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Press Roundup

Press roundup
Here's a really quick roundup of the press for the Lehigh/Albany game this weekend:

Morning Call:
Lehigh likes Borda's Improvement
Express-Times:
Lembo goes for win #30 against his old mentor
Brown & White:
Football plays host to Albany
10 burning questions for Coach Lembo

Much is made of Lehigh playing against his old mentor this week. Some great quotes about that:

"Lembo, who could become the eighth coach in Lehigh's history to win 30 games with a victory Saturday, got his coaching start under Ford at Albany as a grad assistant in 1992-93..."

''I thought even back then that he was going to have a bright future,'' Ford, said. ''He was enthusiastic, highly organized … grasped things very quickly. He has been on a pretty good ladder since he got into the coaching profession. But you always wonder why guys from Georgetown get into coaching when they could probably make a million dollars doing something else.''

[Of course, you could say the same of Lehigh grads too.. but a great line nonetheless.]

"Peter got his coaching start here [at Albany]," said a prideful Ford, now in his 36th season as Albany's head coach. "He had a good work ethic, he grasps things very quickly, he has a tremendous amount of enthusiasm. I thought at that time, he was going to have a bright future."

“Coach Ford is one of the most respected head coaches in the nation and has prepared numerous young coaches for successful careers in the (coaching) profession,” [Lembo] said.

"Lembo believes Ford’s 32 seasons at the helm of the Great Danes gives him an advantage over other coaches because nothing can happen on the field that will surprise him.“He has seen so many of the highs and lows that the game of football presents, and because of this experience he is able to stay very humble and level-headed,” Lembo said.

"Going against Coach Ford will be special for me," Lembo said. "It's something I'm looking forward to on one level. On another level, I'm not. Bob Ford gave me my start as a graduate assistant. This will be unique for me because it's the first time I'll be going up against him. It'll be different, interesting and exciting all at once to line up against him."

One thing coach Lembo should be noticing is the talent gap between Albany and Lehigh. Although Albany will work hard and not give up, ultimately this observer thinks that Lehigh will dominate.

"A victory today would make Lembo the eighth coach in Lehigh's proud history -- but also the fastest -- to reach 30 career wins at the school. It took Kevin Higgins, a current assistant coach with the Detroit Lions and the man Lembo replaced, well into his fifth season to reach 30 wins at Lehigh. Before that, Hank Small needed six years to record 30 wins... Lembo is in the fourth game of his fourth season as head coach."

Nice to see some props for Coach. Too often "fans" forget his impressive won-loss record.

There were a lot of Q & A on Borda's progress at QB, but I'm not including them here. Although many conventional reporters feel it's important, I don't think Borda has to prove much after his great performance against Liberty. As far as I'm concerned, he's the starter, he's doing well, and he's imporving from game to game. Good enough for me.

Brown & White with a new "Super Saturday" page
Lehigh's campus newspaper has added a new feature to their website called Super Saturday. It's a lot of content meant to preview the week's game, post a quick recap, and has some other goodies. Although one bit of their site is an obvious rip-off of my patented "Lehigh Keys to the Game", most of the site is a good idea for the fan who wants a little more content to read. I especially liked the 10 Burning Questions (a Q & A with coach Lembo) and the Bergen Tracker (a website detailing all of senior TE Adam Bergen's statistics for the season to date - complete with a cool graphic).

The Bergen Tracker inspired me to come up with a good nickname: Adam "Public Enemy" Bergen. Aside from being public enemy #1 to opposing teams, the graphic on the website look suspiciously like the logo of the rap group Public Enemy.

One last word on the upcoming game
We're three games into the season now. I'm looking for improvement across the board in the Albany game. The mainstream press likes to focus on Borda (like I have for weeks) but to me Borda has proven himself. There's no controversy here.

What I would like to see is the receiving corps step up their game to establish firmly who are the #1, #2 and #3 guys. WR Gerran Walker coming back will be a big help, but I want to see if any other wideouts we have can step up and have a breakout game. None has so far.

I also am looking at the defensive back situation for this week. There are a lot of banged-up folks back there. We are very talented and deep at the position, but I'd sure like to see how the position will shore up on Saturday.

Go Lehigh! See my preview of other games, and Lehigh/Albany commentary tomorrow!

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