Skip to main content

Last Look: Lehigh vs. Delaware, FCS Playoffs Round Two

(Photo Credit: Matt Breitel/The Brown & White)

It still is hard to comprehend that the football season is finally, truly, over. In case you're like me, you'll want to go over the final game recaps of Lehigh's fall in the second round of the playoffs.

It was a year to remember on a whole lot of fronts.

Lehigh's first Ivy league sweep since 2005. The Patriot League's first win in the FCS playoffs since 2003. The Mountain Hawks' first outright Patriot League title since 2001 - and their first playoff victory since that time, too. To top it off, the three teams they lost to - Villanova, New Hampshire, and Delaware of the CAA - are all still alive in the playoffs today, implying that they are three of the top eight (or nine) FCS programs in the nation.

But today is a day to recap Lehigh's season-ending loss to Delaware this past Saturday, and below the flip are the recaps of the Mountain Hawks' final game in 2010. (more)


Official Release: Lehigh's season ends with 42-20 playoff loss to Delaware

“Obviously today didn’t work out the way we would have liked it to,” said Lehigh head coach Andy Coen. “We knew we were playing an outstanding football team. We knew we were going to have to take advantage of the opportunities that were out there for us. They were a better football team. They were able to break some tackles. Their offense was outstanding, especially QB Pat Devlin, and they were able to get some big plays on us which we hadn’t been giving up since early in the season.”

“Our kids battled the whole game,” Coen said. “Their effort never waned. We’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about. We had a great season. We won the Patriot League, won ten games and went out and beat the champions of the Missouri Valley Conference. I think we’ll have a good football team coming back next year than can build off this experience.”

Morning Call: Mountain Hawks Grounded
Express-Times: Lehigh's 's season ends with 42-20 loss to Delaware in FCS playoffs

University of Delaware football coach K.C. Keeler wasn't just being kind to the people back home when he talked all week about Lehigh being "an improved, good football team."

But the Emmaus native also knew that he had Pat Devlin, someone he calls "the best quarterback in the country."

So, while Keeler wasn't surprised Lehigh hung around for close to a half Saturday afternoon in their FCS second-round playoff game, he also wasn't worried.

"I kind of thought it would be a game like this," Keeler said. "That's a good football team. But I thought if we could protect Pat, we'd be fine."

"We stood toe-to-toe with them for awhile and were there with them at halftime, but in some respects, it's the same old song," Coen said. "You run into a team that's more physical than you, faster than you, stronger than you, more talented than you, and it kind of wears you down.

"When it came down to it, you can't sugarcoat it. They were a better football team -- bigger, stronger, faster at times. Their offense was really outstanding."

"As a defense, we knew what type of players they had on their team," said senior LB Al Pierce, one of Lehigh's several standout linebackers. "At times, we missed tackles and just didn't make plays. At other times, they just made them. That's a real good offense."

"We know we can play with any team in this country," senior OL Will Rackley said. "I'll go to war with these guys any time. Even today, we fought every single down. Even though we were down 20 points on the last series and knew we weren't going to win, we went out there and fought hard anyway. That's what I will take away from this team.

"Other than going undefeated I couldn't have asked for a better senior year," Rackley said. "I knew these guys never gave up no matter what the score was. We went out and fought every single down."

Brown & White: After great season, streak ends as Hens hassle Hawks

"This year has been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding in my football career," Rackley said. "I think that the results from the last few years have not only motivated the guys on the team to change this year, but also, it lets us enjoy this recent success even more."

"We came out strong. I'm sure people didn't expect us to come out like that and compete with Delaware, but we did," junior DE Andrew Knapp said. "The first half, we showed as a team that we're a good football team - on a national scale."

"Coach Coen is, and has been, a great role model for myself personally, and the team," senior OL Jim Liebler said. "The last two years I've been here, I've seen potential in this team-but it just didn't come together. Coen made changes this year and kept us focused on our goal - the results speak for themselves. We trust in him and our other coaches to put us in the right position."

Morning Call: Loss hits home with Lehigh QB

"It's kind of hard to look them in the eye right now," junior QB Chris Lum said after he and his Lehigh teammates were eliminated from the FCS postseason playoffs Saturday by third-seeded Delaware 42-20.

"You almost feel like you let them down, but I just gave it my best shot. I'm lucky I get to come back next year."

"All good quarterbacks are hard on themselves; they are their own biggest critics," Coen, the Lehigh head coach, said. "Chris is very much that way. His comment about leaving the team down couldn't be further from the truth. A lot of what he did today was keeping us in the thing."

"One of the reasons we went with Chris is he was the one who continued to develop," Coen said. "He'd make a mistake early in practice; he'd be in the same situation later and he'd correct it. He did that throughout the course of the season. He is light years from where he was last year when he played a couple of games for us."

Lum is already looking ahead.

"I want to become a good leader in the off-season, the guy people look to and have confidence in," he said. "Hopefully, I gained some credibility in my teammates' eyes and they know that I'm the guy they want to have in the game. I want to be able to build on the strong foundation [set this year] and lead this team even deeper into the playoffs. I think we can keep going."

Official Release: Blue Hens Knock Out Lehigh 42-20
Sports Network: Delaware cruises past Lehigh
Wilmington Press-Journal: No Need for Speed After Walters Picks
Wilmington News-Journal: Delaware Quick Hits
Wilmington Press-Journal: Photo Gallery: Lehigh vs. Delaware

“Lehigh gave us everything we thought they were going to give us,” said Keeler, who improved to 9-2 all-time in NCAA FCS playoff action and stayed unbeaten at home in six playoff games at Delaware Stadium. “We always say that the CAA prepares us for tournament play and I think that was certainly true today. I don’t think Lehigh saw a passing game like ours in the regular season this season. Pat is the best quarterback in the country and does such a great job reading the field. The offensive line did a great job protecting him today like they have all season.”

“I have confidence in all the wideouts and WR Mark Schenauer has such great hands,” said Devlin, who also reached milestones of 400 completions and 5,000 career passing yards at Delaware during the victory. “We had four touchdowns with four different guys today and that just shows you what kind of receiver core we have. Lehigh plays an unorthodox defense and that was a challenge for our offensive line but they were able to do a great job in protection and gave me and wide receivers the chance to do our jobs.”

"The play actually wasn't supposed to go to me," Schenauer said. "I was more of a decoy route to set up a different route for Tommy (Crosby). The safety actually rolled over and Pat saw me. It was a nice pass."

"I have confidence in all the wideouts," Devlin said. "It just shows that our wide receiver core, and now our fullback, can all catch the ball."

Lehigh was denied any points on Anthony Walters' first of two interceptions. Mountain Hawks quarterback Chris Lum had a huge first half, but his attempt for a 22-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the first half was snuffed out by the Blue Hens cornerback.

"A huge, huge play. If Walters has some speed, he would score," Keeler said, drawing a smile from Walters, who made it halfway there with a 50-yard return.

"I was just hoping they'd throw it so I could snag it," Walters said. "As far as return speed, I was looking to pitch it, but we didn't have anybody."

"If you want to see a special play, [watch] the second interception," UD coach K.C. Keeler said. "Anthony gets on his horse and makes a phenomenal play on the ball."

Then Keeler, who had already joked about Walters' speed on his interception return at the end of the first half, couldn't resist another jab at the senior.

"A better athlete would stay in bounds and take it down the sidelines," Keeler said with a laugh.

Then, turning serious, added: "Those were two huge plays. [The first] gave us a lot of wind heading into halftime. It was a pretty important play right before the half."

"As a defense, we don't panic," said Walters, who added another interception in the second half. "Some of the things they got points on, we just couldn't get ourselves off the field."

Lehigh's 391 yards of total offense were the second highest total compiled against Delaware this year, topped only by Massachusetts' 424 in a 45-27 Hen win Nov. 13.

"Throwing almost 60 passes helped," said Lehigh's All-American OL Will Rackley. "It's kind of bittersweet to put up 391 total yards but still lose by almost 20 points."

Morning Call: Lehigh hits the recruiting trail late, but happy
Morning Call: Lehigh loss gives PL presidents more to think about

It's a trade Andy Coen will make every year.

Coen, the Lehigh football coach, and his staff lost a week of recruiting time to prepare for two games in the FCS playoff tournament.

But the lost time could prove to be a gain.

"If you're recruiting the right people, this [being in the playoffs] helps," Coen said. "You want guys who want to be here. We had to call some kids this week and tell them 'Sorry, we couldn't get down to see you, but we're preparing to play Delaware.' That was received well. A lot of kids followed us and know we had a great season.

"It should be a lot easier for me to go recruit kids this year than it was last year, although we've always found a way to do it in the past."

The biggest hole on offense will be at left tackle where All-American and possible future NFL player Will Rackley graduates. Rackley drew rave reviews all season. Delaware coach K.C. Keeler called him "the best player we've played against."

"He may be the best offensive lineman to play in the Patriot League since the Patriot League began," Coen said. "You can't replace a guy like him."

Coen would never disrespect the talents of his own players when assessing what had happened on Tubby Raymond Field. He loves these kids, especially the seniors who stayed the course after struggling through seasons of 5-6, 5-6 and 4-7.

But he mentioned "the same old song" of an opponent that's bigger, faster, stronger and more talented his squad.

Why does it seem to happen every year to the Patriot rep in the postseason?

"It's the scholarships, but one other thing that doesn't get a lot of attention is that a lot of these teams we face redshirt people," Coen said. "If I could bring a [former All-American linebacker[ Matt Cohen back or a [All-American left tackle] Will Rackley back that would make a big difference.

"This year, due to some injuries, we had three freshmen on the field for us at times this year. So, that's just another challenge you face."

All media covering Patriot League football have talked about the scholarship issue at length while waiting for the presidents to decide something.

The latest grapevine whispers suggest that scholarships will be granted, at least in some form. We'll see.

Comments

mailman said…
I know it felt good getting RING sizes today.Look Past DU,and Look forward to next season.Study hard boys and have a safe and Happy New Year,with more 'bling' on that finger.
Anonymous said…
Be aware of the fact that the three losses were all to Top Ten teams. Lehigh won all the games they were expected to win, plus the tossups.

Has anyone else noticed the success of Lehigh sports teams so far this year? FB gets the PL title, women's soccer wins their first PL title ever, men's team is second, volleyball team improving with every game, women's swimming team is undefeated in the PL, and men's swimming is undefeated on the season.

We're doing something right on South Mountain.
Anonymous said…
Post Delaware-New Hampshire:

After seeing how the UD defense TOTALLY shut down RJ Toman and a powerful NH offense, Chris Lum's game against the Hens looks even more impressive.

Lum, Spadola and Dwral are going to be something in 2011.
Anonymous said…
All the losses were to FINAL FOUR/QUARTERFINALISTS. HOly cow, talk about PL strength of schedule...

That situation will likely never to be seen again in PL out of conference play.

Popular posts from this blog

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. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini .  The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero.  (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people?  Here they are, in alphabetical order.