Skip to main content

Patriot League Picks, Week 11 (and Press Links)

(Photo Credit: Andrew Maier, Brown & White)

The Patriot League autobid has been wrapped up by Fordham, Holy Cross and Colgate are hoping for a share of the title (and maybe even an outside shot at an at-large bid), while Lehigh looks towards next year this weekend in Lewisburg.

With the news that senior QB Sedale Threatt has been battling a rotator cuff injury, it's now official: the era of sophomore QB Chris Bokosky has begun. All the talk of quarterback battles are over, and Mountain Hawk fans will finally have one signal-caller to rally behind this week before "The Rivalry". I've got to believe that the lifting of the uncertainty will help this team focus once again on winning football games, beating "that school in Easton", and springboarding Lehigh fans into an exciting offseason.

And hopefully we'll have heard the end of quotes like this from the Brown & White:

"We don't finish plays, we don't rise up and stop them on third down, we don't get up and make the big catch, or the big tackle," Coen said. "This next game against Bucknell is just another opportunity to step up and come through and do these things we have not been doing in past weeks."


Patriot League Picks
You can find my picks, which were originally posted at the College Sporting News, and you will also be able to find something else there: a mock bracket with my projected picks for the FCS playoffs.

Lafayette over Holy Cross
After a tough loss at Fordham, the Crusaders return home to take on a Lafayette team that is barely keeping things together after getting to their fifth-string runningback last week in a 34-7 win over hapless Bucknell. The Crusaders will be facing probably the best defense they’ve faced this year (led by Leopard defensive tackle Kyle Sprenkle), but Crusader quarterback Dominic Randolph will be ready to lead one of the best offenses in FCS. Something’s got to give – and I think it’s the Crusaders. Holy Cross, who hasn’t learned how to win in November, loses to the team who has.
“We Only Lose In the Playoffs In November” 25, “And We Need To Learn How To Do That” 24

Colgate over Georgetown
You've got to give credit to the Georgetown Athletic Department for trying. By making admission to the game free, they hope to draw more fans to see the Hoya seniors off on "Senior Day". Will it work? I wish I could say yes, but I can't.
Ready Raiders 35, "Give 'Em Hell, Hoyas" 7

Press Links
Morning Call: Threatt's Injury Ends QB Uncertainty
Express-Times: Hawks Want A Strong Finish
Brown & White: Hawks Prepared For Final Road Game

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.