Skip to main content

Lehigh's season is over; Lafayette's and Colgate's are still on

Don't know if you know, but both Colgate and Lafayette are in the I-AA playoffs today.

Lafayette will be travelling to Boone, NC to play Appalachian St.

Colgate will be travelling to Durham, NH to play New Hampshire.

Lehigh's "bubble" is officially burst. I didn't think Lehigh would make it, but until the picks are actually made, there was always some hope. It's now officially time to wait for next year.

"The Game" still hurts. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts. If I took away from Lafayette's determination to put themselves in a position to win, I apoligize. Let me be the first to say that Lafayette deserved the win. They put themselves in a position to make a play to win the game, and they did. Lehigh did not. And two things stand out on Lafayette's team on their play this Saturday. Jonathan Hurt played a whale of a game - he deserved the MVP probably before the miracle catch, but he stepped up in an huge way.

Second, the Lafayette linebacking corps played like champions. Witherspoon, Bennett, and Costanzo are great linebackers, and they gave Lehigh's offense fits all day. Full credit to them. They brought it to our offense, averaging 40 points a game, and held us to a paltry 19, including 4 FGs.

That out to answer some critics that are saying that I'm not giving Lafayette their props. They do. They won, and they get a huge reward - they play in the I-AA playoffs, and Lehigh will be sitting at home.

It will take some time, but ultimately I'll get to recapping the season, celebrating the seniors, and maybe even talking about the I-AA playoffs. But for the next few days, it's time to mourn. It just hurts a lot right now.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Chuck can you answer this one question for me? I was reading an article on cstv.com about the winners and losers of the seeding for the playoffs. He said "Lehigh was all but pencilled in for a first-round playoff trip to top-seeded New Hampshire, but the loss knocked the Mountain Hawks out of the field and gave the Patriot League auto bid to Colgate." Im stunning i thought if lehigh won they would of got a home playoff game. So if lehigh would of beat lafayette and finished almost top 10 and 9-2 they still would of got basically the last seed and had to play the #1 team? Doesnt make sense.
Anonymous said…
As for this year's loss hurting, I am a Lafayette fan and I feel like it should hurt this year.
Last year Lehigh should not have made the playoffs. But the I-AA playoff committee, in their ultimate wisdom, loves having Lehigh play homes games in the playoffs.
To be honest, last year was an embarrassment to everything that Lafayette accomplished in winning that football game (handily), that Lehigh got a home game and we had to travel to Delaware and come within 1 quarter of beating the defending national champs. Lafayette was the champs of the Patriot League and yet we were the ones getting screwed.

I understand that you played JMU hard last year and it was commendable, but just think what you would have felt if the roles had been reversed.

I think this is a bit of Karma coming back to bite Lehigh in the butt for your program getting a bit too high on themselves and for actually getting a home game last year.
Your coach lost you this game, Lehigh. Why the hell were you passing the ball with under 4 minutes remaining? I mean, even if you get stopped, the clock keeps running. Your coach saved us a timeout and an extra 30 seconds.

In closing, we, along with Colgate, will represent the Patriot League well. See you in Easton.

BTW: Lehigh does not get to refer back to 1995 as "The Catch". Saturday was, "The Catch".
Anonymous said…
Lafayette is gonna have their butts handed to them. Won't even be close. They'll be exposed for the frauds they've been all season.
Anonymous said…
It's a shame that it has come to this but, Lafayette is not a good football team. They should get beat by 5 td's or more next weekend. If Lehigh were representing against Appalachian, they would win. Also, there is a marked difference between Lehigh students and Lafayette students. I think it really does come down to intelligence. Those kids in Easton just aren't smart enough to get into Lehigh and it shows. Well, they all returned to their trailers with a smile on their face. Too bad you could only get one full set of teeth from the whole student section. Last year when our team drove through Easton their bus was pulled over by the police! They thought Lehigh was trying to smuggle books into Easton!
Anonymous said…
It is highly unusual that when an in conference team plays an outer conference team on a national stage, that other teams from the conference not root for them. In this case it would be hard to wish any good luck on Lafayette. they won with smoke and mirrors all year and now actually believe they belong with the upper tier. Appalachian St. 60 Lafayette 0
Anonymous said…
Wow, we have some really pissy Lehigh fans.
It is just a shame to be unable to cope with a loss in football. Oh, wait, two losses in a row and three out of four.
Sounds like Lehigh fans are getting a bit antsy with their football coach. Maybe not being able to get it done? Maybe realizing their dominance of the Patriot League may be over?

I'm not saying that Lafayette is going to win this weekend but we will represent with pride and at least our coach won't make horrible decisions that propels the other team to victory.
And to say that Lehigh would absolutely win this weekend is highly laughable and speaks of grasping at straws.

Anyone can say that their team would win in the playoffs, the real problem is, you have to have a team that made it to the playoffs to make that statement come true.

What was up with all the Lehigh fans leaving the game after Lafayette scored? Talk about no fan base, I mean, Lehigh still needed to recieve the kickoff.

And as for the academics, I think that we can agree that both the schools are fairly equal. Lafayette is ranked 27th in US News for Colleges and Lehigh is ranked 32nd for Universities.
Anonymous said…
Lafayette is going to get it handed to them this weekend but so would Lehigh. I dont blame that loss on the coaches more on just pure bad luck of the final play. I mean what are the chances of a 4th & 10 going for a td? Responding to someone questioning our loyalness, I stayed until the final gun and watched the Lafayette fans chat "Lehigh sucks". Sorry bout Lehigh fans wouldnt rush Lafayette's field. Because 1) Lehigh fan's wouldnt consider a win at Lafayette enough to rush the field 2) We have more class than that. Go Appalachian and Colgate!
Anonymous said…
That was a real nice point by tha last blogger. Lehigh fans would never rush the field after a win over Lafayette. That just shows how surprised Lafayette is when they come out on top of Lehigh. Lehigh fans consider a win over Lafayette automatic, because lafayette stinks. Luck has carried them for a few years. The future is much brighter for the Mountain Hawks. A nice big strong sophmore O line and great skill kids, along with Sedale. Good luck in the future, but not Saturday. i hope you get creamed. I am a loyal patriot league fan, but not of Lafayette. The reason is their classless approach and trashy behavior. Go Gate!! The only other worthy team in the league.
Anonymous said…
Regardless of how much class Lehigh supposedly has, or how much you consider a win over Lafayette to be automatic, if the roles were reversed and you won on a last second throw all of the Lehigh students would have been on the field and you all know it.

Talk about lack of class, all I heard on the way out the stadium were expletives directed at myself, my girlfriend and my young sister. And no, I wasn't doing anything or shouting anything, I just had the audacity to wear the sweatshirt of the winning team.
Anonymous said…
Wow....how ironic...that is the same thing that happened to me last year as I was leaving Lafayette's stadium after they beat Lehigh...who would have thought it????
Anonymous said…
I especially enjoyed running the gauntlent of drunken slob Lafayette students on my way from the parking lot to the stadium. It felt real comfortable hearing those mindless alcoholics direct nasty comments at my parents and grandparents simply because they came to see my school play a game. And why are so many Lafayette guys so damn fat and out of shape?
Anonymous said…
Granted this is supposed to be a VERY heated game, some fan behavior surprised me. My Dad, brother, and I parked at the furthest point away in the Stabler lots, so we had the pleasure of walking through all of the Lehigh tailgates. I wasn't surprised to hear the profanity... I was surprised who it was coming from.. middle aged women! Three seperate ones tried to curse me out, thanks to merely wearing a Lafayette Football hat. Get real people... Believe it or not, the younger crowd didn't even care we were there.
Anonymous said…
Hey...my husband and I (who are Lehigh fans, but were not wearing any Lehigh garb) were walking back to our car when a football hit my husband in the leg....when he turned around he saw that it had been thrown by a kid about 9 years old (by accident) My husband picked up the ball and tossed it back to the kid, who, instead of saying thank you...replied...."Yeah, and Lehigh Sucks."
Anonymous said…
That last comment was just funny. I mean really, how can you be offended by that? You weren't wearing any Lehigh garb, so the kid obviously didn't know that you were Lehigh fans. He was just stating how he felt; like, I'm cold or I'm hungry.

Popular posts from this blog

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.