some very good Mason defenses in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, there was euphoria after Vanderbilt started the season 3-0, capped by an upset home win over a good Kansas State team. In the postgame melee, a Nashville TV station caught Lealao, now a senior, saying this:



This past summer on a podcast, former Bama RB Damien Harris related that on the next Monday morning, Nick Saban came into a team meeting, showed the video of Lealao, and said nothing else. "I kid you not, the first meeting that we had, Coach Saban just played that, and then we left," Harris said. "We didn't say a word. We just went out to practice. Like this is the only game ever that Coach Saban never said a word before the game." On Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium, in a CBS-televised game, Bama destroyed the Commodores, 59-0.

The Tide went on to the national championship; Vandy would lose 7 of its next 8 games. In 2018, Mason won 6 games and got to the Texas Bowl, which he lost, but 2019 was another bad year, and in 2020, the COVID year, Vandy would go winless.

I'm not sure why, but suddenly I'm seeing Lealao pop up all over social media this week. It seems like what he said will live in infamy, and may be resurrected by Alabama fans every time the Tide plays VU to bring extra motivation. For everyone else, it should serve as a good reminder not to poke any bears.

What's Lealao doing today? From his LinkedIn profile, sounds like he is back in Sacramento, having worked some as a graphic designer since graduation, but is currently looking for work.

[VUdores05]

He sounded like Michael Jackson. And they moonwalked all over us

[PhilipVU94]

I always feel like coaches doing the bulletin board thing, especially Saban, are engaging in propaganda operations that would make the ministries of information from WWII or the Cold War blush. From a logical perspective -- you're a talented college player, at a program like Alabama where you expect to compete for the national championship every year until a second loss eliminates you, you're coming undefeated into a game as a multi-TD favorite, over half the crowd will be behind you in this "road" game, and...

You're motivated by freakin' Nifae Freakin' Lealao? A guy you probably hadn't heard of until 2 days ago?

But humans are driven by emotion so I totally get why coaches exploit it, and it was really unfortunate Nifae said that. It's just funny how illogical it is for a huge favorite to find the opinions of a Vandy player to be relevant, once a decade.

[Utahozzie]

Hard to take a guy who talks like a girl very serious. Might as well have been Sarah fuller. It wasn’t even smooth trash talk.