Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Brown and White) Lehigh had one of the best offenses statistically in all of the FCS last year, excelling offensively in pretty much every facet. Look at the statistics page for FCS last year . Rising senior QB Brad Mayes , 4th in passing yardage.  Rising senior RB Dominick Bragalone, 1st in rushing yardage with 1,388. Both Mayes and Brags return next year, and huge things will be expected of them for certain. But the spring is about finding out who's stepping up to the plate to keep the train rolling. There's little doubt that, barring injury, Mayes and Bragalone will be lining up in that first offensive possession vs. St. Francis (PA) at Murray Goodman this September.  But the 2017 offense is so much more than those two guys - the Mountain Hawks will need to replace the best receiving tandem ever to suit up at Lehigh, and will also need to replace the fiery leadership on the offensive line that, at times, seemed to will this team to their Patriot

According to the FCS record books for 2017, there are 123 Division I schools listed in the team statistical Rankings.  Out of 123 teams, Lehigh was ranked 119th in total team defense, allowing 477.7 yards per game. And the defensive numbers don't get much better the more you look. Rushing defense, 117th.  Passing yards allowed, 89th.  Team sacks, 118th.  Red zone defense, 103rd.  Total sacks in 12 games: 10, or 0.8 per game.  Total interceptions in 12 games: 4, or 0.25 per game.  Total takeaways: 13, or a little over 1 per game. Though the final defensive numbers from 2017 are unable to be sugar-coated, nobody involved with Lehigh's defense is running away from the facts this spring.  In fact, they feel they are better than this. "When you hear so much about your defense not being good," defensive coordinator Craig Sutyak said this week , "you start to believe it, and I think our kids started to believe it too the last couple of years.  But we'r