Skip to main content

The great forgotten game?

Forgotten game?
The Lehigh/Fordham game this weekend seems to be dwarfed by "that other Lehigh game" next weekend. The press seems to be taking a pacing break for what is likely to be a week's worth of features and spilled ink.

It's not even on the radar screen of the New York press - a turnaround from last year, when both Lehigh and Fordham were ranked and were poised to make a statement that year about their Patriot chances. Right now, Fordham is playing for pride - but they would love nothing better to ruin Lehigh's perfect league record this week.

For Lehigh, as I have sought to imply all week, this game is a real danger of being another letdown game. Fordham is no slouch. They have an experienced and talented defense, and have an explosive big-play offense that can put points on the board in a hurry.

Fordham has played 3 close games against Lehigh the past 3 years. They cannot be taken lightly.

Press
Allentown Morning Call:
Hawks Expect Another Close Call Against Fordham
Easton Express-Times:
Mountain Hawks Won't Look Past Final Home Game
Brown & White:
Bergen Steers Clear of Hoopla

Quotes:
"This is what Lehigh University senior safety and co-captain Karrie Ford will remember about Goodman Stadium... "Coming onto the field, seeing the fans screaming ... it's a great feeling," Ford said. "I love that feeling."

"We just have confidence in each other," said Ford, who celebrated his mother's birthday with a 40-yard touchdown on a fumble return for the final score against Georgetown. "That's something that may have separated us from the (Lehigh) teams that didn't quite get the championship."

''All of our goals are still in place, which means we're more focused than ever,'' strong safety Karrie Ford said. ''We have our long-term goals in mind, but to attain them we need to pay attention to the short-term goals and that's beating Fordham. Everyone in the program is mature enough to understand what's at stake.''

"I know the emotion's going to be high for all the seniors," Ford said, "because it's our last moment. I don't think that's going to overcome the emotion of playing for a championship."

"This is what senior nose guard Jim Norris sees when he looks at Lehigh's push for a Patriot League championship... "It's on us," Norris said. "We're not depending on anybody else. If we win out, we win that championship."

''Maybe those emotions will come out at the end of the game, but it can't get in the way of the game itself,'' senior nose guard Jim Norris said.... ''Our emotions will be high, but that's because it's another game on the road to a championship. To beat Fordham, we can't come out flat like we did against Georgetown. We have to play with emotion.''

"Yeah, it might be our last home game," Norris said. "But it's on the road to our goal... You can't win a championship by looking ahead. "

''Our staff and players have a lot of respect for their athleticism and how well they're coached,'' Lehigh coach Pete Lembo said. ''Anybody who has been involved in this game for the last three or four years knows how intense, how physical it has been. You can feel the energy building within our team all week.''

''Their cover guys are very good athletes,'' Lembo said. ''Kornegay has size, speed, athleticism and experience, and their whole secondary plays with confidence. They're very similar to Colgate's secondary... 'They're not overly complicated schematically, but they just get after you.''

''We've shown the ability to play hard four quarters a couple of times this year,'' Fordham coach Ed Foley said... ''I hope that sooner or later, playing these close games will pay off.''We have to play smarter. We've had a huge amount of penalties called against us and some misfortune. And we haven't made enough plays. We just have to get over the hump and finish games.''

''I want to win by one point,'' Lembo said. ''That's the goal, winning. Sometimes we're too hard on ourselves around here. Every win is so precious and hard to come by... 'I can be critical of my guys. That's my job. I want to make them better. But I hope we don't get to a point as a football community where we take things for granted.''

[Ithink it'll take more than a point, Coach Lembo, but I get what you're saying.]

Adam Bergen: "We look at every single game as it is the most important game of the season. We know that we have to go out and play a good solid mistake-free game in order to beat any team in our league."

That's it! See you here for live commentary on Saturday! Go Lehigh! And seniors, it may be your last home game, so leave it all out on the field!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini .  The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero.  (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people?  Here they are, in alphabetical order.