Skip to main content

Having "Faith" After The Tough Loss to JMU

It's no secret I don't take losses well.

Despite the fact that I picked JMU to win, and logically, I saw the task of beating JMU as a tough one for these young Mountain Hawks, starting over a dozen new names, emotionally I can't separate the logical and emotional sides of my brain very well.  When the Lehigh offense was driving down the field with about a minute to play, I saw the win at the end of tunnel of light.

It would have made my day, given me a rush of adrenaline that would have carried me through the day, and perhaps a good chunk of the week.

But it didn't happen.  The adrenal rush never happened.  I drove home, the loss not sitting well with the Chinese food we ate, nor the breakfast I ate.  The food didn't taste good.  The tiredness took over.

Something funny happened, though, on the way to next week.

A spark of "faith" that after one game, things might be OK.

My wife had to almost drag me to church this morning.

It's not that I don't want to go to church - it's simply that after a loss, the tiredness really sets in.  The adrenaline leaves your body, and the body that's been in perpetual motion, with precious little sleep for the last six days, finally decides to shut itself off a little.

I didn't think going to church today - especially today - would really provide my foggy brain much this week.

But it did.

The lesson today was on the book of Genesis.  Without going into too much detail, the lesson was partially about how, in the world around us, God doesn't want us to shoulder the entire load ourselves.  We are a part of the whole machine - but only a part.

Predictably, it made me think about this Lehigh team in the same context.

After losses, especially tough losses, it's easy to sit and point the finger at one person, one coach, one play, and blame them for a mistake, or a job not well done.

But a football team isn't just one individual.

More than any other sport, it is collaborative in that any number of coaches, sideline signalers, and eleven players on the field at one time need to be working in perfect sync in order to get anything done.

Wins and losses are not up to one player, but everyone working in tandem, doing their part to shoulder their part of the load.  Nobody shoulders the entire load themselves.

James Madison on opening day was a challenging assignment.

Before the JMU game, there was plenty to worry about in regards to the first game of Lehigh's season.

A new offensive coordinator, and a newly-promoted defensive coordinator.

New guys on the O-line - and, but the end of the game, four brand-new guys on the O-line, being asked to block a 300 lb nose guard on JMU and quite possibly the largest defensive front the Mountain Hawks will face all season.

New go-to guys, both running and catching the ball, and that's if you count sophomore QB Nick Shafnisky's two and a half game experience at the end of last season as significant starting experience.

Four brand-new starters in the secondary.  A brand-new punter.  A new long-snapper.  The list goes on and on.

There was a real concern that this Lehigh football team, still trying to get on the same page in the very first game of the season, would get blown off the line of scrimmage and get blown out by an FCS football program that is openly flirting with the prospect of heading to FBS.

Somewhere in my brain last week, I knew how big a challenge this would be for this Lehigh team, which is why I picked a 35-32 defeat.  I thought it would be close, but the fact that James Madison had a week to work out the kinks would be the critical difference.

In a way, that seems to be what happened, though it didn't make the loss any easier to swallow on the way home.

As the season will progress, the little things, like penalties, mental mistakes, low snaps, and other things, work themselves out as long as the players work on their part, putting "faith" that the other players will all be working hard to do their part.

But that's now what I was thinking driving home from Murray Goodman.

It was too easy to look at individual plays that, in isolation, didn't add up to specific moments as to when the game was won or lost.

When enough of them piled up, Lehigh ended up losing a game they could have won.

One offensive drive that bugged me in particular was where Lehigh had the lead, and it was the middle of the 4th quarter.

Shaf had guided the offense to midfield, but two killer penalties - an illegal formation and a false start - killed all the momentum, and the Mountain Hawks had to punt.

I thought, "What if?"  What if that mistake didn't happen?    One more first down there, and maybe Lehigh scores a low-pressure field goal to go up by 7, or maybe even a backbreaking touchdown to put JMU away.

Even if it was the prototypical "first game" type of mistake that should get corrected later in the season.

Which is where the "faith" comes in.

So much of the little things that caused penalties, or timing things came about because it was the first game.  These can be corrected.

And when you stop thinking about "coulda, woulda, shoulda," there was much to like about the new spin on the Lehigh offense.

Sophomore QB Nick Shafnisky impressed people with his poise in the pocket, some giant 3rd down conversions, his fearlessnes, and his passing touch, when it was required.

The offensive line gave Shaf all day to throw, and stood toe-to-toe against James Madison's big defensive front and pretty much won that battle all afternoon.

Senior RB Rich Sodeke and sophomore RB Brandon Yosha proved themselves to be a dynamic set of running backs that were exciting to watch on Saturday.

Defensively, too, you can see the embryonic stages of an aggressive defense that will be better than last year.  Sophomore LB Colton Caslow was in QB Vad Lee's face all day, while that hit on Lee by sophomore CB Brandon Leaks at the end of the half was the kind of hit that might have been SportsCenter, or even College Football Gameday, worthy.

James Madison head coach Everett Withers even said as much in his post-game press conference.

"They are a very talented football team," he said.  "Coach Coen has done an unbelievable job with this program.  They're a tough team, a physical team.  They were not somebody where we came in here and said, 'Wow, these guys are all of a sudden good.'  We knew that coming in here."

Even better, there's every reason to believe that the best is still yet to come from everyone.

The machine was not firing on all cylinders - and that's why the loss stings, and it doesn't sit will - yet at the same time it's clear that the tools are there for Lehigh to get better from week to week.

That starts next week at New Hampshire, where a little "faith," I think, might bring this Lehigh team a long way.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Eleven Guys Who Might Be Lafayette's Next Head Football Coach

It was a surprise.  Well, to me, anyway. Most people assumed that Lafayette head coach John Garrett was safe as the Leopards' head coach.  Though his five year record wasn't great, he had beaten bitter Rival Lehigh in two out of the last three Rivalry games, despite a tough 17-10 loss to Lehigh the final week of the year. Listening to the post-game press conference, I also didn't pick up on some of the signs that his job security might be in jeopardy.  Garrett was a bit prickly, but it was understandable - he had just lost a game to Lafayette's Rivals.  "The future is bright for Lafayette football," he said, not letting on that he might not be a part of that future. But by Monday, the announcement was made - after five years leading the Leopard football team, "Lafayette College will not renew the contract of head football coach John Garrett," a short press release stated.  "A national search for his replacement will begin immediately.  Defensive

My Lehigh Football Head Coaching Shortlist of 15 Names (and three more)

We didn't want to be here, but we're here now once again.  Lehigh fans have entered this offseason wondering who might be on the Lehigh Athletic Department's shortlist for the next head football coach of the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. I do not know who has applied, or who is under active consideration for the position.  However as the biggest Lehigh football follower you know, I have some ideas, ideas I am sharing with you now.  (For free!) I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons.  What all of these candidates have in common is that any one of them would be tremendous candidates to be Lehigh's next head football coach. Let's get to it. UPDATE: Four more names. John Allen Current Position : Wide Receivers Coach/Passing Game Coordinator, UConn (2022-present) Resume : Allen, with a long list of qualifications, is well known, as his UConn