Last Look: Lehigh vs. Delaware, FCS Playoffs Round Two

(Photo Credit: Matt Breitel/The Brown & White)

It still is hard to comprehend that the football season is finally, truly, over. In case you're like me, you'll want to go over the final game recaps of Lehigh's fall in the second round of the playoffs.

It was a year to remember on a whole lot of fronts.

Lehigh's first Ivy league sweep since 2005. The Patriot League's first win in the FCS playoffs since 2003. The Mountain Hawks' first outright Patriot League title since 2001 - and their first playoff victory since that time, too. To top it off, the three teams they lost to - Villanova, New Hampshire, and Delaware of the CAA - are all still alive in the playoffs today, implying that they are three of the top eight (or nine) FCS programs in the nation.

But today is a day to recap Lehigh's season-ending loss to Delaware this past Saturday, and below the flip are the recaps of the Mountain Hawks' final game in 2010. (more)

Sunday's Word: Devlin

(Photo Credit: William Bretzger/The Wilmington News-Journal)

Before the season started, I was hugely skeptical about Delaware QB Pat Devlin.

I didn't even have him listed as a top three quarterback in my preseason FCS all-America team.

I felt that he had some good statistics last year - playing on a losing football team - but I thought there were better quarterbacks around FCS. Say, Appalachian State QB DeAndre Presley, who is the current signalcaller for the Mountaineers' spread-option attack, or Stephen F. Austin QB Jeremy Moses, who ran the Lumberjacks' pinball, pass-happy offense.

But I became quite the believer in the frigid Delaware press box this Saturday.

"Devlin" is an appropriate season-ending "Word" for Lehigh for two reasons - reasons that you'll have to see below the flip. (more)

Lehigh 20, Delaware 42, Final

(Photo Credit: Mark Campbell/Delaware Athletics)

So the first team to 21 points indeed was the team that ended up winning, as I predicted.

And Delaware - to their immense credit - put up 40 points on Lehigh's defense. (So much for my bold prediction that the Blue Hens wouldn't put up 40 on the Mountain Hawks.)

But heading down the tunnel off the field after the Lehigh football season came to a cold end in the FCS playoffs in Newark, Delaware, there were no hung helmets from the Lehigh players. Some disappointment, sure. But no tears. No humiliation, as a different type of swarm came around the Lehigh players - a group of Lehigh fans, who silently gave their support for a season that exceeded all fans' expectations.

Lehigh came out of the gates with some momentum and kept the game close early on - but Blue Hen QB Pat Devlin, who looked an awful lot like a first rounder in the NFL draft this afternoon, kept making play after play to shred Lehigh's defense. (more)

Friday Water Cooler: Fun And Loathing In Northeast Football

Admit it: if you're a Lehigh or Delaware fan, you are having serious fun this week.  The playoffs are always great - but of all the first round matchups, without question no other matchup evokes the animal spirits like the one happening in Newark, Delaware this weekend.  (I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Eastern Washington/Southeast Missouri State hasn't spawned hundreds of pages of smack, and dozens of print articles, on their matchup this weekend.)

For Lehigh, Delaware and Villanova, whose Northeast-based fans can enjoy a double-dip of playoff football (Lehigh/Delaware at noon on WFMZ 69, and Villanova/Stephen F.Austin at 3:30 on Philly CW 57 - honestly, are you going to pass that up to discover who wins the Big East?) it's the best of times.

But, it's also the one year anniversary of the "worst of times", too, for Northeast football - the announcement that Hofstra, joining Northeastern who had announced their decision a week prior, had suddenly decided to pull the plug on their football program. (more)

Game Preview: FCS Playoffs, Lehigh at Delaware, 12/4/2010: Breakdown And Fearless Prediction

(Photo Credit: William Bretzger/The Delaware News-Journal)

Yesterday, I broke down the "Blue Route Rivalry" in terms of the players' views on the game, and the long and storied rivalry that has been Lehigh and Delaware through the years.

But it's not going to be Tubby Raymond or John Whitehead on the sidelines this weekend - it's K.C. Keeler and Andy Coen on the sidelines for the Hens and Hawks this time, and the dynamic count not be more different.  Rather than smack, it's all about mutual respect and the "challenge" of playing Delaware.

In this Part 2 of the playoff preview, I'll start with an extended breakdown of the Blue Hens, and then end with my (patent pending) fearless prediction of the game this weekend. (more)

Game Preview: FCS Playoffs, Lehigh at Delaware, 12/4/2010: The Blue Route Rivalry

"I was at Delaware practice the other day,", a message board poster on Any Given Saturday said, "and asked a couple of the seniors how they felt about the one time rival.

"Both said the same thing, before my time."

This is absolutely true, by the way.  The last time the Blue Hens and Mountain Hawks played on the gridiron was 2005, so the players do have a point.  If they were Blue Hens at that time, that would have made them redshirt freshmen when a missed extra point in overtime doomed Lehigh to a 34-33 defeat.

The talk this week will be of the renewal of a regional rivalry that dates to 1938.  It will involve talk of talkative former Blue Hen head coach Tubby Raymond, whose games with Lehigh in the 1970s up until the 2000s have gone into "legendary" status.  There will be a lot of rejoicing that the FCS playoffs can - once again - rekindle a regional rivalry that ought to happen a lot more often than it actually does.

But for the kids on the field this weekend, there is none of that.  There is a national championship to win, and the Blue Hens and Mountain Hawks see each other as one thing: fodder on their way to the title. (more)