Signing Day Gives Us... Old Spice?

As is the custom in the Patriot League, Lehigh did not release their list of recruits on "Signing day" (even though my running tally of confirmed Lehigh commits is thirteen). That didn't, however, prevent two local athletes from penning "letters of understanding" to Lehigh yesterday.

The Morning Call ran an article about Northhampton High School LB Billy Boyko's announcement that he will be suiting up as a Mountain Hawk this summer:

''As a kid, I always dreamed of being a [mechanical] engineer and Lehigh's the perfect place for me,'' Boyko said. ''It's a great program and I'm looking forward to winning some Patriot League championships with them. I used to go over there and watch their games a lot when I was a kid. I'm real excited.''

''Billy's a blue-collar kid who does anything that's asked of him,'' coach Bob Steckel said. ''Since last year, he's said 'Lehigh, Lehigh, Lehigh.' He also was impressed with Lafayette, but Lehigh's always been No. 1 with him because of the engineering and he's going to have a very good fit there.''

The Scranton Times also added some comments from incoming Abington Heights High School OL Collin Bremer:

“This process started over a year ago, and you talk to so many coaches and you visit different schools,” Bremer said. “It’s nice to know where my future is going to be.

“I know Lehigh is a good school for me.”

While I tried in vain to get any pictures of RB Zach Barket's signing ceremony in Schuykill Haven High school, his amazing performance in the Anthracite Conference this past year helped him get some national recognition today: a full-page ad in the USA Today recognized Barket as one of fifty players nationally as Old Spice Red Zone Players of the Year. To refresh your memory, Barket had 66 touchdowns and 4,195 rushing yards in his senior season.

Meanwhile, Lafayette announced their incoming class of 17 recruits. Fans appear to be divided as to the meaning of the (relatively) smaller size of this class over years past (and head coach Frank Tavani alluded to it in the Express-Times's coverage) - some feel like it's no big deal, but others were disappointed.

While coach Tavani said that it was possible that they might "pick up another guy or two", there are still some impressive names in the class. The Morning Call goes into more detail: for example, RB Vaughn Hebron is the son of the former Philadelphia Eagle RB; DE Tahir Basil is one highly-touted player that went to Lafayette that Lehigh also coveted; and OL Mike Murphy and Tyler Swoyer, who were the linemen who paved the way for Barket's 66 touchdowns at Schuykill Haven.

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....

UMass 21, Lafayette 14, halftime

Are you watching this game? UMass had this game under control until about 3 minutes in the second quarter, and then got an interception, converted for a TD. Then the Leopards forced a fumble off the return, and then converted THAT for a TD, making this a game. It's on CN8. You really should be watching this.

Examining A Figure Skating Rivalry: Tonya and Nancy

It must be very hard for a millennial to understand the fuss around the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding figure skating scandal in the run-up to the 1994 Olympics. If you're of a certain age, though - whether you're a figure skating fan or not, and I am decidedly no fan of figure skating - the Shakespearean story of Harding and Kerrigan still engages, and still grabs peoples' attention, twenty years later. Why, though? Why, twenty years later, in a sport I care little, does the story still grab me? Why did I spend time out of my life watching dueling NBC and ESPN documentaries on the subject, and Google multiple stories about Jeff Gilooly , idiot "bodyguards", and the whole sordid affair? I think it's because the story, even twenty years later, is like opium. The addictive story, even now, has everything. Everything. The woman that fought for everything, perhaps crossing over to the dark side to get her chance at Olypic Gold, vs. the woman who...

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