Lehigh Football Nation

Last Friday, the first step of Lehigh's quest for the threepeat began . The two-time Patriot League champions showed up for the first spring practice of the year a week ago, signalling the end of the 2011 victory laps in the form of banquets, awards, and even pro days. Though the beginning of the spring season was kicked off with some fun with the team - a strongman competition to show off the team's offseason weight training gains - the truth of the matter is this will be the most challenging and eye-opening Mountain Hawk spring season of the last three years. That's what happens when you need to replace four of the top players in the Patriot League last year, including the Walter Payton award runner-up, QB Chris Lum , and two more all-Americans.

When Lafayette president Daniel H. Weiss announced to the world that the Patriot League would be allowing schools to allow merit-based aid - i.e., allowing the same types of athletic scholarships that other FCS schools can offer - there was a lot of rejoicing  with Patriot League fans for a variety of reasons. "We make this decision in recognition that we believe that it will help the league to remain strong and competitive." he mentioned in his opening statement, "We believe over time what this decision is in the best interest of the league because it will help us with future membership prospects." This past week, a subtle change to the Patriot League website seems to indicate that perhaps, just perhaps, that future membership prospects might be happening sooner rather than later. Could a new member be joining the Patriot League by the 2013 season?

It's starting to become a habit. For the second straight year, Lehigh hosted a Pro Day for three athletes, QB Chris Lum, WR Jake Drwal , and TE Troy McKenna , as well as some other athletes from the area as well. While it wasn't the same as last year, where Will Rackley had a slew of NFL scouts travel to Bethlehem to see his numbers, the trio did bring a very solid performance on a beautiful day in front of a crowd of well-wishers and fans.