Hop Over the Roos on Senior Day

One conference game remains against the 4-3 Austin College Kangaroos. A win and DePauw will capture its first outright SCAC Conference Championship. Our other three championships including last year have been co-championships. This would simply be another accomplishment for this program that has experienced so many here in 2010.

The dream lives on after a very uneven performance last week vs a very solid Birmingham-Southern squad. After getting off to a sloppy and concerned start, our Tiger warriors re-grouped and dominated the majority of the remainder of the game holding the prolific Panther offense to season lows in points and yards gained.

If you thought the football action has been intense so far…you ain’t seen nothing yet. The crescendo keeps building on this so far thrilling journey. As we indicated previously we can win outright the conference championship this week and then set our sights on taking down our arch enemies from Crawfordsville next week before preparing hopefully to host a NCAA DIII play-off game the following week.

Senior Day - Saturday is also Senior Day with 30 to-be graduating players and their parents being recognized prior to the 1:00 start time. Senior Day is always one of the highlights of the football campaign. This year’s senior class is the largest ever in the programs 123 years; a remarkable number in this day and age of instant gratification and lack of patience.

It is time to show our appreciation for our Senior players and parents. Four years of hard work and love of DePauw football are nearly completed. Thank you Seniors for your dedication, leadership and being wonderful mentors to the underclassmen. You have paved the way to our current success going 31-7 over the past 3+ years. We applaud and appreciate all your contributions.

Although coach has not provided the final details yet, based on prior years, announcements will start about 12:45. Players meet their parents in the SW corner of the track (where the team enters the field) at 12:40. If details change, we will update the blog.

To honor our Seniors and their parents, we need to end our tailgating activities earlier than normal to be in the stands no later than 12:45. It would be a wonderful tribute to our Seniors if all underclassmen football parents and family members could be in the stands early for this special occasion to help welcome the Seniors, greeting them with a rousing chorus of appreciative cheers.

The pregame tailgating will follow our normal schedule starting around 8:30 AM for the heartiest of fans. Tiger Walk at 10:30 is even more important to help set the tone for our stretch run.

Please note that following the game many of the Back Row regular families will be shutting down their tailgating activates earlier than normal and heading to the Delta Tau Delta Annual Dinner and Auction. There will be some tailgating as we wait for the players to shower and join in our well wishes and greet visitors and friends attending. To be able to put grills away safely, cooking will be abbreviated and many will opt for post game drinks and snacks due to the time element.

That takes out many of the grills, tables, tents, etc. following the game. HOWEVER, the party needs to go on!!!! The remaining young men need to share their joy and recharge their batteries. I encourage others to step up and fill the void. If anyone wants my grill please let me know. Having non-grilling fare could be another answer.

We are not looking at throwing cold water on what we anticipate to be an exhilarating and celebratory championship day, but unfortunately, we have these obligations only once a year and it happens to be this coming Saturday.

OTHER NEWS – Not wanting to overlook our opponent this week; however I will be posting info about Bell week activities Wednesday/Thursday I an effort to build Monon excitement. Some activities need reservations to be made that cannot wait till next week. Please check back. Also several families including yours truly would appear to have extra tickets in case anyone still needs to purchase tickets.

Take care and I hope to see everyone at the ballgame!

GO TIGERS!!!!!!

Roger