Skip to main content

Lehigh Announces Class Of 2012

Lehigh announced today their incoming class of 2012 in football - a class which appears to reflect interesting new trends and even some new directions in football recruiting strategy. In my mind, the class that coach Coen has recruited to South Mountain is another outstanding class.

The first observation about the incoming class doesn't come from me but from the incredible RichH on the Lehigh boards. He noticed that there was only one recruit under 6 feet - that's pretty incredible. I can't remember any incoming class that had that much height - in comparison, the class of 2011 had eight players under 6 feet.

Interestingly, Lehigh nabbed four wide receivers over 6 feet in Jake Drwal, DeVaughn Gordon, Jimmy Jefferson and Preston Soeprasetyo. I think these four might be competing for receiver spots in the summer. They also got three 6 foot defensive backs (Kenyatta Drake, Jonathan Littlejohn, Colin Newton) and one 5'11 speedster (Isadore Carrie). It was encouraging to me to see so much emphasis on size and speed at wideout and defensive back - those needs appear to be filled with very good athletes.

Probably the biggest surprise of the class is the naming of only five recruits from Pennsylvania. In comparison, the incoming class of 2011 had thirteen recruits from the state last year. My opinion on this is that it reflects the new reality of the Patriot League in terms of recruiting: Lehigh has to recruit nationally to get the type of athlete that qualifies academically and athletically. In this class features recruits from North Carolina (LB Tanner Rivas), another recruit from Michigan (QB Chris Lum) and the first-ever recruit that I know of from Nebraska (Drwal).

Of note is rising senior P/K Jason Leo's heir apparent at kicker in P/K Alex Smith. He looks like a special kid out of Florida, and looks like a very good get.

Overall, as a Lehigh fan I am immensely pleased by the incoming class. There appears to be a lot of talent that addresses Lehigh's needs extremely well. I'll be looking forward to see how this class progresses as Mountain Hawks!

Below is the list of all the incoming recruits, complete with links to information about them and/or their signings - and videos, where available. (Check back for more video links as they turn up.)

Finally, I'm happy to say that I managed to compile 25 of the incoming class of 28 recruits *before* signing day. It wasn't all me, but thanks to everyone on the message boards and all you fans out there that made available to me video links or other information. Thank you!

Bryce Arruda LB/FB 6-1/220 Haddonfield, N.J./Haddonfield
Isadore Carrie DB 5-11/189 New Orleans, La./Ben Franklin Highlights
Cody Connare DL 6-4/255 Olmstead Falls, Ohio/Olmstead Falls Highlights
Kenyatta Drake DB 6-0/180 Columbia, Md./Hammond Signing
Jake Drwal WR 6-1/190 Omaha, Neb./Millard West Highlights
Matt Fitz RB 6-2/195 Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West
Stephen Ganoe OL 6-4/280 Ridge, N.H./Williston/Northampton,MA
DeVaughn Gordon WR 6-1/180 Newark, N.J./North Plainfield Highlights
Devin Greene LB 6-1/210 Carnegie, Pa./Chartiers Valley
Mike Groome LB 6-2/220 Byram, N.J./Lenape Valley
Kyle Holmes TE 6-3/225 Pennsauken, N.J./Camden Catholic
Jimmy Jefferson WR 6-4/205 Hilltown, Pa./Pennridge
Andrew Knapp DL 6-4/250 Aurora, Ohio/Aurora Highlights
Ted Lasher LB/DL 6-2/255 West Pittston, Pa./Wyoming Area
Jim Liebler OL 6-3/280 Miami, Fla./Christopher Columbus Highlights
Jonathon Littlejohn QB/DB 6-0/175 Orlando, Fla./Colonial
Chris Lum QB 6-2/190 Pontiac, Mich./Lake Orion Highlights
Bryce Martin LB 6-4/220 Teaneck, N.J./Bergen Catholic Highlights
Troy McKenna OL 6-4/275 Paramus, N.J./Bergen Catholic
Fred Mihal LB 6-4/235 Wyoming, Pa./Dallas
Colin Newton DB 6-1/195 Longwood, Fla./Lake Brantley Training
Vinny Pellegrini OL 6-3/290 Boca Raton, Fla./Boca Raton Highlights
Alex Petroff LB 6-2/220 Chardon, Ohio/Chardon
Will Reich OL 6-4/285 Shrewsbury, Mass./Worcester Academy Highlights
Tanner Rivas LB 6-1/210 Lexington, N.C./Central Davidson
Alex Smith P/K 6-0/170 Longwood, Fla./Lake Brantley
Preston Soeprasetyo WR 6-3/195 Patterson, N.Y./Carmel Highlights (WR #3)
Mark Wickware TE 6'3/220 Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill East

Comments

Anonymous said…
Justin Maneri

Saddle Brook NJ

Is he coming as basketball player only?
Anonymous said…
It can't be just me...but LU looked very smallish when matching up with Lafayette, especially along the line when LC had the ball. Andy recognized this and he has made a real commitment to get bigger, faster athletes. It was getting ridiculous. He still should be given another year to two to fully recruit his players before we pass judgement. I like what I see though, as far as his plan to improve.
Anonymous said…
If the numbers are not inflated, and if these kids are as advertised, I cannot remember the last time LU recruited tall receivers (you can't teach heighth) and lineman whoe were not projects with respect to girth. It would be nice to have some beef up front, especially against the better teams. LU for too long has been athletic, at the expense of size. Tiny RB's, undersized linemen, and small LB's don't cut it against the bigger, better teams on the schedule. Good job Andy!

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.