BREAKING: Brandon Bialkowski To Have Season-Ending Collarbone Surgery

Late on Monday night, senior QB Brandon Bialkowski delivered the news that Lehigh fans feared, but also suspected: that he will be gone for the rest of the year with season-ending collarbone surgery.

It appears that the collarbone was broken so badly that he'll need an iron plate and screws to reconnect it.

The guy we call "BB" got hurt in the game against Bucknell, after leading the Mountain Hawks to a 6-2 record and positioning Lehigh towards another potential Patriot League title.

Thoughts and prayers to him and his family.

Here's what he posted on Facebook:

I appreciate everyone who has been following me through my senior year of football. Unfortunately, I will be having season ending collarbone surgery on Thursday. I love all the fans and support I have received this year and will cherish it forever! Can't wait to celebrate a Patriot League title with my team in a few weeks!

I think I can speak for all Lehigh fans in thanking BB for the amazing work he's done this season - and to wish him a speedy recovery.

This season he went 216/337, with a 64% completion percentage with 18 TDs, averaging almost 331 passing yards per game. He added 111 positive yards rushing and a rushing touchdown as well.

This also means that the starting quarterback two Saturdays from now will be either junior QB Matt McHale, junior QB A.J. Visconti or freshman QB Nick Shafnisky.

It promises to be an intense week off for the coaching staff to figure out who the starter will be.

And whomever he is, BB will be behind him.

UPDATE: Keith Groller of the Morning Call added a statement from head coach Andy Coen:

"It's absolutely disappointing for him, a kid who did all the right things and learned the system and waited for his turn," Coen said. "When he got his turn, he certainly took advantage of it. He's not only a great example for his teammates, but to kids playing football all over the place.

"This is a world where if you're not playing as a freshman or sophomore, you're unhappy. This is a guy who waited his turn behind some good players [previous starters QB Chris Lum and QB Mike Colvin] and took advantage of it and put his team in a position where it could win a championship."

UPDATE 2: Mike LoRe of the Express-Times also got a statement from coach Coen:

"I feel bad for the kid, I really do," Coen said. "I think he's an outstanding example of being a great teammate. In this world, kids and parents think kids should be playing as freshmen and sophomores and very rarely do you see kids hang in there, learn and try to improve themselves when they're not playing. He did that for three years. The benefit he got out of that was maybe being most prolific quarterback in Lehigh history in the eight games he played. He did a great job. I'm really proud of the kid and how he's handled everything."

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

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