Lehigh Football Nation

One of the Lehigh head coaching "family" just got a big-time promotion . Richmond head football coach Dave Clawson has accepted an offensive coordinator position at Tennessee. Here's what Tennessee head coach Fullmer had to say : Today is an exciting day for the Tennessee football program as we introduce Dave Clawson as our new offensive coordinator. Dave brings experience both as an offensive coordinator at Lehigh and Villanova and a head coach at Fordham and Richmond. During his eight seasons as a head coach, he has proven himself as a program builder, being named national Division I-AA coach of the year twice. Dave brings a great work ethic, high energy and is a great teacher of quarterbacks. His multiple offensive system using the talents of the players available to their fullest has been impressive. He has a great passion for recruiting, which is important for Tennessee, and his experience as a head coach will serve us well. Congratulations to coach Clawson f

For anyone who's interested about Patriot League athletics, this article from "Inside Higher Ed" is a must-read not only because Lehigh athletics are mentioned fairly prominently, but it talks about something I've talked about before - how football is, whether people like it or not, a vital way for college campuses to be diverse. Data drawn from the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s annual survey of graduation rates, analyzed by Inside Higher Ed, show that scholarship athletes make up at least 20 percent of the full-time black male undergraduates at 96 of the nearly 330 colleges that play sports in Division I, the NCAA’s top competitive level. At 46 of those colleges, according to the data, which are from 2005-6, at least a third of the black male population play a sport. And at 31 one of them, football players alone make up at least a quarter of the black undergraduate men. The trend is most evident at [a type] of institution...where the proportions of bla

This offseason, five Lehigh players got national recognition as a part of the Sports Network All-America team , while ten Lehigh players garnered all-League awards . Of course, all these pale in comparison to the real awards: the LFN awards for "Hawks of the Year". The awards were based on my nominations, and you, the fans, got your vote as well. By compiling my nominees for "Hawks of the Week" and counting your votes weekly for the MVP of each week, I present the winners of the 2007 Mountain Hawk team. Offensive Hawks of the Year With the struggles on offense Lehigh had this year, it's officially a tie: the winners are freshman RB Jaren Walker and junior RB Josh Pastore . Walker, the freshman from Las Vegas, NV, gave Mountain Hawk fans a tantalizing look at the future after forging for 375 yards and 1 TD in three starts, while Pastore battled injuries all year but showed flashes of the dominating runner he can be with 251 all-purpose yards in two starts. B

In the first of my "Two Minute Solutions" series to the aggravatingly complex problems in pro sports today, I feel compelled to weigh in on the steroid allegations dogging Roger Clemens and hundreds of other major league baseball players. There's been lots of ink spilled since the Mitchell report connected the dots. "The Rocket" has been issuing not very convincing denials of his use of HGH and steroids as far back as 1998, attempting to distance himself from his former trainer Brian McNamee who allegedly injected him with steroids and HGH. Aside from not passing the "smell test", this slow-motion disintegration of Clemens' and baseball's legacy is not only shameful, it ruins baseball. Similarly, Bonds' farce of a "victory tour" in the shadow of his own HGH allegations have made a mockery of America's pastime. The debate instead because "should we could the steroid era records the same as the real baseball records?&qu

I've been spending the past two weeks recovering from the "worst cold I've ever had in my life", so apologies for not talking about the upcoming week in Lehigh sports (although I'm beginning to think I shouldn't, since as soon as I skipped the preview the wrestling team, men's basketball team and women's basketball team all sported big upset victories). As we're in the long offseason, we catch glimpses and rumors of players that may be committing to the Brown and White for the class of 2012. Starting next week I'll start posting more information on some of these "potentials" as more information starts to become available. But deserving of equal time is the ones that don't choose the Patriot League - over, presumably, a free education. Looking for Lehigh recruiting information, I stumbled across this : Two-way linemen Austin Kugler of Toms River River North and Mike Murphy of Toms River East said Saturday they have made oral comm