Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Bruce Lipsky/The Times-Union) Tonight on Fox, there's going to be a national preseason NFL broadcast pitting the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars. In most years, you'd think the Nielsen rating in the Lehigh Valley for such a game would be miniscule. But with OL Will Rackley expected to start for his second preseason game in the young preseason - and a real threat to start for the Jaguars on opening day - you can bet there will be a lot of TV sets in the Lehigh Valley tuned into this game, focusing on the interior of Jacksonville's "O" line. (more)

Last year's Picture Day was big news around Lehigh Nation . Not only did it feature brand-new uniforms courtesy of Under Armor, but it also featured hilarious one-on-one interviews featuring CB Jarard "Main Man" Cribbs and members of the team. This year continues the tradition, with senior LB Devin Greene playing the part of host on Lehigh's "Behind the Scenes" segment on Lehigh's official report on preseason camp . Greene seemed to have less adrenaline, and more cool, than Jarard - but he still seemed to show a looseness about the team.  It's a trait that worked extremely well for the 2010 Mountain Hawks - and a trait that everyone hopes will be the key to success this year as well. (more)

(Photo Credit: The Daily Item ) By any measure, it was a rough year for the Bucknell Bison and head coach Joe Susan in 2010. A 1-10 record, with the only victory a freaky 24-21 win at Georgetown, was certainly not the dream of the young Bison team that stepped onto the football field on Saturdays in the fall. But the mood is still, in general, upbeat in Lewisburg about the Bison's hopes in turning things around.  While 9-2 and a deep run in the playoffs might seem to be a bit unrealistic at this point, there's still a lot of bullishness that the Bison can re-find their winning ways in 2011 - and maybe, just maybe, beat a Top 25 team in Year Two of the Susan era. (more)

If there is one coach on Lehigh's schedule that understands the importance of historical rivalries, it's Yale's Tom Williams . Two years in a row, Williams saw his team suffer excruciating losses to their huge rival, Harvard, in heartbreaking fashion. This year, the Bulldogs will be looking to finally get over the hump to not only beat the Crimson for the first time in coach Williams' tenure, but also to win an outright Ivy League title for the first time since 1980. And in Year Three of the Williams era, they might actually have the team to do it. (more)

Few analogies are as overwrought as the consistent characterization of football being a "war".  I do it; Pat Forde does it; everybody does it. But it seems strangely appropriate to use this as my "Sunday Word" this weekend. With Democrats and Republicans making every single tiny appointment and legislative action as an epic struggle between good and evil, anything on the political front these days feels dangerous - whether it means driving the American economy into a ditch, or not. So it goes, too, with all the big issues on the docket in the NCAA this past week. If you thought Congress was the only body that had walkouts, no-shows, financial straitjackets and throwing the least well off under the bus, you should see the "war" happening in the halls of the NCAA. (more)