116th Monon Bell Classic

[bashbrother]

absolutely.......   out in front of Chapel in the square.......that would be the greatest....

Could you imagine the Bell ringing on their set........ 

[Pat Coleman]

Upon further review, this is a dubious statement at best.  You, my friend, played in 2 games (and not 2 Bell games...just 2 games...lest DPUs archived records are wrong, but I wouldn't dare accuse of Wagner of inaccuracy...he's really good at his job).  You did play in your last Bell game, but Nick was always big on the Bell game being all about the seniors, so I'm guessing he stuck you in at the end to block for some kneel downs.  So in reality, you didn't win squat.  You stood and watched those four games just like the rest of us did.  Frisky Williams won 4 Bells.  You watched.  

http://www.d3football.com/columns/around-the-nation/2009-10-29/A+decade+of+your+memories

Someone tell Matt Ripley he didn't win anything either, then.

I played college football at Wabash College as a freshman. Our team had something most D3 programs would die to have, a roster of well over 100 players. In fact, my freshman class had 52 players on it alone. As such during the weeks we had to find a way to stay a part of the team and that is where the moniker of the "Boom Squad," the scout team offensive line, comes in.

Wittenberg and Wabash has become the game in the NCAC and the first big win for Wabash was 2002. During that week all of the JV/scout team players decided we wanted to make practice as intense and close to real as possible. Lead by Steve Smitka and John Maddox we put "Witt" on our jerseys, we even turned our W's into the Wittenberg hook W with the aid of a little colored electrical tape. For us, this was all we could do to help our football team and to live up to the school motto Wabash Always Fights.

It started that week and lasted the whole season but the "Boom Squad" was born during Witt week 2002. The scout team would come out and try to push the starting defense by running the Wittenberg plays as well as we could. It's easier said than done when players like Blair Hammer, Nick Fanelli, Stu Johnson, and Nate Boulais are the guys you are blocking against. The "Boom Squad" might "win" one out of every five or six plays but every time we pushed the defense they got better. Most of the time they knew the plays and were in the perfect defense to combat our offense, most of the time they would jump the snap, and most of the time they would destroy us, but if that is what it took to win championships we were on board. .

As the Wabash v. Wittenberg game was at Wittenberg that year I remember listening to the game on the radio, not being able to make the trip due to homework. Every time something big happened my body would tense up like I was taking or delivering a hit. It was amazing. It felt not only like I was there, but like I was playing every down. Every time Blair Hammer was in the backfield or chasing a QB I couldn't help but think it was partly my doing, and I am sure that the rest of the guys felt the same way. In the end Mark Server kicked the game winning field goal and all I remember was the whole campus going crazy. It was amazing.

For those of us who didn't necessarily get to see the field in the varsity games, playing on the "Boom Squad" and getting the opportunity to watch the guys we pushed everyday in practice was pretty awesome. For us, it kept us involved every day come wind, rain, shine, or worse. There is no greater feeling than winning a championship even if I never played a varsity down. It was an amazing experience being a part of that team even if it was just as a member of the scout team. Every dynasty starts somewhere, for Wabash in the NCAC it started in 2002, and for that team it started at the bottom with constant effort and enthusiasm from the guys who played their hearts out on scout team ... the "Boom Squad."

Matthew Ripley

[Li'l Giant]

When Matt Ripley spends FOUR months spewing homophobic vitriol in 9 out of his 10 posts on here then maybe someone will make fun of him too. The b.s. that was thrown out here wasn't over the line but what Wally said was?

[Breckenridgebear]

When Matt Ripley spends FOUR months spewing homophobic vitriol in 9 out of his 10 posts on here then maybe someone will make fun of him too. The b.s. that was thrown out here wasn't over the line but what Wally said was?

Over the line! 

[Bash-Dad #84]

The Monon Bell is in Crawfordsville.

That is all!   

[Pat Coleman]

When Matt Ripley spends FOUR months spewing homophobic vitriol in 9 out of his 10 posts on here then maybe someone will make fun of him too. The b.s. that was thrown out here wasn't over the line but what Wally said was?

I didn't issue an official warning or anything. I just pointed out that you can contribute to a win without seeing the field, and at Wabash that's something to be celebrated.

[bashbrother]

The Bell arriving back at Chapel.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-viKn0NIddQ

[zed07]

Some happy seniors there!  They worked hard and were very deserving (as were all the Bash players).  Smiles say it all.

[maripp2002]

For the record, I never claimed to win anything at all. I helped my team by putting in my time on scout team. As far as I am concerned danny, wally, tommie, johninie, it doesn't matter, scout team works just as hard, and maybe harder, than everyone else . I think if anything guys were nitpicking your rhetoric (very Caesarian at any rate) that you said I WON 4 bells. You were certainly part of four teams that won the bell. For that you deserve congratulations whether you started or took a knee.   

[DPU3619]

If you busted your ass every single day for your football team, I don't think the number of plays you got in for on Saturday matters one bit.

You find me one Wabash player who didn't contribute even a little to that Bell win.  Maybe they didn't show up on the stat sheet, didn't play in the game at all, or didn't even take reps with the 1's or 2's.  They're still contributing to making that football team better.  That's it.  Questioning somebody's worth because they didn't appear in the box score is a very slippery slope for my liking, regardless of the stuff he said.  Now we're starting to get down to the core of what football at this level is about, which, for me, doesn't have a darn thing to do with many plays you were on the field.

I don't like that idea very much.  If that's the case, there's about 14 people in the history of this whole rivalry that have 4 Bell wins.

[SaintsFAN]

For the record, I never claimed to win anything at all. I helped my team by putting in my time on scout team. As far as I am concerned danny, wally, tommie, johninie, it doesn't matter, scout team works just as hard, and maybe harder, than everyone else . I think if anything guys were nitpicking your rhetoric (very Caesarian at any rate) that you said I WON 4 bells. You were certainly part of four teams that won the bell. For that you deserve congratulations whether you started or took a knee.   

this is the mark of a true team player.  I knew some guys who had no business playing college football on our team, yet they stayed for 4 years (paying outrageous tuition) and never complained one bit.  Those guys showed the rest of us what it meant to be a "team".

[DPU3619]

Did you guys see what Yale did in The Big Game?  They went Belichick to the maximum.  The dawgs were up 10-7 with 2:25 left and they faked a punt on 4th & 22 from their own 26 with 2:25 left.  In a stunning turn of events, Yale did not convert.  Harvard went 5 plays in 40 yards and won 14-10. 

I cannot possibly believe that somebody could get me to a hospital fast enough if DePauw went all Yale in a Bell game.

[bashbrother]

This just in..... Bill Belichick writes a check for an undisclosed amount to the Yale Athletic Dept. to make a worse coaching decision to get his name off the front page... 

It worked..... Bill "Cesar" Belichick's decision seems pretty reasonable in comparison to that call.

[Ryan Tipps]

I feel like I missed out on my alma mater's biggest win of the season.

I wanted to be a little more removed from the Monon Bell game before I gathered up my thoughts and tried to explain them. First and most importantly, I'm proud of the Little Giants -- playing some hard, skilled ball while also earning themselves the right to play into Week 12.

But for the first time in the 14 consecutive years that I've gone to see the Bell game, I went not as a fan but as a journalist, an objective eye for D3football.com. I analyzed what was happening on the field that day, but I didn't embrace the emotion of it all. The game was more clinical than personal to me. And for that, I'm a little disappointed.

For the past two seasons, I had seen DePauw showcase artistry and heroics on the field -- and come out the better for doing so. They have played the underdog role as well as any other team I have seen.

This year, going into the Bell game, I lacked some confidence in my Wabash alma mater. The weak strenth of schedule has always bothered me, and I questioned even after he won conference player of the year in 2008 whether Matt Hudson was the real deal. For three hours on Nov. 14, I have to believe he was about the best quarterback in the nation. He was stellar, threading passes into multiple coverage and having vision to run with the ball when he needed to. Also, for the first time ever, I saw him with improved crispness in his dropback.

But this was, as the cliche goes, "a team effort." While the Wabash secondary gave up some plays, there was no sense of faltering as a whole. This team was truly able to hit the reset button when it needed to. Bad play? Slough it off and move on. That's what they did. Dispelled the negative, yet also figured out how to embrace the positive and carry it with them. I applaud that.

For their own, DePauw too was impressive even if that wasn't the DePauw team that its fans had gotten used to watching in 2009. They players had their moments during the Bell game and proved that they deserve to be included in "the talk" of Division III's national picture. They, too, should earn applause.

I wish I had been able to become more personally vested in the game where my alma mater won for the first time in three years. It was a happy moment, a proud one, and a memorable one. I wish I hadn't been so stoic.

Looking back on this Wabash team -- the regular season and the postseason -- I am impressed by what they accomplished.

Good luck to the players from both teams, whether they have more seasons to look forward to or whether this past weekend was their careers' culmination. 

[smedindy]

Playing the percentages, Belichick's call made some sense. But, Yale's call???

WHISKEY
TANGO
FOXTROT

Though...Mangini calling timeout so Stafford could get back in the game was pretty ludicrous too. And tell Mr. Poteat that when the ball is in the air, you can't practice your greco-roman takedowns...