Lehigh Football Nation

The spring season has featured October weather and an offensive line depleted due to injury. But to head coach Andy Coen and the rest of the Mountain Hawks, it's been more sunshine this Spring season than clouds. That's what a ten win season, a Patriot League championship, and the League's first playoff victory since 2001 can do. This Saturday, the 2011 Lehigh football team will prove which team reigns supreme - Brown (defense) or White (Offense). And don't think it's anything but serious, the competition between the two sides. (more)

My last two blog postings, covering the departure of UMass to the MAC and what that means for FCS , paint a pretty grim picture for FCS football in the Northeast going forward. But instead of wallowing in self-pity, let me instead do something else - make a proposal to make things right. Like everything I propose (it seems), it will require out-of-the-box thinking and working together for a solution to make things better for everybody.  But the benefits to football in the Northeast - basically, it's preservation - requires such thinking. (more)

(Graphic Credit: Bleacher Report ) With UMass' departure to the MAC conference in football now basically official , it's time to look at the state of FCS football in its wake. Unsurprisingly, it offers one or more conferences a golden opportunity to establish - or re-establish - a vibrant, cost-containment model for football in the Northeast that is separate from the profits-at-any-cost model that is FBS.  A model that can compete and sometimes beat the Syracuse's, the Pitt's, the Rutgers - all while spending a fraction of the money and competing for a true national championship instead of a crystal trophy in a bogus poll-driven bowl game. That once-in-a-generation opportunity comes with a whole host of uncomfortable questions that need to be answered by the four Northeast football conferences. (more)

(Graphics Credit: College Sports Info ) The announcement didn't come as a particularly great surprise to anyone who had followed the situation, but it looks like UMass, the 1998 I-AA National Champions who squeaked by Lehigh in the second round of the playoffs, will be upgrading to FBS and playing in the MAC football conference in 2012 . Sources say the Minutemen will give the league two associate members (Temple is the other), and will allow the MAC to expand the league to 14 members. As an added bonus, UMass will be required to play two home and two road basketball games with MAC men's and women's teams every season, according to Elton Alexander of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer . It's not an earth-shattering deal in the world of FBS football, for those declining number of people who care about FBS football beyond the BCS conferences that actually have a chance at making money. Where it is an earth-shattering deal, however, is in the world of FCS football, where ...

Looking at the roster going into the offseason last year, you could be forgiven if you thought that there would be a fair amount of rebuilding to do. Start with the departure of an all-league secondary - led by bookends CB Jarard Cribbs and CB John "Prez" Kennedy , who doubled as top threats returning kicks as well - and you'd be even more worried. Add to that the loss of the Lehigh/Lafayette MVP of 2010 (and, arguably, the one of 2009 as well), LB Al Pierce , as well as a host of players on the defensive line that had "Senior" by their names on the roster, and you'd certainly be right to wonder whether Lehigh's defense would be anywhere near as fearsome as the 2010 unit. But a lot of those guys with "Senior" beside their names on the defensive line decided to return in 2010 for their final year of eligibility, providing a huge boost for this defense - and a comfort level for this spring season. (more)