Lehigh Football Nation

Wow. Simply, wow. Can you ever remember a Lehigh game that was won like that? Start by mentioning that Lehigh won without scoring an offensive touchdown. When was the last time that ever happened, especially at Murray Goodman? I had to go back to 1996 for a 7-6 loss to Bucknell (in a rainstorm) to remember the last time that I could remember Lehigh not scoring an offensive touchdown, let alone winning that way. For those of you that didnt come to Goodman on a simply perfect day for football, Lehigh's first TD came on senior CB Brannan Thomas catching the Harvard punt team napping and getting a nice burst through the punt coverage for a return for the touchdown. The final TD came from junior LB Tim Diamond stripping the ball from backup Crimson QB Chris Pizotti as they were driving with under a minute to play for the game-winning score, with junior DL Paul Bode picking it up and rumbling into the end zone to ice the game. Has the Goodman magic come back? Is our home advantage her...

Another impossible week of work, writing, and family stuff is finally done. Sometimes I wish I had 99 teammates at my side doing this - it can be grueling, more grueling than you could ever imagine. But tomorrow, I'll be heading over to Murray Goodman Stadium to see some friends, enjoy some food, and watch Lehigh play some football on what is shaping up to be a perfect afternoon for football. If you can't make it to the stadium, it will be on Service Electric 2 in the Lehigh Valley and AM 1230/1320 in the Lehigh Valley. And if you can't get it there, it will be on Lehighsports.com for listening or viewing. A while ago, I promised my "30 Year Lehigh Team", and I wanted to present my interpretation of that team now, the day before the 1977 Lehigh team that won the Division II National Championship is to be honored at halftime (on " Community Day" at Murray Goodman ). Keep in mind that this team came about from myself and the suggestions of a lot of th...

In preparing for writing this Harvard/Lehigh preview, I looked over my blog postings from last year’s Harvard game to try to get some perspective on this week’s game, and they pretty much summed up Lehigh’s out-of-conference frustrations as a whole that Lehigh and the Patriot League are trying to avoid in 2007. The ghosts of this game tell us a lot about what Lehigh needs to exorcise on Saturday. Going into the game last year, Lehigh had a bye week after losing to Princeton, 14-10, after jumping out to a 10-0 lead and seeing Princeton get two early second-half TDs and make it hold up since Lehigh couldn’t come from behind. It was the third straight home loss by Lehigh: after losing 2005’s game to Lafayette (the 140th) in the final minute, we the struggled in coach Coen’s home opener to Albany, getting shocked by a 17-16 score before falling to Princeton. We were faced with a possible 1-3 start for the first time in recent memory. I asked the question on the blog: “Is Lehigh rebuild...

In what I am aiming to be the quickest Lehigh Football Nation post in history, here are the Players of the Week from the VMI game: On defense, the winner is going to be junior DB Quadir Carter . Carter set the tone early in the VMI game, stuffing their first drive on a fourth down play with a big three yard tackle for loss. He would continue to have his best-ever day as a Mountain Hawk, amassing 8 tackles, adding a sack to end up with two tackles for loss on the day, and recovering a VMI fumble. His performance headlined a dominating perfomance on defense, where VMI only finally got on the scoreboard with under a minute to play in the game. Special teams Hawk this week will be going to junior P/K Jason Leo, in a tough call with freshman KR John Kennedy. Ultimately, despite another missed extra point late in the day, Leo had a 22 yard field goal to go with his four extra points, to give him seven points on the day. Punting, he had another great day, averaging 44 yards per punt, i...

Through the "magic" of the internet, my wonderful "Around The Horn" that I had been working on for (let's just say) far too long got eaten alive by a the dreaded "Microsoft Internet Explorer Has Encountered An Error And Has To Close". After cursing Bill Gates one more time and resolving never to use 1) the underpowered laptop in our family's care, 2) Internet Explorer and 3) any software written by Microsoft (good luck with that one), I decided to try to give this one more go. Like my experiences with posting this "Around The Horn, this week was a bit frustrating for the Patriot League with a 1-3 week including a loss to Princeton by Lafayette (putting them at an incredible 4-37-3 lifetime against the Tigers) and a loss by Fordham to non-scholarship Dayton of the Pioneer Football League. Both games could have gone either way. Unfortunately junior WR Nick Johnson couldn't be nominated Patriot League Player of the week this week , despite...

Somehow, I don't think the photo to my left is of freshman QB J.B. Clark , although he and senior LB Justin Weaver share the same number. (Photo courtesy of Demetra Stamus, Morning Call.) Aside from the missed photo credit, the press seemed pretty rosy about Lehigh this week after their 37-6 drubbing of VMI. In the Sports Network Poll , Lafayette squeezed a few more votes than Lehigh and Holy Cross as the Mountain Hawks and Crusaders continued their slow climb to the rankings. It's still a bit of a way to #25, but only a handful of votes separate Lafayette (37), Lehigh (31), and Holy Cross (30). How did I forget that at halftime the 50th anniversary of the 1957 Lambert Cup team was going to be honored? I should have mentioned that. This weekend, the 1977 Division II Championship team is going to be honored at halftime. I thought I'd mention this now, just in case I forget. Here's the links and mash-up. Allentown Morning Call: Lehigh Starts Fast, Puts VMI Away Ear...

Yes, I know. How come I have such an obsession about terms made by tragicomic political figures (in this case, Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon's vice president who resigned in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate affair)? One can only wonder what terms I'll be coming up with in the future in these Sunday Words, such as "Henny Penny The Sky Is Falling", or "It depends on what your definition of 'Is' Is". In any event, I don't think it's any secret that I'm referring to Mr. Agnew's reference to the nattering 'nabobs' of negativism. Looking objectively, this Saturday's win against VMI was Lehigh's largest margin of victory against an out-of-conference opponent since the Mountain Hawks waxed Central Connecticut State 58-10 on September 29th, 2001 (to what then was essentially a non-scholarship team). For a win against a "scholarship" team of the same magnitude, you need to go back to 1984 when Lehigh throttled Delaware 4...