Lehigh Football News: Scheier to Bowling Green

The expected snow-in yesterday allowed me to get caught up on some Lehigh football news, headlined by word of a very poorly-kept secret - the departure of a Lehigh assistant coach.

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It's not printed anywhere, but the Big Green Alert blog is reporting that Lehigh assistant coach Adam Scheier is headed to Bowling Green to serve under head coach (and former Lehigh offensive coordinator) Dave Clawson.

Scheier, who coached wide receivers and was special teams coordinator for the Mountain Hawks, reportedly will be co-special teams coordinator and tight ends coach. It's a great opportunity for Scheier, who now will get to coach for an FBS program. Congratulations!

Replacing him on the Mountain Hawks will be interesting. Not so much on the special teams side, where it's possible to envision kicking & punters coach Pete Morelli doing that job going forward, but on the wide receivers side. Here's a bit of wild, unsubstantiated speculation from me: what about Harvard wide receivers coach Dan Saganey heading to Bethlehem, only a year into the job in Cambridge?

(Interestingly, nothing is up on the Bowling Green website at this juncture and Scheier still appears on the coaching staff on the Lehigh website, though I trust the Big Green Alert and it confirms what I've been hearing for a few weeks now.)

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In other football-related news, are you going to be in Billings, Montana this weekend? If you are, there's a Lehigh connection to an event this weekend, a "Pigskin Football 2009" clinic at Rocky Mountain College. Scheduled to speak is Lehigh defensive coordinator David Kotulski - who either really likes to ski or enjoys cold weather. (Maybe he's snowed in?)

Presently along with Kotulski in Billings is the defensive coordinator of the FCS national runner-up (Kraig Paulson, Montana), the head coach of another FCS program (Rob Ash, Montana State) and a slew of different coordinators from Boise State, Alabama, Arizona State and other FBS schools.

It's times like this when I wish Lehigh had enough scholarships to schedule "money games" with FBS schools. Ever since the NCAA passed the rule to allow wins by FBS teams over FCS teams with a minimum of 56 1/2 scholarships as "bowl-eligible" wins, many FCS schools have jumped on the gravy train - the latest being Furman, who backed out of a deal with Delaware to play FBS Missouri. The reason a school might do this? Aside from the exposure for the school and the experience for the athletes to play against the "Big Boys", the biggest get for the university is guarantee money - a six-figure paycheck for the opposition's athletic department. (Furman's payday is rumored to be along the lines of $400,000.)

That sort of money can plug a hole in the athletics budget - money which, at this point, is unavailable to all Patriot League schools since every school operates with fewer that 56 1/2 scholarship "equivalencies". So Mr. Kotulski might rub elbows with the coordinators of these different big-time schools, but talk about trips-of-a-lifetime to Arizona or Alabama to play a football game I don't think will be happening. That would all change with football scholarships.

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Incidentally, it's kind of amusing to see the outrage and indignation from Delaware fans about being left high and dry from Furman, who beat the Blue Hens in South Carolina last year and have left Blue Hen Nation outraged that they won't play them again this year in the replay. Of particular note is the harshness: blaming Furman for "prostitution" by dropping Delaware and scheduling a guarantee game instead.

While Furman's move - especially at this late date - put Delaware in a terrible situation for the upcoming scheduling year (one that, in effect, forced Delaware to play Delaware State this year instead), it's not like Delaware always puts principles in front of revenue. Matter of fact, their yearly scrimmage against Division II West Chester and their reticence to play out-of-conference games away from Tubby Raymond field paint a different picture: one of a school that pursues financial self-interest quite vigorously.

Delaware has had fewer than six home games a year only TWICE in the last FORTY years: in 1968, the first year the Blue Hens expanded their schedule to 11 games, and in 2001, when 9/11 robbed them of an extra home game. With that backdrop, the wails and moans of Hen Nation of scheduling purity ring rather hollow. If dropping Delaware to play Missouri to balance the budget is prostitution, what is scheduling D-II West Chester every year, charity?

(By the way, I'm still waiting for Delaware's return game at Murray Goodman from Lehigh's 52-45 win over the Blue Hens in 1998.)

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The first rumored name for Lehigh's Class of 2014? RB/DB Anthony Gaffney.

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This doesn't directly have to do with Lehigh football, but any time Peyton and Eli Manning head to the area for football - yes, even at "that school in Easton" - it's big news. I don't know if you've heard about the "Gatorade Replay football game", but veterans of a particularly frustrating Thanksgiving game in the Phillipsburg/Easton high school rivalry - the 1993 game ended in a 7-7 tie - will be donning pads again this April to settle the score once and for all to benefit charities in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It's tentatively scheduled for April 26th at Fisher Field in Easton - and, yes, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning will be honorary coaches for the game.

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Finally, one of the voices of Lehigh football, Steve Degler, will be a familiar voice this summer as he's been announced as a member of the announcing crew of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs as color commentator. Congratulations to Steve!