There is only one man in the Tigers' locker room that knows what it feels like to conquer the Monon Bell: head Coach Bill Lynch.
In 2004, Lynch won the Bell game in Crawfordsville, Ind. with a score of 14-7. The win tied the Bell series at 51-51-9. The team, comprised of mostly upperclassmen, saw the seniors get their first Monon Bell victory.
Then-first-year running back Jermiah Marks rushed for 96 yards. His fellow running back Jason Murphy and quarterback Ross Weithoff each had a rushing touchdown, which proved to be enough for Tigers' defense.
After the 8-2 season in 2004, Lynch left the athletics program to coach at Indiana University with his long time friend,Terry Hoeppner. Lynch found success coaching the Hoosier offense, helping them score their most points since their 2001 season.
Meanwhile, the Tigers lost their next two Bell games. In both the 2005 and 2006 season, DePauw lost the game by score of a field goal.
They made up for the close losses the next two seasons, however. The team won the Bell in its 2007 season in a game that became an instant classic. It was the first Bell game they won since Lynch's departure. The Tigers won on a heroic last-minute field goal by sophomore transfer Jordan Havercamp. The winning goal was Havercamp's first kick in his collegiate career.
In 2008, DePauw conquered its second-straight Bell victory. The 7-2 Tigers team travelled to Crawfordsville, where they scored 30 points consecutively against the Little Giants.
Since that game, the Wabash rivalry has never been the same. The Tigers lost to Wabash 32-19 in the 2009 season. The game featured a Little Giants squad that was ranked 14th in the nation. In 2010, the Tigers were blown out by Wabash, 47-0, in what was one of the worst losses for either program in Bell game history.
Things didn't get much better the next two years, with the Tigers losing 45-7 in 2011 and 23-0 in 2012.
In coach Lynch's return with the program, he finds himself in a similar position as 2004. His senior core, led by running back Nikko Sansone, wide out Barry Flynn and linebacker Mitch Dwenger don't know what winning a Monon Bell game feels like, just as his seniors did in the 2004 season. The team's offense has established a threat similar to those of Lynch's teams' past.
One question stands for Lynch: can he repeat his 2004 Bell success almost a decade later?