Lehigh Football Nation

Did you think you would get off easy on watching college football simply because it's Lehigh's bye week? First of all, it gives you time to catch up on watching ESPN's College Football Gameday, where you can see the Lehigh flag that frequently makes an appearance on the program.  (Who knows?  Perhaps Gameday will head to Lehigh for the Fordham game next weekend, or maybe perhaps #Rivalry151 in November.) There's also so good opportunities to scout out Lehigh's upcoming opponents in Patriot League action.  Three Patriot League games are taking place at lunchtime, and another is happening at 3:30 PM. If you receive the CBS Sports Network, you can see whether Bucknell will make it a perfect Patriot League sweep over Army-West Point in the 2015 football season.  The Bison face off against the Cadets at noon, and if you don't have it available on TV, it can be seen via subscription from Army's website .  In much of the Lehigh metro area, too, the game c

If you'd like, you can check out my FCS Top 25 vote below. People around the country are starting to understand that James Madison is a pretty damn good FCS football team. At 6-0, they bear little resemblance to the team that squeaked by 3-8 Lehigh last season.  The lowest offensive point total they put together in a game was 38 - versus Stony Brook , who could be a playoff team.   QB Vad Lee is firing on all cylinders, just showed up in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd, and the Dukes faithful may be getting a look from College Football Gameday in a few weeks. After they made mincemeat of Lehigh in Week 2, I knew they were good.  But I didn't really know how good until they got into the league portion of the schedule.  They pounded Towson 51-30 last weekend, and they will in all likelihood go 7-0 after their trip to 2-4 Elon this weekend.  I've had them at No. 1 the past three weeks or so, and they've amply justified my pick.

You don't have to be a militaryphile to love football.  But to love football, it helps to have an appreciation for the military. I remember once, long ago, on this blog I made an incorrect reference and quote in regards to the Vietnam war.  Then-head coach Pete Lembo , a pretty good military historian as well as a pretty good college football head coach, wrote me to clarify almost immediately.  He was right; I was wrong. One of the most iconic military personalities was General George S. Patton , the controversial yet beloved World War II soldier that was an amazing figure.  He also provided this quote, applicable to both the military and football: “Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.” I pulled out this quote from General Patton because it seems particularly apropos in regards to this Lehigh football team this week.

The first surprise was Lehigh's uniforms. Heading out of the locker room, the Mountain Hawks did not come out in their usual gold helmets, whie jerseys and brown pants. Instead they came out with the white helmets unveiled in the Bronx - white helmets with "Lehigh" in brown on the sides.  They matched the rest of the uniform extremely well - not the pinstripes that were worn in Yankee stadium, but all-white jerseys and all-white pants with brown numerals.  White socks and white shoes completed it. It seemed to have been unveiled today by coach Andy Coen to usher in a new team, and  a new, fresh start. But the best part of the afternoon was that, whatever the reason, the new uniforms worked. After an early touchdown, the Lehigh defense would only allow a field goal the rest of the way to the Bucknell offense - without two of its top playmakers.  When preserving a two-score lead, the Lehigh offense grinded the Bison defense into so much burger meat with a 17 pl