DePauw Ranked 25th by D3football.com
August 4, 2009
August 4, 2009, Greencastle, Ind. — Led by the return of 41 lettermen including 17 starters and coming off an 8-2 season, DePauw is ranked 25th in the D3football.com Preseason Top 25 rankings.
DePauw totaled 98 points in making its first appearance in the rankings which started in 2003 and the preseason rankings which began in 2001. Mount Union topped the rankings, while Wisconsin-Whitewater was second. The Tigers are also ranked 19th this season by USA Today Sports Weekly.
Matt Walker's squad returns seven starters on offense, eight on defense and both kickers from the team that narrowly missed its first NCAA Division III postseason appearance. Walker is 22-8 in three seasons which ranks second in program history for the most wins and highest winning percentage after the first three years of a coaching career.
The Tigers won the final four games of the 2008 season including a 36-14 Monon Bell win over then second-ranked Wabash.
DePauw opens the 2009 season on Saturday, September 12, with a 7 p.m. game at Anderson University and the Tigers open the home and Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference campaign on September 19 at 1 p.m. against Centre.
Among the five home games is an October 3 game with SCAC defending champion Millsaps (receiving votes), an October 24 showdown with Trinity (receiving votes) and the annual Monon Bell game with 18th-ranked Wabash on November 14. That game, televised for the fourth straight year by HDNet, is the 116th in the series with the rivalry tied, 53-53-9. It also marks the 78th meeting since the Monon Bell entered the series as a trophy in 1932 with DePauw leading 37-34-6.
2009 D3football.com Preseason Top 25 Poll |
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| No. | School (1st place votes) | 2008 Rec. | Pts. | Prev. |
| 1 | Mount Union (23) | 15-0 | 623 | 1 |
| 2 | UW-Whitewater (2) | 13-2 | 602 | 2 |
| 3 | Mary Hardin-Baylor | 12-2 | 560 | 3 |
| 4 | North Central (Ill.) | 11-1 | 497 | 9 |
| 5 | Hardin-Simmons | 9-2 | 459 | 7 |
| 6 | Wheaton (Ill.) | 11-3 | 456 | 5 |
| 7 | UW-Stevens Point | 9-2 | 426 | 14 |
| 8 | Willamette | 11-1 | 406 | 4 |
| 9 | Wesley | 9-2 | 355 | 13 |
| 10 | Ithaca | 9-2 | 268 | 23 |
| 11 | Cortland State | 11-2 | 260 | 6 |
| 12 | Monmouth | 11-1 | 255 | 16 |
| 13 | St. John's | 8-3 | 245 | -- |
| 14 | Washington and Jefferson | 11-2 | 219 | 11 |
| 15 | Hobart | 9-2 | 199 | 17 |
| 16 | Case Western Reserve | 10-1 | 197 | 21 |
| 17 | Wartburg | 10-3 | 196 | 10 |
| 18 | Wabash | 10-2 | 194 | 18 |
| 19 | Franklin | 11-2 | 182 | 8 |
| 20 | Christopher Newport | 8-2 | 168 | -- |
| 21 | Montclair State | 8-3 | 158 | -- |
| 22 | St. Thomas | 7-3 | 124 | -- |
| 23 | Occidental | 9-1 | 122 | 15 |
| 24 | Otterbein | 9-2 | 121 | 19 |
| 25 | DePauw | 8-2 | 98 | -- |
| Others receiving votes: Millsaps 89, Trine 86, Salisbury 76, Trinity (Texas) 60, Curry 60, Capital 56, St. John Fisher 48, Delaware Valley 43, Central 42, Redlands 35, Linfield 29, UW-Eau Claire 28, Muhlenberg 22, Rowan 19, John Carroll 7, Thomas More 6, UW-La Crosse 5, Wittenberg 4, Dickinson 4, LaGrange 3, Lycoming 3, Whitworth 2, Elmhurst 2, Buena Vista 2, Hampden-Sydney 1, Emory and Henry 1, Aurora 1, Augsburg 1 | ||||
| The D3football.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly. | ||||