Promotion To Assistant Head Coach And Strength & Conditioning Records

Coach Coen announced today some coaching changes that to me seemed very significant for the upcoming season.

First was the promotion of defensive line coach Donnie Roberts to assistant head coach, a move that to me seems like a fantastic move. Originally part of the Lehigh coaching "dream team" in the 1990s, his second stint with Lehigh has featured developing a defensive line that seems to be perennially loaded with all-American talent like NT Eric Rakus, DT Royce Morgan, DE Kyle Adams, and this year's all-American candidate in senior DL Brian Jackson. (Not to mention former NFL veteran DE Rich Owens and another one of Lehigh's best in DE Nick Martucci, who were under his tutalage in the early 1990s.) Roberts couldn't be a better choice for assistant head coach and I'm looking forward to see what his impact will be on the entire team defense going forward.

Other staff additions would not be complete with mentioning the two coaches which are off the staff: last year's running backs coach Mike Kapusta (now gone into private business) and last year's linebackers coach Kenny Lockard (who joined the staff at Cheney University as defensive coordinator). However, the two folks that coach Coen got to join the staff are pretty exciting additions.

Linebackers coach Matt Sanders comes to South Mountain from perennial Big East power Louisville where he was a student-assistant after an injury brought his playing career to an end in 2007. The thought of Sanders bringing his expertise from Louisville to Lehigh to work with senior LB Tim Diamond, junior LB Matt Cohen and junior LB Heath Brickner could make our defense the most fearsome in the Patriot League (I hope). If he can do that, I'll promise to not remind him how his last trip to the area went (hint: it involves the town of Piscataway, NJ).

The other addition comes from the staff of Franklin & Marshall College and new running backs coach Scott Brisson. From the press release:

“Scott came very highly recommended from the staff at Franklin and Marshall,” said Coen. “Scott worked very closely with RJ Ryan who is a former player for us and also coached at Lehigh. Scott has experience in our offensive system and also did a very nice job recruiting for F&M last year. I am confident that he will do a great job coaching our running backs.”

Again, I'm optimistic how he will be able to work with senior RB Matt McGowan and sophomore RB Jaren Walker to improve the rushing game from last year - and keep the unit away from the injury bug that bedeviled us in 2006. I think his fresh perspective could be exactly what the unit needs.

Speaking of injuries, not a lot has been mentioned about the revamping of the strength & conditioning program which was quietly added to the official Lehigh website recently. Not only are there two full-time employees on strength and conditioning, the new website talks about the top strength & conditioning records from 2004 to the present - which includes some starters for the fall.

Bench press features something interesting: beating out senior OL Kevin Bayani (420 lbs) and sophomore OL William Rackley (415 lbs) is... junior FB Anthony Fossati (425 lbs). So a ballcarrier is stonger than the linemen, eh? Bet that's the subject of some discussions on the Lehigh "O" line, and it makes you wonder if we could see Fossati perhaps line up a little bit at TE to use some of that strength on our line.

Also with two strength and conditioning records are senior OL Chris Tiefenthal (Squat, 585 lbs) and senior WR Nick Johnson (4.42 40-yard dash time).

These records might point some tantalizing clues about the 2008 season - not only the thought of Fossati appearing as a TE, but Rackley's strength appears to potentially make him well positioned to perhaps start on the "O" line this year. As for Johnson, could be be our Dexter Jackson, the speedster that causes opponents fits?

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.

Lehigh Football Nation

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