FCS East Wrapup: Jacksonville State Enters App Territory

(Photo Credit: Sports Newscaster)

Normally I wouldn't lead my "FCS East Wrapup" with a battle from the Deep South.  But Jacksonville State, aside from thrilling folks nationally as ESPN cut to their game, has enough of a history with Lehigh to justify them being the lead this week.

And boy did they earn their place atop my column, with a brass balls performance in their 42-41 upset win over Darth Miss.  The plucky Gamecocks ended up strangling the Rebels, much the same way a little team from Boone, North Carolina captured the imagination of the sporting world a couple of years ago.  (more)

Last Look: Lehigh vs. Drake

(Photo Credit: Bill Neibergall/The Des Moines Register)

On Mondays during the regular season in the past, I've offered up a "Press Roundup" of the week that was in Lehigh football.  I'll continue to do that this year, with just a slight modification: I'll post the wrap-ups with pertinent quotes, as I did before, but I'll also empty out my notebook and add my brain droppings to the mix as well.

The reactions to the game were a strange mixture of highs and lows.  Highs with the play of senior RB Jay Campbell and senior LB Al Pierce (who was Defensive Player of the Week in the Patriot League), but lows in the way that the Mountain Hawks let the Bulldogs back in the game.  (more)

Sunday's Word: Phobophilia

On June 4th, 2010. my wife and I were nerve-wrackingly watching the Flyers play the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup.  Uncle Tony, who was born and raised in Philly, was text messaging us back and forth furiously from his home south of the Mason/Dixon line.

Up 4-1, I thought the Flyers were in terrific shape.   They had manhandled the Blackhawks all game, and had a three goal lead.  At home in the Wachovia center.  "They're definitely going to win now," I told my wife, who had followed the Broad Street Bullies in their Stanley Cups of the 1970s, thinking - foolishly - that it would make her smile.

Instead, she looked at me as if I had told her I had gone bankrupt. "DON'T SAY THAT!," she said, as if my uttering those words would create an epic meltdown.

She and Uncle Tony had a field day with that, as the Blackhawks got two quick goals late in the game to make the game 4-3.  "Can they do anything easy?" Uncle Tony messaged.  "He doesn't understand," she texted back, even though the Flyers would hold on and win the game 5-3, and keep the Orange and Black in the Cup.

She was right.  I didn't understand - until this weekend.  Watching Lehigh cruise to a big lead this weekend, almost give it up, and then hold on to win made me realize that I didn't understand a key element of Philadelphia teams and Eastern Pennsylvania fan angst: "phobophilia".  (more)

Lehigh 28, Drake 14, Final

The season couldn't have started out more perfectly for the Mountain Hawks.

What wasn't to love about the first quarter?    Junior QB Chris Lum completes his first five passes - and starts the game off orchestrating two amazing drives that justified all the confidence that head coach Andy Coen had in him.

On defense in the first half, Lehigh was money.  As a unit, they held the Bulldogs to only 38 yards and one first down - that Drake WR Nick Rosa had to earn severely after senior LB Al Pierce and the rest of the Mountain Hawk defense pounded him good.

And yet - this was a game that was dangerously close to being lost.  (more)

Week 1 Football Predictions, 9/4/2010 and 9/5/2010

For those who are interested - here's my selection of picks for tomorrow's and Sunday's Division I FCS games being played. For the record, I'm a perfect 8-0 in games that I've picked so far - a record that will be broken tomorrow without doubt.  (more)

Patriot League Football Predictions, 9/4/2010

For those who are interested - here's my selection of picks tomorrow's Patriot League football games being played. You already know my Lehigh/Drake prediction: let's see the rest. (more)

Friday Water Cooler: Internet Broadcasts

This just in: the Internet is great.  Really.

Aside from all the wonderful, informative content it gives us (e.g. cat videos, the latest on Katy Perry's choice of hair color, policy debates on the gripping issues of the day for example, do Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver think that the Alien movie franchise is scarier than Halloween oeuvre?) it gives college football fans a whole lot more than that.

For those of us that aren't in the Lehigh Valley, it gives us a way to see everything online that you would be able to see on TV if your house happened to be a block from the Goosey Gander.  Some of the content is free; some of it isn't.  But the quality of the offerings has improved remarkably, even from just last year.  That's why I think it's well worth a season pass for the Lehigh Stretch Internet package.  (more)

9/2 and 9/3 FCS Football Predictions, Thursday & Friday

For those who are interested - here's my selection of picks for today's and tomorrow's Division I FCS games being played.  (more)

Game Preview: Lehigh at Drake, 9/4/2010

It came out of the blue like a bolt of lightning from the clouds that hang over Mount Kilimanjaro.  Not content with the pomp and circumstance coming with hosting Lehigh for the first time ever, the Drake Bulldogs - Lehigh's opening day opponent - announced that the are going to play the first-ever football game in Africa.

Really.  It's not a joke.  The trip this May will involve building an orphanage, climbing the iconic African mountain, as well as playing a football game.  It will also require a massive fundraising effort - and will, hopefully, end up being a positive life-changing trip for all the kids involved.  It sounds like an awesome idea - one that Drake head coach Chris Creighton deserves full credit for.

One fundraising idea for the trip came from the Des Moines Register: from every sack Drake makes this year, or how many points they score.

Lehigh's mission?  To make the Bulldogs find another team to raise their money.  Zero sacks, zero points.  (more)

Lehigh 2010 Season Preview: Defense

Yesterday, we took a very close look at the Lehigh offense and what is hoped to be a vastly improved unit from 2009.  Today we turn our attention to the defense: a squad that has the potential to be one of the best in the nation, if everything works out; and special teams, a squad that has seen agony and ecstasy in the past two years.

And yet, the defense loses one of the best defensive linemen in recent memory at Lehigh, DT B.J. Benning, and one of players that head coach Andy Coen considered a "once in a decade" player, LB Matt Cohen.  Replacing them with good players won't be a problem. Having one or more defenders grow into the stars that Cohen and Benning were - that might be the challenge. (more)