It's Nearly 2018...And 'Shout' Still Sucks
We've been campaigning about this for OVER A DECADE. We've even made suggestions about what song could be used between the third and fourth quarter to fill the putrid void that "Shout" would leave...but I want to try again...to beg...plead...PLEASE COACH BROHM, MAKE IT STOP.
I know my Mom and some other Boiler faithful like "Shout" in between the third and fourth quarters...BUT, I believe most of the fans that defend this awful tradition just want something there.
We agree on this. But there is massive room for improvement.
Sure, this tradition is derivative of Wisconsin's strong tradition of playing "Jump Around"...we've resigned to the fact that it's good enough to plagiarize, in this case. Doing something betweent the third and the fourth quarters can work well...it sure as hell gets the hooligans at Camp Randall tuned up and focused as they head into the fourth quarter. That said, we at Purdue can do better...MUCH better than "Shout".
Let's not forget that "Shout" has stuck around through some of the worst seasons in Purdue's history...as a result, I struggle to separate it from the crappy football that was played during at the end of the Tiller era, throughout the Hope era, and all of the Hazell era. I love that there were still any fans in Ross-Ade toward the end of Hazell's time in God's Country...I was one of them for a few of those games. God bless you guys that kept your season tickets. You're either extremely loyal, or just don't like/understand the goal of football.
Regardless, I want to request...again...that we as a fanbase, just like Coach Brohm, don't accept things because they've been done that way for years.
Losing sucks...losing big sucks worse. "Shout", as a song by itself, isn't bad. "Shout" as a lever to get fans excited for a football game, absolutely sucks. If you remember being more excite...more hyped up after participating in "Shout", you were either asleep, half drunk, watching a Shoop-coached offense, or a combo of many of these.
Picture if you will....
Drew Brees appears on the jumbotron from somewhere in the student section (It's a cold, dark November 17th evening in God's Country)...
"Hey Boiler fans...we're almost there...we can help our Boilermakers clinch a trip to Indianapolis with a few more stops of the Badgers...Let's Ride the Train!!!"
Hell, if it's easier to picture Drew saying, "This or That" (a video showing the offense lighting up the score board on this and defense crushing teams on that would be pretty great), or even "Back in Black"...I can get on board on those...but man, I want to see "Shout" become a relic of the bad ole days in the near future.