Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Amy Herzog/The Morning Call ) When people think Lehigh football, they rightfully think of a powerful air attack. After all, the Mountain Hawks boast the top two receivers in all of FCS in regards to receiving yards, junior WR Troy Pelletier and junior WR Gatlin Casey . What they don't  necessarily think of is a grinding rushing attack, something more out of a triple-option team or perhaps a run-heavy Wing-T team. Yet in Lehigh's 58-37 statement win over Fordham, the same Ram team with potential future NFL player RB Chase Edmonds , the main headline wasn't the aerial show, though there were a few highlight-reel plays there, too. Instead, the headline became Lehigh's six rushing touchdowns, three from senior QB Nick Shafnisky and three more from sophomore RB Dominick Bragalone , and 349 yards on the ground. I looked through the record books last night, and combed through recaps of a lot of football games, and the last time I found that Lehi

It was supposed to be RB Chase Edmonds ' day. The questions around Lehigh, as ever, surrounded the defense.  Would they be able to slow down Edmonds?  Would he score two touchdowns, or three?  Would they hold the almost-certain-NFL-player to only 200 yards? In all the talk about Edmonds, people forgot about two pretty good runners on the Lehigh side: senior QB Nick Shafnisky and sophomore RB Dominick Bragalone . Bragalone, for the second straight week, had another amazing game, getting 192 yards rushing, zero negative rushes, and 3 touchdowns.  Shafnisky ran for 112 yards and added 3 touchdowns of his own. It would be a game where Lehigh would not need to punt - the first game since Bucknell in 1999 where that was the case.  That's because they ran over Fordham, 58-37, going up at one point 51-9 before giving up a bunch of late scores. Next week Lehigh will host Bucknell for the right to clinch an FCS playoff shot, and the chance to do no worse than tie for the Patri

Not going to Murray Goodman today?  Need to find out how to catch the game online, by a video stream or online radio? Never fear.  LFN's here.

We break down the Fordham game - and we give our fearless prediction below the flip. Remember when Fordham RB Chase Edmonds set a Patriot League rushing record against the Mountain Hawks?  I do - it happened just last year , just the sort of Halloween "treat" I'd rather live without. "Edmonds came out of the locker room like a man on fire, and played like it," I wrote.  "Two 14 yard runs set up Fordham's go-ahead score, and he would rush for 100 yards in the 3rd quarter, ripping off a 60 yard touchdown run to give Fordham a 38-21 lead and capping off three straight touchdowns for the Rams." Another less-publicized reason for Lehigh losing in the Bronx last season?  Unforced errors. "Unfortunately, we're still our own worst enemy," head coach Andy Coen said afterwards.  "Whether its penalties or turnovers, you can't beat a good team with those. They're trying to learn that lesson. If you're going to k

Junior WR Troy Pelletier seems to want the game to start now.  Like, yesterday. When you read and hear the interviews with him at media day this week, he seems to want the game to start right after the interview, to go on the field and get the game over with right now. Though he knows he and teammate junior WR Gatlin Casey are on top of the total receiving yardage list in FCS, that's not what he wanted to talk about on Wednesday. "I haven't really put much thought into it," Pelletier told Greg Joyce of Lehigh Valley Live . "I just know good things are going to happen if we prepare the right way. We focus on each day to get better. We're confident if we put ourselves mentally and physically taking care of our body, good things are going to happen." There was lots of "focusing on getting better, taking it one game at a time" talk from both Pelletier and head coach Andy Coen this week, as you might expect.  But their body language sa

"With the exception of the first five minutes," The Brown and White said, "Lehigh played indifferent football.  At times the Brown and White showed flashes of form, but for the most part they lacked the dash and drive which characterizes the opening minutes of the game.  The aerial attack which gained so much ground last week was poor, and it was not until the latter part of the third quarter that Lehigh completer her first successful forward pass." This quote, taken from the 1923 student newspaper detailing the first-ever official football meeting between Lehigh and Fordham, won't be something that's repeated in the student newspaer in their recap this weekend.  In fact, the fifteen points scored in that 1923 game, a 9-6 Lehigh win, might very well be outdistanced in the first five minutes of the game this weekend., and it's a guarantee that Fordham and Lehigh will be completing their first passes well before the 3rd quarter. It would be stunning

You didn't ask for them, but here's my pick for this week's FCS Top 25. "Back to Normal" seems to be the theme of this week's Top 25, with my top 9 unchanged from last week. The biggest team to fall in my poll was definitely Montana , whose 45-34 defeat to Northern Arizona was even more resounding than the final score might indicate.  The Lumberjacks in this one held a 45-20 advantage before letting up two touchdowns at the end of the game. The Griz have frankly underwhelmed all year to me, allowing a team like St. Francis (PA) to hang around for no good reason, running up the score against hapless competition like Mississippi Valley State and Sacramento State.  With their second loss to a Big Sky opponent and nothing all that impressive in their schedule, it was an easy call to drop them more than 10 points in my poll.

I've been doing this long enough to know that every Lehigh football team is different.  The dynamics running through every team is different; what motivates one team has no impact on the team of the following year. But every big win this 2016 team gets, many of the fans who have been here a while keep whispering: 2011 . Like an Adele Spotify channel, you can't help but be reminded of 2011 when you go to Murray Goodman Stadium or Fitton Field or wherever they're playing.  The popular online game between fans on the Lehigh football message board is: Who was better, 2011, or 2016? The answer is still, beyond a shadow of a doubt, 2011 - for now - but the only reason for that is that 2016 is still in the midst of writing their story.  Yet it can hardly be helped that fans look at the potential of this 2016 team and think, with apologies to Adele, that they are rolling in the same sort of wins that they were in 2011.

(Photo Credit: Jay Anderson/Worcester Telegram) It was a day where even when things went wrong they went right for the Mountain Hawks. It was early in the second quarter, deadlocked at 7.   Sophomore QB Brad Mayes , picked the starter as senior QB Nick Shanfisky would be the backup to let his injured leg continue to heal, would get a drive going with an 18 yard pass to junior WR Troy Pelletier .  Two plays later, sophomore RB Dominick Bragalone would run a counter play left, escape a few tackles, and surge for a 28 yard run into Holy Cross territory. You could feel some momentum building as Mayes would connect on a 4th and 7 to Pelletier to get into the Holy Cross red zone, and again when he would rifle a ball to junior WR Gatlin Casey over the middle.  There was even more when sophomore RB Micco Brisker would keep his legs moving - and his offensive line, pushing - until he reached the end zone. Up 13-7, on the extra point Shafnisky, who holds during extra points,

On the first drive of the game, surprise Holy Cross starting QB Blaise Bell connected on a long pass to WR Jake Wieczorek, setting up a big touchdown run by WR Brendan Flaherty . On the last drive of the game, freshman RB Domenic Cozier ran up the middle to score his first collegiate touchdown for the Crusaders. In between those two touchdowns, it was for the most part all Lehigh. Lehigh's defense held Holy Cross to 281 yards of total offense and forced five turnovers - most of it coming on a couple of pass plays - and allowed the offense to to pummel Holy Cross' defense with a balanced attack.  With three passing touchdowns from sophomore QB Brad Mayes and three rushing touchdowns, two of them by sophomore RB Dominick Bragalone , Lehigh would score 46 unanswered points to win resoundingly, 46-14, at Fitton Field.

Not going to Worcester to watch Lehigh take on Holy Cross?  Need to find out how to catch the game online, by a video stream or online radio? Never fear.  LFN's here.

We break down the Holy Cross game - and we give our fearless prediction below the flip. It's often said that preseason publications aren't worth the paper they're printed on, and almost unusable when the actual regular-season matchup comes around. And in the case of Holy Cross, that's especially apt. Much of the hype around the Crusaders centered around their star QB, unofficially anointed the best quarterback in the Patriot League, senior QB Peter Pujals .  Much of my writings about Holy Cross centered around what he can do, what he brings to the table, and what his weapons are. But a left ankle injury in the first half of the Dartmouth game didn't just sideline him for that contest - it sidelined him for the season, forcing his ankle in a boot and will almost certainly have him apply for a medical redshirt for next season - unless head coach Tom Gilmore decides, against the odds, to have Pujals play this weekend if he's healed up enough. That and

Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Florida.  South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia. No, this isn't a list of Power 5 opponents that are suddenly going to be hosting Lehigh and Holy Cross in football the next few years. It's a list of just a few of the many states across the country that will be carrying the TV broadcast of the Lehigh/Holy Cross clash. It's going to be airing on something called the American Sports Network, which isn't a network in the broadcast sense but more of a network in the Internet sense: a network of interconnected stations, some over-the-air broadcasts, some local cable stations, that will be carrying Lehigh football over their airwaves. If you live in PA, all you need to know is the game is going to air on CSN-Philly, CSN-MidAtlantic+, WHP-2 Harrisburg, WPNT-2 Pittsburgh, or WSWB-2 Wilkes-Barre.  If you live somewhere else in the lower 48 states, a full list of broadcast outlets can be found here . It adds to the tension of what is a

No college football coach wants to face a team boxed in a corner. In that way, Harvard was stepping into a purple hornet's nest last weekend when the nationally-ranked Crimson came to play the wounded Crusaders. After their injury-riddled team failed to hold onto a win against Bucknell, ultimately falling 21-20, Tom Gilmore 's team needed to make a stand against a really good football team in order to keep their season from a limp to the finish. Even if they didn't win, they had to keep things close - few pundits gave Holy Cross much of a chance against the better bankrolled, historically dominant Harvard team that hadn't lost a road game a non-conference game in their last sixteen tries. Cornered like rats, Holy Cross responded in a big way.  Six sacks and a second-half shutout later, the Crusaders would notch their first win over a nationally-ranked opponent since 2009, thus turning things around at the exact right time for them and the exact wrong time for

You didn't ask for them, but here's my pick for this week's FCS Top 25. So this is the week that North Dakota State falls. They fell in a thrilling defensive battle at home to South Dakota State in the game for the "Dakota Marker". It was a great game, filled with drama and showed that the Jackrabbits are worthy of everyone's attention this week. In fact, South Dakota State's effective, time-consuming drive was in many ways pulling from North Dakota State's own trademark last-second comebacks, pulling together a drive for the ages, daring them to stop them yet consistently converting 3rd and 4th downs to set up the chance to win. But then, therein lies the tricky part.  Where to rank the Bison, and where to rank the Jackrabbits?

(Photo Credit: Chris Barry/ The Brown and White File Photo) In terms of national recognition, life in the Patriot League isn't always easy. Certainly Patriot League players and fans read the preseason magazines about FCS.  And last I checked, the youth of America still watch ESPN, and they see some FCS darlings in the FCS Kickoff Classic, like North Dakota State. They tune into the college football landscape, and they see Eastern Washington upsetting Washington State, Bo Pelini coaching Youngstown State, Albany upsetting Buffalo. Yes, the national FCS scene has their darlings, and frequently it feels like the Patriot League and their opponents are mere afterthoughts in the world where Big Sky teams are putting up big scores, Sam Houston State is beating all comers, The Citadel is dominating in the South, and the Missouri Valley Football Conference sees almost half its members in the Top 25. And despite having junior WR Troy Pelletier and junior WR Gatlin Casey sittin

(Photo Credit: Keith Groller/Morning Call) It felt a lot closer than 14 to 3 at halftime. Sure, Lehigh had outgained Georgetown 220-64 on offense up until that point.  Definitely, the Lehigh defense, which has been playing with a chip on its shoulder for most of the entire season, was playing, as they say, lights-out, and they had just come up with a big defensive stop in the red zone to keep Georgetown from cutting it from 14-7 rather than 14-3. But a batted ball at the line of scrimmage, alertly grabbed by DE Hoya DE Hunter Kiselick , made it feel like the Mountain Hawks might rue the opportunities they had in the first hald to put away Georgetown. After coming in for injured senior QB Nick Shafnisky , sophomore QB Brad Mayes  jumped right into the fray and finished the scoring drive with a perfect pass over the middle to junior WR Troy Pelletier to make the score 14-3 Lehigh. But after a drive that went backwards and that interception, it was Georgetown that had moment

At Cooper field in Georgetown, Lehigh jumped to a 14-0 lead and coasted to a 35-3 victory. After senior QB Nick Shafnisky appeared to go over on his ankle funny, sophomore QB Brad Mayes came in, and shortly after running 12 yards for a first down, found junior WR Gatlin Casey for Lehigh's second touchdown on the afternoon.

Not going to DC to watch Lehigh take on Georgetown?  Need to find out how to catch the game online, by a video stream or online radio? Never fear.  LFN's here.

We break down the Georgetown game - and we give our fearless prediction below the flip. Georgetown is a football school, of course.  But you may have heard that they also play basketball at Georgetown, and this Friday is a huge deal on campus: Hoya Madness. "The Georgetown University men’s and women’s basketball programs will hold their annual Hoya Madness celebration, the official on-campus kickoff party of the 2016-17 basketball season, on Friday, October 14 at 8 p.m. in McDonough Arena," the release states .  "This is a free event open to all Georgetown students. Doors are scheduled to open at 7:30 p.m., with the show kicking off at 8 p.m. and running until 9:30 p.m.  The first 1,000 students in attendance will receive a custom ‘Hoya Madness’ Jordan Brand t-shirt." As fun as this sounds, would be even better if the football team were somehow more wrapped up in this event as the basketball team.  One place Georgetown might look is Villanova, where

Although you see big, bright smiles on the faces of senior CB Brandon Leaks and senior WR Trevor Soccaras  when talking about the performance over the last four football games, their focus has understandably been on Georgetown and guarding against a possible letdown. Such thought is undeniably warranted, especially if they caught the college football scores from yesterday. There was only one college football game being contested Thursday night, which was Monmouth vs. Presbyterian. The Hawks, who already beat Lehigh on opening weekend and also beat Fordham last weekend, had a short week to prepare for their Thursday game.  But few people thought they would struggle against 1-4 Big South leaguemate Presbyterian, who had already lost to a Division II school (Florida Tech). Instead, the classic letdown game happened - a 17-13 loss that almost certainly doomed any chance Monmouth has to not only win the Big South, but also to qualify for any sort of at-large postseason berth.

Senior QB Nick Shanfisky called them "motivation games", and it's clear during this four game winning streak motivation hasn't been lacking for this Lehigh football team. Start with Penn, where it was critical for the Mountain Hawks to avoid an 0-3 hole.  Then proceed to Princeton, where the defense gave up 52 points last season in a loss; to the Yale Bowl, where two years ago no less than five players came down with injuries in another loss; and of course Colgate, where last season the Raiders' stop at the goal line preserved their 49-42 victory and snatched a Patriot League title that was within the Mountain Hawks' grasp. At 4-2, and in the drivers' seat, along comes a game for Lehigh at Georgetown, which by any measure doesn't have the same types of motivation that fueled this four game winning streak. Not that there's no motivation, mind you.  Conference games count for more than games against Yale, or Monmouth. But you can't

You didn't ask for them, but here's my pick for this week's FCS Top 25. I love picking games correctly involving teams 1-13 because it makes picking the Top 25 very easy - simply cut, and paste. Most of that comes from not overrating teams like Northern Iowa , who dropped out of my top 25 after a bad loss to South Dakota , and properly rating Villanova , who keeps winning and has been a regular in my Top 10 for several weeks now. One of the teams I had been considering for the Top 25 is Dartmouth , but after a stunning 21-13 loss to Yale , I've had to re-evaluate that assessment. Many a transitive property that puts Lehigh in the playoffs or maybe even the FBS National Championship game could start with "Lehigh beat Yale, and Yale beat Dartmouth, and Dartmouth beat New Hampshire..."

It honestly felt like a day from another era out there on Saturday - in a good way. In a world of bitter political debates, supposedly declining college football attendance, alleged tensions between the generations and the ongoing charges increasing collegian apathy, there it was: the official attendance total of the Colgate/Lehigh game of 9,255. There were a multitude of reasons why people wanted to go see the game.  Perhaps it was something good to do with the family on Family Weekend.  Maybe it was a concerted effort to get students into the games, and keep them there, with new policies and new promotions.  Maybe it was a thumb-your-nose effort at the fans who come for cocktails but don't go enjoy the game.  Maybe it was individuals, all as a unit, wanting to come out and see if this high-flying, record-setting Lehigh football team is for real. Or maybe it was all of them; I have no idea, but I know it required a whole lot of planning and a huge amount of effort from a w

At times it felt like the playing field was just the personal playground of WR Gatlin Casey , especially when he broke free for a 93 yard kickoff return for a touchdown.  But it was more than that. At other times, it felt like the defense, with freshman FS Riley O'Neil pouncing on a loose ball after a sophomore SS Sam McCloskey forced fumble. was the critical piece to keeping Colgate from winning this game.  But it was more than that. And at other times, it felt like the offense, under the expert signalcalling of senior QB Nick Shafnisky , kept finding big plays, on many occasions to Casey, that kept the game out of reach for the Raiders. In reality, it was all three phases of the game for Lehigh that finally formed the chemical reaction somewhere in the middle of the first half that erased a 17-7 deficit and transformed the different bits and pieces into an impressive 45-31 victory. For in the first half, down 14-7, the game looked like it might just get away from the

In all the pregame talk about an offensive showcase, we all forgot about how defense might be critical for the winning team in this important Patriot League Lehigh and Colgate clash. Many saw the previous box scores and just assumed that Colgate's powerful offense, who put up more than 50 on Yale, would do something similar to the Mountain Hawks defense. Not so. After a 75 yard touchdown run by Colgate QB Jake Melville to start the game, the Lehigh defense forced two enormous turnovers, including a forced fumble by sophomore SS Sam McCloskey that was recovered by freshman FS Riley O'Neil on Colgate's first drive of the second half. The play would allow Lehigh to tie it up with a 25 yard FG by sophomore PK Ed Mish , and it would fire off a string of 17 unanswered points that would give Lehigh a 31-17 lead that they would never relinquish.

Not going to the #HateTheGate (or, alternatively, #SlamTheGate) game at Murray Goodman, and you need to show your #Project10K support in some other way, either by watching TV or watching the game online?t Never fear.  LFN's here.

(Photo Credit: The Colgate Maroon News) It's a big game in the Patriot League this weekend at Murray Goodman Stadium, and the FCS experts have been weighing in - and to a person, all picking Colgate to win. Craig Haley of STATS/Athlon Sports : An at-large playoff bid is out of the question for Colgate, which is going to have to repeat as Patriot League champion to get back to the postseason. The Raiders are reeling, while Lehigh’s offense (51.3 points per game the last three weeks) is soaring no matter if the quarterback is Nick Shafnisky or Brad Mayes. Shafnisky is due back this week. Emory Hunt over at Football Gameplan also has picked Colgate to win , and the vast majority of posters in the Any Given Saturday fan community as well have picked the Raiders.

There's no question that this weekend's Colgate and Lehigh game is an enormous game for both sides.  There's also a bit of a quarterback "controversy" on the Lehigh side as to who will come out for the first series, award-winning sophomore QB Brad Mayes or award-winning senior QB Nick Shafnisky . One thing that has gone a bit unnoticed is the impact of Hurricane Matthew on the game this weekend. Not so much the impact of the southerly weatherly system on the weather at Murray Goodman, which is still on target for a mostly cloudy, 65 degree day, with a small chance of showers in the late afternoon, but the impact on the Lehigh and Colgate players, many of whom call Florida their home. Added to the already-challenging coaching twists centering around 4 O'Clock exams, something that head coach Andy Coen reminded me of last week, is the concern that the fourteen Lehigh football players from Florida, including Mayes, senior LB Colton Caslow, junior WR Ga

(Photo Credits: Lehigh Valley Live) The word cloud around the Lehigh Colgate game the last decade has almost always involved the words "tundra", "cold", and "November". So when the 2016 schedule was released, and Lehigh fans read "October 8th: Colgate", many were disappointed, even as they still circled the game on their calendar with a maroon Sharpie. They were probably thinking back to last season, when, in the second weekend in November on a prototypical Lehigh/Colgate chilly afternoon with a chance of snow showers, the Mountain Hawks and Raiders were battling, essentially, for a Patriot League championship, ending up five yards short of a game-tying touchdown. But now, in what seems like a better move by the minute, the moving up of a critical conference game that has very often determined the eventual winner of the League seems terrific for not only both schools, but the entire Patriot League. That's because, in a week that d

You didn't ask for them, but here's my pick for this week's FCS Top 25. This week's candidate for the LFN Top 25 curse?   Sacred Heart , with Colgate a very close second, but there were a lot of teams in the lower reaches of my Top 25 that suffered defeat, in a list that includes Fordham, Southern Utah and (again) William and Mary , who suffered a second straight crushing defeat in two weeks, this time at the hands of New Hampshire . Never in a million years did I ever think Tennessee State, Cornell and North Carolina A&T would simultaneously be in my Top 25, yet there they are.

The timing between college football games I attended at the Yale Bowl was a shade under thirty-nine years. How were both games similar? Well, in both games Yale lost.  Also, both games were played at the Yale Bowl.  In addition, there were fans at both games wanting to have a great college football experience. That's where the similarities end. Many thoughts went through my head during the game this weekend, an incredibly encouraging one for Lehigh as they are surging, on a three game winning streak going into league play after scoring a grand total of 154 points in the last three games, or, if you're scoring at home, an average of over 51 points per game. But not all the thoughts were ones about Lehigh, or Yale, or the game at hand.  Many of the thoughts I had, after staring out at the 2,196 souls that came out on an overcast, but perfectly adequate weather day to watch an extremely entertaining game, involved the fans that did not show up at one of the iconic, mos

(Photos and Graphic courtesy of Lehigh Athletics) Suppose you put in a copy of NCAA Football '14 into your dusty Playstation 3.  You create a team, "Lehigh", and put in the entire Lehigh roster, and make them 99s across the board. You pick a team to play against - say, Yale - and you pick a place to play, of course, the Yale Bowl.  You put it on the medium setting. Would these stat lines seem out of place if you played that game on that system? Sophomore QB Brad Mayes - 33 of 46 passing, 524 yards, 6 touchdowns, 0 interceptions. Junior WR Troy Pelletier - 13 catches, 213 yards, 3 TDs. Junior WR Gatlin Casey - 6 catches, 169 yards 2 TDs. They look like something out of a video game - yet those are the real stats to come out of the Yale Bowl this weekend in an extraordinary, awesome, ridiculousness of an offensive performance.  These numbers weren't the only great numbers to come out of this record-setting game out of the Yale Bowl, but they stick out

It came as a big surprise to the press box, the fact that s enior QB Nick Shafnisky would not be starting versus Yale.   Sophomore QB Brad Mayes , who had seen time on the field as a freshman, trotted onto the Yale Bowl's grass field to start the game instead. By the time he'd left the Yale Bowl's playing field, he and the Mountain Hawks would have put their marks on a whole lot of Lehigh and Yale Bowl records. Combined, Lehigh's and Yale's 70 points would be the most ever recorded in a half of football at the Yale Bowl.  Lehigh QB Bob Aylsworth 's record 454 passing yards in the Yale Bowl, broken.   The all-time team and individual Lehigh records for passing yards in a game, broken.  All-time touchdown pass record, tied.  Most points scored by an Andy Coen -coached team, broken. Number of extra points in a game?  Tied.  Number of passing touchdowns in a game?  Tied.  Most points allowed by Yale at the Yale Bowl?  Tied. It was a 63-35 win that, incr

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