Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Jerome Gordon /Facebook) The term "Any Given Sunday" comes from the film by Oliver Stone of the same name, but it really comes from Steve Sabol and NFL Films, and the music and sentiment those films provided.  "On any given Sunday..." I can still imagine Mr. Sabol bellowing, with the military-esque soundtrack backing him him... "even a 1-8 team can beat the best team in the land." This Saturday, we almost saw one of those types of moments at Fitton Field in Worcester, Mass. Not looking anything like a one-win team, Holy Cross gave Lehigh every single last thing they could handle, rattling off 21 unanswered points in the 3rd quarter against the No. 1 defense in the Patriot League and putting themselves in position to fire off the game-winning 43 yard kick with 11 seconds to play. The field goal would barely have the distance, but would be just wide right - the margin between winning and losing the game.  Lehigh's 36-35 win wo...

We break down the Holy Cross game - and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip. In my preview piece yesterday, I talked about the craziness of this series, featuring bad weather, power outages, and the like.  Adding to the intrigue is that this Saturday, for the Crusaders, it's Senior Day. Ask anyone around the game of football, and they'll tell you senior day always adds a wrinkle to a contest.  No senior in uniform wants to lose on senior day - and sometimes, seniors who haven't played up to their potential suddenly rise up and find a sense of urgency to win at home, one last time. It's another reason to throw the record out the window this weekend up in Worcester. There's also the other matter of Boston College, Holy Cross' rival from another time, agreeing to allow Lehigh to practice there a day early thanks to the power outages that continue to disrupt the Lehigh Valley.  That the BC Eagles would help Lehigh out has Crusaders of a cer...

If there is just one thing you, dear Lehigh fan, take away from this Holy Cross preview, let it be this: Tom Gilmore -coached teams never give up, and more specifically, never give up against Lehigh. In a series punctuated by power outages, snowstorms, close shaves and just outright weirdness, you can make a very good case that when Lehigh plays Holy Cross, you throw the records out the window. The 1-7 Crusaders showed some of that fight last weekend vs. Fordham, a 36-32 heartbreak of a loss that had Holy Cross with the lead up until the last 11 seconds of the game. In that game, Holy Cross didn't look like a 1-6 team, and you can count of the fact that the Crusaders won't look like a 1-7 team out there this weekend, either.

Did I forget to post my vote for the FCS Top 25 for the week ending 10/27/2012?  I guess I did.  My vote follows below the flip, with a shorter-than-usual explanation of things.

(Photo Credit: CNN) The bye weekend is always a weird weekend, mainly due to the fact that there's no football game to recap, no game to travel to, no undefeated record on the line. It was made weirder, too, by "Sandy". The epic "Frankenstorm" - as it's been dubbed - that was headed towards my house and the Lehigh Valley ultimately dwarfed my weekend, even pushing - gasp! - football to one side as I frantically did everything to get the house prepared for the storm. It seemed to parallel a similar storm that hit a couple top teams in FCS - thus making, for the time being, the Mountain Hawks the only undefeated team in all of FCS.