Lehigh Football Nation

Normally I'd do a much more thorough job of this, but considering I've been busy with football recruiting news all week (and not to mention the day job), I'm only going to do a quick preview of this weekend's action - though it's going to be quite a weekend. Start tonight at Turner Arena at Grace Hall, where 19-1 Lehigh will take on Bucknell in a key EIWA battle . While Lehigh is 5-0 lifetime against Bucknell in duals, that hardly means the Mountain Hawks should rest easy: with two nationally-ranked wrestlers, this won't be a cakewalk. Two bouts stand out: No. 15-ranked junior 149 lb Matt Fisk takes on No. 20 ranked David Marble, and No. 12-ranked junior 165 lb Mike Galante takes on No. 14 Andy Rendos, while junior 184 lb David Craig attempts to add to his No. 9 overall ranking by knocking out unranked David Thompson. Next up, the 17-5 Lady Hawks (Real Time RPI: 91) will be competing at American at 4:00 p.m. in what could be their toughest test of the yea

As a player on Northwestern, I was always very, very fond of Pat Fitzgerald as a middle linebacker for the Wildcats. Now I have another reason to be fond of him: Fitzgerald, the head coach of the Wildcats, just hired Lafayette's offensive coordinator, Bob Heffner from the Leopards' staff. Yes, the man I had nightmares about from November 2004 to the third weekend in November last year is now on Northwestern's staff . "I'm absolutely thrilled that Bob, his wife Nancy and their three daughters, Katie, Molly and Shelby, have decided to join our Northwestern football family," said Fitzgerald. "I had the opportunity to work with Bob when I was a graduate assistant at Maryland and am excited to bring his nearly 30 years of coaching experience to Evanston. He is a great teacher who has worked with some tremendous coaches and programs during his career. "Bob also brings a wealth of Northeast recruiting ties to our program and he will lead our recruiting

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, Lehi

With "Signing Day" set to go tomorrow for football recruits all throughout the nation, considering how popular it has been I've set up a blog posting for the sole purpose of listing, well, everything I know about commits for Patriot League football. Keep in mind that tomorrow few schools - probably only Lafayette - will announce their incoming class in the entire Patriot League, as most schools wait several weeks before making a formal announcement. Many of these were taken from my previous blog postings on this subject. For Lehigh, you can click on the player to return to my original blog posting on the player. But keep coming back often since I'm planning on updating this well into signing day. While the schools tend to be conservative, I'm not - I'll publish any nugget of information I have. (For reference, to read my explanation of the difference between what the "Letter of Intent" is for most schools and the difference between the Patriot Le

The Lady Hawks can cross another thing off of their "bucket list": beating Holy Cross at the Hart Center. It went down to the very end - and two huge defensive stops at the end of the game - but Sue Troyan's squad held on for a gutty 72-70 win in a venue where Lehigh has been 2-18 (now 3-18) lifetime. Balanced scoring - and, yes, unselfish play - has allowed the Lady Hawks to soar to sole possession of first place in the Patriot League. The Lady Hawks soared to a 6-0 lead, thanks to a pair of treys from junior G Alex Ross (whe ended the afternoon with a game-high 20 points and 7 rebounds) and appeared on their way to a laugher while jumping to a 13 point halftime lead. Sophomore G Erica Prosser failed to break double digits for the first time for what seems like forever - clearly Holy Cross made it a point to pressure her all game - but she responded with 9 assists, including a huge one to senior G Tricia Smith (11 points, 4 rebounds) with 30 seconds to play to incre