Lehigh Football Nation

The Lehigh wrestlers fought bravely at nationals - but the final three Mountain Hawk wrestlers fell in St. Louis today . American fought bravely - tying the mighty Volunteers at 40 with 10 minutes to play - before ultimately falling 72-57. And my NCAA bracket is busted open after my final four pick in Drake fell in overtime 101-99 to Western Kentucky. So now, more than ever, it's football season. It officially starts today at 4:15 , and there was even an article in the Easton Express-Times about it, too. It's probably one of the most wide-open spring football seasons I can ever remember for Lehigh after a disappointing 5-6 campaign that gave everyone associated with Lehigh a bad taste in their mouths. Here's the 2008 Spring Practice schedule: Friday, March 21 - 4:15PM Saturday, March 22 – TBA Monday, March 24 – 4:30 PM Friday, March 28 – 4:30 PM Saturday, March 29 – TBA Monday, March 31 – 4:30 PM Friday, April 4 – 4:30 PM Saturday, April 5 – TBA Tuesday, April 8 – 4:3...

March Madness is here, and my pool still is alive. I'm grateful. In the Morning Call today Andre Williams caught up with Mike Polaha to talk about the twentieth anniversary of our #16 seeded Lehigh team from 1987 who almost - came so close - to knocking off #1 seeded Temple. That team (IMO clearly the best to ever don the brown and White) featured two Lehigh hall-of-famers in Darren Queenan and Polaha. Of course, as soon as I got to Lehigh as an undergrad we didn't return to the dance until 2004. (The "LFN Curse"?) Spring practice has started today, weather permitting, at 4:15. But I will give it its proper treatment tomorrow. Don't forget American is playing Tennessee at 12:30AM tomorrow on CBS locally (and if you, like me, signed up for March Madness On Demand , you can see the game in its entirety). I don't think American can pull off the upset, but it seems like Volunteer fans are having the pants scared off of them perhaps since the last time they...

It wasn't exactly a secret, but Lehigh did formally announce their 2008 schedule today on Lehighsports.com. Aside from being able to take "tentative" off my version of the schedule, there are a variety of commentary on the new schedule from both the official release and from Keith Groller over at the Morning Call . The biggest news was the addition of Drake of the Pioneer Football League to the schedule. Think just because they are non-scholarship it's going to be a walkover? Coach Coen says think again. "It's harder and harder to find nonleague games when you need them, especially a home game, because everybody has things done years in advance," Lehigh coach Andy Coen said. "This took a long time to complete. We were scrambling and at one point, I was concerned we weren't going to be able to fill it. Initially, we tried to fill it by word-of-mouth and then we checked schedules on the Internet. "We were looking at a few Division II schoo...

It may have been that I was too smitten by Lehigh's chances to win the Patriot League tournament. But aside from the news that American was jobbed of a better seed (how could they be a 15 seed, facing off against Tennessee who has a realistic shot to be a Final Four team?) and that Dayton was jobbed, period (exactly how does a team that knocked off Pitt and Louisville get snubbed, while St. Joe's makes it in?), there's some news in the world of the Patriot League as well. Basically matching what Lehigh had announced some weeks ago , Lafayette in essence declared the same type of academic aid policy today . They allowed all students whose families are making $50,000 a year or less exempt from paying any student loans, and capped the student loan amount for families making $50,000 to $100,000 at $2,500 per student. (Lehigh's cap is $3,000 per student, but they also increased their work-study number which may basically both aid policies are the same.) This is in respons...