FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Raider 68]

Bell Week indeed....it's on. 

It is likely that if Wabash wins over DePauw, they are in the playoffs?

It is also likely Wabash wins away at Depauw?

The numbers show Wabash with a +29 vs. Depauw at +12, points
scored - points given up.

What are the intangibles in this match-up, wally?

[smedindy]

Wabash wins, they're in, unless astronomically weird things happen. Wabash loses, they're out.

It's a cliche, but home field means squat for the Bell game. I think the teams are more pumped to win on foreign soil than their home turf, especially if it means reclaiming the bell in front of the hostile crowd.

[wally_wabash]

What are the intangibles in this match-up, wally?

There are none, Raider.  You can break this game down until you're blue in the face, and none of it matters.  Anything can, and probably will, happen. 

[Raider 68]

What are the intangibles in this match-up, wally?

There are none, Raider.  You can break this game down until you're blue in the face, and none of it matters.  Anything can, and probably will, happen. 

wally,

I still think Wabash has the advantage! Look at OSU, were underdogs
against Penn State, similiar stats, but they got it done away (thankfully) 8)

Do you know the Wabash/DePauw series history?

[wally_wabash]

Do you know the Wabash/DePauw series history?

You could say so.  There's no way I could post here with this name and not know a good deal about the series history.   

[DPU3619]

I don't think Wabash is an underdog under ANY circumstances.  This isn't a road game.  Yeah, you'll leave Crawfordsville and go the field where your opponent plays.  But, you're bringing 4000 or so of your closest friends with you.  This is a neutral site game, if anything. 

In fact, the road team has seven wins in the last ten.  DePauw in '07, Wabash in '06, and Wabash in '02 being the exceptions.

[Raider 68]

I don't think Wabash is an underdog under ANY circumstances.  This isn't a road game.  Yeah, you'll leave Crawfordsville and go the field where your opponent plays.  But, you're bringing 4000 or so of your closest friends with you.  This is a neutral site game, if anything. 

In fact, the road team has seven wins in the last ten.  DePauw in '07, Wabash in '06, and Wabash in '02 being the exceptions.

Sorry, Not to imply that Wabash is an underdog for this game. My reference to OSU playing away at 110,000 fans and they were the underdog.
I am rooting for Wabash!!!

[DPU3619]

Sorry, Not to imply that Wabash is an underdog for this game. My reference to OSU playing away at 110,000 fans and they were the underdog.
I am rooting for Wabash!!!

Well now I like you even less. 

[BashDad]

My heart gives no damn about pacing.

From Hudson's Blog:

Can't believe it's here

I have waited 51 weeks for this very week.  There is not one day that has gone by in the past year that I haven't envisioned this week.  There isn't one minute spent in the weight room all offseason in which our players aren't thinking about this week.  Truthfully, there isn't anyone who has probably thought about this week more than my mom, and she's not even involved in the game.  But keep in mind, she is emotionally invested in the results of her baby boy's games, particularly this one.  I don't need to clear anything up, but I will anyway - it's Bell Week.  I seriously cannot believe that it is here.  There probably isn't any week throughout the course of the year that means more to this college than this week.  There isn't anything quite like hearing that bell ringing from the steps of the chapel into the late hours of the night - but that sound won't be heard this week.  Just like that sound wasn't heard last year.  And I can assure everyone, that has not been lost on anyone on this football team, or anyone within the Wabash community.  Every event that I've been to over the past year, the one question that resonates the most, and seems to be the most popular: "Are we going to get the bell back?"  Quite frankly, I'm tired of answering the freaking question.  So just a friendly heads up - if you ask me that this week, you may not even get a reply.  You may just get a blank stare that seemingly begs the question, "What do you want me to say? 'No?'"  Truthfully, there's a good chance that I'll be on edge all week.  Honestly, the past couple of years, when we had already had a playoff spot wrapped up, and hadn't even been challenged in the weeks prior to playing DePauw, I think we got soft.  I think that we lost our focus, didn't concentrate on getting better, and almost let the Bell Game become irrelevant to our future games, because the playoffs were guaranteed.  I never once heard anyone say that the Bell Game wasn't important because we already had the playoffs locked up, don't get me wrong.  But I don't ever recalling anyone say that it was a "must-win" game either.  I have a feeling that cliche will be tossed around like a football this week. 

And to me, there's far more riding on this game than just the bell.  This is the culmination of my college career, of all of the seniors' careers.  There's been all this talk about possibly beating DePauw and then getting into the playoffs with a record of 9-1.  Forget that.  The way I see it, we're in the playoffs at 8-1 right now.  If we win, we keep playing.  If we lose, then everyone have a great week off at Thanksgiving.  And truthfully, that's not something that I want.  If I were at home over Thanksgiving break (thankfully, I haven't had that luxury over the past two years), I would be embarrassed.  I don't like the idea of looking at people from my hometown in the eye and having to answer the question, "Shouldn't you guys still be playing football?" 

But most of all, I don't want to be Peyton Manning versus Florida.  I really don't want that "can't win the big one" stigma attached to my name.  I would much rather have the "Peyton Manning versus the Patriots" career path (as most of you know, he's beat them a few times since they owned him early in his career).  Sure, 25-1 against "the other guys" as a starter sounds great... 0-3 against the team from down South does not sound so great.  And I'm pretty sure that those other victories would be overlooked if my win column against DePauw had a "0" in it.  And just to let everyone know ahead of time, there is absolutely nothing that hasn't been done in the past year, nothing that hasn't been done this season, and nothing that will not be done this week, to assure that we hear ringing into the late hours of the night from November 7th to November 12th next year.

[wally_wabash]

Reading stuff like that fires me up.  Oh, it's on. 

[BashDad]

It is, like, so on.

Dude's gotta janky release, his blog's a little annoying from time to time, he hasn't yet won a game he wasn't suppose to, but damn if he hasn't won me over. He's like a big, awkward, Sendak creature, tossing the ball like a fallen limb, and hard, and you know what? I would SO take that over dpu's dainty tiny tim and his embarrassingly oversized uniform and stupid name and his weak-ass avon-calling powder puff passes, never mind the spirals. They look like they're yawned out of his body.

Hudson is winning this game. I just know it.

[bigwheels77]

Knott kinda had that "Peyton Manning vs Florida" thing going....

Enter the Monon Miracle  http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=11760

I hope it doesn't take a Miracle (Figurative, or QB), but I wanna see Hudson get his.

Author's Note: I used to watch the "Ballad of the Monon Bell" to get me pumped for this week, Now I just watch "Heartbreak as Depauw loses Bell at Buzzer" haha thanks to Depauw for putting so much video a click away!

Wheels

[BashBacker#16]

116th meeting between Wabash and DePauw...

...overall series...Wabash 53 wins, DePauw 53 wins, and 9 ties!

Crazy.

BashDad - classic post brother.

[wabco]

Man ... I dislike the Dannies ... except the women, of course.

I think next year, perhaps a $10 parking pass for each Dannie car.

Play D like against Witt and O ... just concentrate.  It will work.  And the comments about Buck Dick or Bud Dick or Dick Dick or whatever his name ... really right on.  I want to stomp them and never see them again this year ... as the first rounder they have to play also stomps them.

[wabco]

By the by ... on a related matter:

Did you catch the pep band against Hiram?  YEAH!!!  Don"t care whether they are always in tune or not ... just that they ARE.

The feed back I got about them was that Dannies either will make them pay a $5 per instrument charge and/or make them play from the cemetary under close watch by the goons DePauw hires.