Division I Football Championship Preview

This picture is a fairly accurate assessment of how I felt after last week's Division I Playoff picks. I mean, really, a Montana/Youngstown State final? Beleive me when I say I took my beating(s) like a man and I'm ready to make another pick. Despite Yosef fans' pleas to have me pick the Minutemen, and ZooMass' requests for me to pick Applachian State, I'll be doing what I always do - breaking down the game, and predicting the winner.

So it's not Montana and Youngstown in Chattanooga, TN tomorrow, it's Appalachian State and UMass. A matchup of former champions, the Mountaineers are going for a repeat (having won last year's Championship), while the Minutemen are going for their first championship since 1998. For those Lehigh fans that remember, that was the team that defeated one of the best Lehigh teams ever, ending our season on a 4th-and-goal from the 9 in a 22-16 final.

It should be a good game. Both teams only have one loss - UMass to non-playoff-participant (or NPP for short) Navy 21-20, and Appalachian State to NPP North Carolina State 23-10. Both are neither run-heavy or pass-heavy teams. App State has an offense that has simply overpowered pretty much everyone they've faced; UMass' defense gave up more than 20 points to PP teams exactly once - to Villanova in Week 3. It's clear that these are the two best teams to be playing for the Championship - they are fearsome teams to face, almost complete in every way.

How does UMass win this game?
1. Early Momentum. Last week against Montana, the UMass offensive line parted the fearsome Montana defensive line and let RB Steve Baylark run unmolested for a shocking early TD. You could argue that Montana, and their fans, never really recovered from that play. You could actually feel the aura of doubt emenating from the stadium. If QB Liam Coen and RB Steve Baylark can make App State "hear footsteps" early in the game, it could spell a win.

2. Slow Down the Run. I know it's a tall order, but UMass has to slow down QB Armanti Edwards and RB Kevin Richardson. I don't care if you start with eight in the box and leave yourself vulnerable - you simply have to stop the engine that makes this offense run, and that's the running game.

3. Field Position Battle. P Christian Koegel, the best punter in the nation, made life miserable for Montana last week. He can easily do it again if UMass gets in one of those field-position, defensive battles. That's how they've won almost every game this year, and if the game follows that sort of pace, it favors the Minutemen.

How does Appalachian State win this game?
1. Prove UMass Can't Stop The Run. You have to get Edwards and Richardson involved early - maybe even softening up UMass' defense with some deep passes if you have to. Getting that ball rolling early, with big early TDs, can deflate this Minuteman team early.

2. Win the Turnover Battle. If the fearsome Appalachian State "D" line can get pressure on UMass QB Liam Coen and force some bad throws, the chance for picks will be there. Yet they can't gamble too much: they also can't let Baylark get hot and run roughshod over the defense, which has been UMass' recipie all throughout the playoffs.

3. Jump On Them . UMass is not a team that rallies from fourth-quarter deficits. The faster the pace of the game, the more scoring their is, the more it favors Yosef and the Mountaineers. Jump out, jump early, jump all over them.

Fearless Prediction
I don't think this will be a back-and-forth affair. I think the team which is leading the game midway through the second quarter will win the game, as neither team is built to come from behind. I think that team will be Appalachian State.

Yosefs 35, ZooMass 21

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.

Lehigh Football Nation

Search This Blog