My Recruiting Christmas List for Lehigh

It's the most wonderful time of the year, according to my radio.

Although it can't possibly be the most wonderful time of the year, since there's no Lehigh football or Patriot League football teams playing right now, I suppose the next best thing - recruiting period for the next four years of Lehigh football - is in full swing.

My thoughts for Santa pretty much involve the players I think Lehigh needs in the upcoming years, so, as I do every year, here's what I would like Santa to leave under head coach Andy Coen's tree this season.

(No lumps of coal, hopefully.)

1. Dear Santa, please leave under Lehigh's tree some great defensive linemen. Not only does Lehigh graduate four defensive linemen this season, DL Matt Laub, NG Greg Palma, DL Grant Jamgochian and DE D.J. Bourgeois, when healthy three were starters, including one side of the defensive end rotation.

That leaves nine linemen on the current roster, but also leaves a golden opportunity for a great freshman to crack the two-deep. I'd like to see a lot of candidates coming into the class of 2020 here.

2. Dear Santa, please leave under Lehigh's tree some bookend offensive linemen. I know this is almost always a big recruiting area for me, Santa, but we graduate some more good ones this year, like OL Matthew Cohen, OL Matt Ford, OL Stephen Camasta and OL Ryan James. If we can get two of three guys like that to come to Lehigh, guys who enter the two-deep early and work their way into the starting rotation of linemen, that's a great Christmas gift.

3. Dear Santa, a great hybrid running back/fullback would be a real great get for us, especially one that can catch out of the backfield. Junior FB Mackenzie Crawford and junior FB Evan Kauffman have done a good job for Lehigh's offense, but they're going to be seniors next season. Getting another back that can do the dynamic things expected of Lehigh backs will be critical for future success. Santa, one more of these type of guys would be great for when we play Navy on 2018.

Want to ask for one more stocking stuffer? OK, what about a young speed-rushing linebacker that tackles everything headed his way on the outside?

Comments

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