Normally by "Sunday's Word" pieces are struggles to find the exact word: but I knew almost instantly after leaving the Bronx that "if" was going to be the Sunday word this weekend.
It's been a rough 36 hours for Lehigh fans. Point blank, beating Fordham is something that Mountain Hawks fans expect Lehigh to do every year, having only lost to the Rams one other time in our history. Fordham may be a better team than they have been the past couple years, but this particular loss has shaken the Lehigh fan base to its core.
Fordham is a good team; anyone who thinks that the Rams didn't earn this one on the field is truly mistaken. The way Fordham was playing, at no time did I feel like the lead, if we got it back again, would be safe. Their sophomore quarterback, who we'll be seeing again for the next two years, is starting to blossom into a really good QB who gets good production - and if he keeps the turnovers down like he did last week, the rest of the league had better watch out.
Yet fans, including myself, were shaken by the number of Mountain Hawk errors made on the field yesterday. Lehigh fans, some of them unforgiving in the best of times, cannot forgive the number of errors and missed opportunities in this game.
The point of this blog isn't to single out players or coaches to tell them how to do their jobs, but the point is to show what this particular Lehigh fan is feeling, and hopefully also express what other fans out there are feeling. And it's a feeling I've never seen before in games that don't involve "that school in Easton".
Efforts like this don't just put things like Patriot League titles in doubt. They put into doubt whether Lehigh will win any more games this year. This isn't mere exaggeration: with formidable Yale up next weekend, and Holy Cross after that, we have teams that put up 50 and 49 points on their opponents this weekend. It's not hard to imagine Lehigh losing both of these games when the offense has only managed 1 offensive TD in the last two games. "If" Lehigh goes 0-2, what then?
And now we're at the point of today's word: "If". "If" Lehigh goes 0-2, 1-1, or 2-0. "If". "If" there's a word that has plagued Lehigh for the past three years, it's that word. "If".
For three years, we've been haunted by the word "If". "If" we got that extra point in Delaware in overtime in 2005. "If" Mark Borda didn't get injured. "If" the 2005 game at Holy Cross wasn't played in a rainstorm. "If" the Lehigh defense had gotten to Pat Davis a split second earlier. "If" it didn't rain against Albany in 2006. "If" we had gotten the 2-point conversion against Harvard. "If" we could have gotten some key Ivy League wins. "If" we converted one of three FG attempts in the red zone, or drove for that game-winning touchdown against Fordham in 2007. "If, if if".
It doesn't stop there, either. How many times have I said the following to people: '"If" Lehigh's (offense, defense, kicking game, special teams) gets it together, they're the best team in the Patriot League, hands down?' How long do I have to wait for receivers to catch balls, or offensive linemen to dominate a game? How long do I have to wait for a defensive effort without mental lapses like I saw yesterday? Is it too much to ask to maybe limit the bad snaps to once a game? How long do I have to wait for players to deliver on the wonderful potential that I and others have seen in spots for the past three years?
I still look at this team, and the rest of these teams around the Patriot League, and I can't help thinking about "if". Lafayette has struggled at times to score points; Holy Cross has struggled at times to prevent teams from scoring points; Fordham has struggled to be consistent; as has Colgate. Hands down, "If they can just get things together..." they still have the potential to be the best team in the Patriot League - though that is no longer totally in their own hands. It's still not unreasonable to think Lehigh can still win the league: after all, no Patriot League team in the past three years has won the title without at least one league loss, so it's possible that it could happen again this year.
But at some point, potential for greatness simply becomes the present, and your record is right there, live in front of you. And it's happening to this team, right here and right now.
And it's also killing me, especially with senior QB Sedale Threatt. I want nothing more than for Sedale to be successful in life and to get a shot at the NFL. To me, he clearly has the talent for it, and I would never, ever say that if I didn't believe it. I feel he's the most talented quarterback I've ever seen put on a Lehigh uniform. He can do things with the football that quarterbacks on classic Lehigh teams could only dream of doing.
At times I've seen Sedale move the ball on offense for Lehigh, and it's a thing of beauty. I've taken to calling them "those drives", where everything falls into place, all the timings are perfect and it looks like we could move the ball against Georgetown, Yale, or even Penn State. It's not just Sedale, either: once a game, the blocking seems perfect, the receivers' timing seems perfect, the running backs seem to burst out of the blocks. But one of "those drives" only appears to happen once a game, and I wonder yet again, What "if" we could get three or four of these a game?
But there it is again. "If". "If" Sedale plays well the rest of the way, he might get a shot at the NFL. "If" some receiver could step up and consistently be Sedale's go-to guy. "If" one of our talented RBs can step up and take some heat off Sedale, and not turn the ball over. "If" our offensive line could dominate a game the way they're expected to. "If, if, if."
Sedale is one player. Wins and losses aren't only on the back of one player. It's on the back of the entire team, who has to work hard all week, and work hard the entire game. After all is said and done, it's the work of everyone on the football field to get the job done. You never want to look at the Fordham game - heck, any game - and say, what "if"? What "if" we worked harder? What "if" I had made more blocking assignments? What "if" I had made that tackle? What "if" I didn't commit that penalty? What "if" I didn't throw that interception?
Potential, in the end, is nothing. It's all about who works harder, who blocks better, and who makes fewer mistakes. If you do that, there is no "If". "If" means you're always wondering about what could have been, what potential could have been fulfilled, what wins we could have had. I'm sick and tired of "If".
If one positive comes out of the Fordham game, I hope it's the realization that it all has to come together right here and right now, next week against Yale. It's no longer "If". It's "Now".
It's been a rough 36 hours for Lehigh fans. Point blank, beating Fordham is something that Mountain Hawks fans expect Lehigh to do every year, having only lost to the Rams one other time in our history. Fordham may be a better team than they have been the past couple years, but this particular loss has shaken the Lehigh fan base to its core.
Fordham is a good team; anyone who thinks that the Rams didn't earn this one on the field is truly mistaken. The way Fordham was playing, at no time did I feel like the lead, if we got it back again, would be safe. Their sophomore quarterback, who we'll be seeing again for the next two years, is starting to blossom into a really good QB who gets good production - and if he keeps the turnovers down like he did last week, the rest of the league had better watch out.
Yet fans, including myself, were shaken by the number of Mountain Hawk errors made on the field yesterday. Lehigh fans, some of them unforgiving in the best of times, cannot forgive the number of errors and missed opportunities in this game.
The point of this blog isn't to single out players or coaches to tell them how to do their jobs, but the point is to show what this particular Lehigh fan is feeling, and hopefully also express what other fans out there are feeling. And it's a feeling I've never seen before in games that don't involve "that school in Easton".
Efforts like this don't just put things like Patriot League titles in doubt. They put into doubt whether Lehigh will win any more games this year. This isn't mere exaggeration: with formidable Yale up next weekend, and Holy Cross after that, we have teams that put up 50 and 49 points on their opponents this weekend. It's not hard to imagine Lehigh losing both of these games when the offense has only managed 1 offensive TD in the last two games. "If" Lehigh goes 0-2, what then?
And now we're at the point of today's word: "If". "If" Lehigh goes 0-2, 1-1, or 2-0. "If". "If" there's a word that has plagued Lehigh for the past three years, it's that word. "If".
For three years, we've been haunted by the word "If". "If" we got that extra point in Delaware in overtime in 2005. "If" Mark Borda didn't get injured. "If" the 2005 game at Holy Cross wasn't played in a rainstorm. "If" the Lehigh defense had gotten to Pat Davis a split second earlier. "If" it didn't rain against Albany in 2006. "If" we had gotten the 2-point conversion against Harvard. "If" we could have gotten some key Ivy League wins. "If" we converted one of three FG attempts in the red zone, or drove for that game-winning touchdown against Fordham in 2007. "If, if if".
It doesn't stop there, either. How many times have I said the following to people: '"If" Lehigh's (offense, defense, kicking game, special teams) gets it together, they're the best team in the Patriot League, hands down?' How long do I have to wait for receivers to catch balls, or offensive linemen to dominate a game? How long do I have to wait for a defensive effort without mental lapses like I saw yesterday? Is it too much to ask to maybe limit the bad snaps to once a game? How long do I have to wait for players to deliver on the wonderful potential that I and others have seen in spots for the past three years?
I still look at this team, and the rest of these teams around the Patriot League, and I can't help thinking about "if". Lafayette has struggled at times to score points; Holy Cross has struggled at times to prevent teams from scoring points; Fordham has struggled to be consistent; as has Colgate. Hands down, "If they can just get things together..." they still have the potential to be the best team in the Patriot League - though that is no longer totally in their own hands. It's still not unreasonable to think Lehigh can still win the league: after all, no Patriot League team in the past three years has won the title without at least one league loss, so it's possible that it could happen again this year.
But at some point, potential for greatness simply becomes the present, and your record is right there, live in front of you. And it's happening to this team, right here and right now.
And it's also killing me, especially with senior QB Sedale Threatt. I want nothing more than for Sedale to be successful in life and to get a shot at the NFL. To me, he clearly has the talent for it, and I would never, ever say that if I didn't believe it. I feel he's the most talented quarterback I've ever seen put on a Lehigh uniform. He can do things with the football that quarterbacks on classic Lehigh teams could only dream of doing.
At times I've seen Sedale move the ball on offense for Lehigh, and it's a thing of beauty. I've taken to calling them "those drives", where everything falls into place, all the timings are perfect and it looks like we could move the ball against Georgetown, Yale, or even Penn State. It's not just Sedale, either: once a game, the blocking seems perfect, the receivers' timing seems perfect, the running backs seem to burst out of the blocks. But one of "those drives" only appears to happen once a game, and I wonder yet again, What "if" we could get three or four of these a game?
But there it is again. "If". "If" Sedale plays well the rest of the way, he might get a shot at the NFL. "If" some receiver could step up and consistently be Sedale's go-to guy. "If" one of our talented RBs can step up and take some heat off Sedale, and not turn the ball over. "If" our offensive line could dominate a game the way they're expected to. "If, if, if."
Sedale is one player. Wins and losses aren't only on the back of one player. It's on the back of the entire team, who has to work hard all week, and work hard the entire game. After all is said and done, it's the work of everyone on the football field to get the job done. You never want to look at the Fordham game - heck, any game - and say, what "if"? What "if" we worked harder? What "if" I had made more blocking assignments? What "if" I had made that tackle? What "if" I didn't commit that penalty? What "if" I didn't throw that interception?
Potential, in the end, is nothing. It's all about who works harder, who blocks better, and who makes fewer mistakes. If you do that, there is no "If". "If" means you're always wondering about what could have been, what potential could have been fulfilled, what wins we could have had. I'm sick and tired of "If".
If one positive comes out of the Fordham game, I hope it's the realization that it all has to come together right here and right now, next week against Yale. It's no longer "If". It's "Now".
Comments
It seems to me he has flashes greatness but that is about it. His overarching quality is escapeability.
That alone does not a great Lehigh quarterback make. I've seen many other Lehigh QBs that have struck much more fear into my heart as a Lafayette fan.
Just food for thought.
Read your blog religiously, but this is plain absurd:" I feel he's the most talented quarterback I've ever seen put on a Lehigh uniform. He can do things with the football that quarterbacks on classic Lehigh teams could only dream of doing."
Do you realize how many great LU QBs you have now disparaged?
He is not even in the same class as Stambaugh, Rieker, Hall, Borda, McQuilken, or Horn. Your logic would lead one to believe that the most talented in the NFL is Michael Vick because of his athleticsm. The most talented QBs in the NFL are Tom Brady and Peyton Manning because of their ability to manage the game and, most importantly, win.
The one thing that Threatt can't do with a football that other Lehigh QBs could do is complete passes on a CONSISTENT basis and win.
I really think you need to defend this statement. Otherwise, you look an awful lot like a Threatt apologist.
I would have expected better from you at this point. My goodness!
Go Lehigh!
thanks, chuck, for all that you do. your blog helps me keep tabs on lehigh and my brother, who plays. i have appreciated it through the last four years!