Lehigh Football Nation

On a perfect homecoming afternoon, the South Mountain skyline something right out of a fall landscape painting, the stage was set for a perfect Lehigh victory - something that Mountain Hawk fans have been looking for all season. They didn't get that. But they still did get a dominating win over Bucknell, 42-19, keeping a perfect 8-0 record for Lehigh and getting the job done against a game Bucknell squad. And, overall, the good outweighed the bad.  Not the perfect game, surely, but plenty for Lehigh to get into the bye week undefeated.

We break down the Bucknell game - and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip. When most people think of Bucknell, they tend to think of basketballs, not footballs. Part of that comes from their upset of Kansas in the NCAA Tournament, the, um, SECOND most talked-about Patriot League upset over a legendary hoops program in the NCAA tournament. Occasionally, when the Bison start out strong, the local parer, the Daily Item , has some good coverage of the team in their backyard.  It sometimes even shares space with Penn State, whose long shadow covers Lewisburg as well. But with a 1-5 start, the local reporters don't file the same reports.  After the Bison's 35-7 drubbing at Harvard, there were many Boston-area reports of progress, but nothing from Bucknell's local paper.

Before the season started, I implored Lehigh fans not to overlook Bucknell. In Year Three of the Joe Susan era, it seemed to me like the Bison, behind a veteran quarterback and an always-tough defense, might be able to build on their 6-5 record last year and, perhaps, make a run at the Patriot League title. So far, it hasn't worked out quite that way. After a 19-17 win over Marist on opening weekend, Bucknell has struggled mightily, losing their next five games and averaging only a whopping 9 points per game. And this weekend, they face off against their third nationally-ranked opponent this season.

This weekend's tilt against Georgetown was unquestionably the most exciting matchup between the Hoyas and Mountain Hawks in the modern era. You have to go back to 1903 (12-6, Lehigh) and 1910 (6-3, Georgetown) to find two Lehigh/Georgetown games determined by six points or less. You have to believe, though, that neither team turned over the ball seven times. And, happily, there are more pictures of this game than those tilts in 1903 and 1910, thanks to the magic of Facebook and Lehigh Athletics.  Their 82 photo pictorial makes sure that it will be plenty immortalized.

My vote for the FCS Top 25 for the week ending 10/13/2012 follows below the flip. And I'll answer the expected question: No, I did not vote for Lehigh as the No. 1 team in the nation, as three voters in the Sports Network poll did this week .

Having blamed her, perhaps unfairly, for the death of Kurt Cobain , I never really was able to really enjoy the music of Courtney Love 's band "Hole".  (A fresh listen to "Doll Parts" later, I'm further discovering that I'm still not really enjoying her music today, either, though I'm sure the female angst in her songs really wasn't intended for me, anyway.) As a Lehigh fan this weekend, it also wasn't very enjoyable to see the Mountain Hawks dig themselves into a seven-turnover "hole" either. But a funny thing happened about this weekend's game.  Sure, Lehigh dug themselves in a giant "hole", there's no denying that.  But just like they have every other week, they dug themselves out of it - which, in the end, was the most important thing. The ability to dig yourself out of a hole is not something most teams can do.