You make me wanna...Sit!

(This conversation comes up every few months...here's the latest installment.)

Sooooo...

I've always disliked the "SHOUT" tradition prior to the fourth quarter at football games. It's clearly a watered-down rip-off of Wisconsin's great tradition, "Jump Around." Many have surmised that I think that way because Purdue was out of so many games by the time the third quarter came around...but my disdain for this song goes back to its inception.

-Now, do I think it's a bad idea to have a song that gets fans into the game for the final quarter? Absolutely not.  It'll still be a rip-off of Wisconsin, but Wisconsin has it right- it's raucous at Camp Randall when that song plays.  It HAS NEVER been raucous at RA during "SHOUT" because the song is a fun song for people like my Mom to enjoy...nice sentiment. BUT, fans like Mama Boilerdowd (never used that one) aren't the ones that make Ross-Ade tough for opponents.

-Should we throw the baby out with the bathwater?
No way, I like babies...and throwing a tub full of bathwater would probably cause me to go into spasms.  I really like guys like Neil Armstrong, Drew Brees, Robbie Hummel, David Boudia, Gene Keady, etc. sticking their heads out of the box and getting involved; that's a great thing. The announcer was the thing that got me excited more than that damned song.

-Is now the time to move on?
Hells yes it is! Very few Purdue football fans have a good taste in their mouth about the Danny Hope Era. I believe the idea of "SHOUT" was an effort to try to invigorate a weary fanbase.  In 2006 it began...Basketball on grass was a memory, the autumn of Joe Tiller's time at Purdue was upon us and the product on the field had slipped.  Sure, the offense would still bludgeon bad teams, but during big games versus ranked teams, Purdue wasn't giving fans much to cheer for.

That tradition continued (with the exception of games v. aOSU, for some reason) during Hope's tenure...

New coach, new era...time to move forward.

Here are some of the songs that I think would be better than "SHOUT!" during the break between third and fourth quarter:

Mail call!

It's mailbag time here at BS. Just wanted to share a couple because they're awesome.

First up, Matt from Des Moines, Iowa checks in (good to see they have Internet in Iowa now).

I'm an '07 grad living and working in Des Moines. Being continuously surrounded by iowa fans makes me feel like each day I'm reliving the scene from 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" where the Jones boys sneak into the Nazi rally and Sr. says to Jr. "We're strangers in an unholy land."

Seriously, one of the most unknown things about the Big Ten is how freaking arrogant and aggressive most iowa fans are. They are constantly out to put down anyone from any other school. They act like they have this amazing football team, when really they have Kirk Ferentz getting paid millions of dollars to manage a work-release program for the local jail. I can't stand it.

Charlie Weis eats babies. Go Boilers!

You're right, I never really thought about that. It's cute that Iowa fans think their team is good. It's also telling that nobody outside of Iowa is aware of this and the reason, of course, is that everyone outside of Iowa realizes Iowa isn't a football powerhouse. Oh, and Matt, Charlie Weis eats babies? Seriously? Come on, everyone knows... Charlie Weis eats everything.

Next up is Kristin who writes:

Please tell me someone somewhere has called for the end of the "Shout" tradition between the 3rd and 4th quarters. You know, the time when very rarely is there anything to shout about? Just offering that up as a topic of discussion. I literally leave the stands every game near the end of the third just so I don't have to endure the horror that is "Shout". Maybe no one else is quite as passionate about it. But while we are talking change I can hope for it's demise.

So we're not the only ones complaining about Shout. Hear that, Ross-Ade music people?

I Think This Guy Was Hiding In Our Car Last Saturday

Whenever the BS staff gets together, you just know brilliant ideas abound. So when we were alerted to this letter to the Exponent by reader Ross (proprieter of Bad Idea Blue Jeans), it was more than a little interesting. Letter-writer Jason Tindall, take it away:

Please for the love of true traditions stop playing "Shout." We might as well call it "Reach" for the underwhelming and largely silent reaction it stirs in the stadium. "Shout" is actually a pathetic rip-off of two other traditions: Wisconsin's playing of "Jump Around" and the Chicago Cubs' celebrity-introduced seventh inning stretch. This "tradition" peaked with last year's return visit from Drew Brees and hit rock bottom with this week's hackneyed spell-a-thon by Sameer Mishra.

I have no problem trying to get folks out of their seats, dancing, and making noise. Why not do it with the Quad City DJ's "C'mon Ride the Train"? It's at least more fitting and noise-worthy than "Shout."

We're fairly certain Jason wasn't holed up in the back of the Boilerdowdmobile or hiding in his basement that night, but we all discussed the very topic of "Shout" and possible replacements.

Not that discussing "Shout" and its suckiness doesn't come up pretty frequently... but we even got into a discussion about how if we're going to play a non-current song as a way to "make it our own" and get everyone up, why not be semi-original and play something like "Come on Ride It" by the Quad City DJs? It's goofy and dorky, but hey, these are a bunch of white people we're talking about here. Goofy and dorky would be funny because it would be our own thing. And what team would a train-related song apply more to than the Boilermakers?

The good thing here is that other people are noticing the lackluster effort of, well, everything, at Boiler home games right now. We need to be more energetic and more original. And, oh yeah, the team should play better, too.

Get Up and Shout Now

For your viewing pleasure, and that of co-editor boilerdowd, below is a video I took this weekend at the Purdue-Iowa game. B-dowd and his brother were out in the john when this went on so they missed it, and I know how disappointed they truly were at that.



Okay, so it's a rip-off of sorts and it's kind of a questionable choice of songs (I think I heard boilerdowd suggesting "Move This" by Technotronic, or perhaps a rendition of "I Know What Boys Like"), but hey, at least it's something the student section seems to really get into. While some may not particuarly like it, it's not so hard (for me, at least) to think back to my early years at Purdue and to remember how terribly the student section was with regard to spirit or cohesiveness or, well, anything... anything besides throwing full plastic cups of soda after touchdowns (which might as well have been mortar shells when they traveled 20 rows and hit you in the temple).

Still, if you aren't a fan, so be it. But at least it's something, and that's a good start. I'm much more bothered by the fact that the wave is done at Purdue games than by "Shout."