Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Capital-Gazette) It's time to go full nerd and do a full-blown breakdown of the Navy Midshipmen. I can't tell you how many of these previews I've done where I get game notes late Friday evening, had to play games with Ivy League depth charts to try to divine game plans, and the like.  Some schools Lehigh plays don't have any local media anymore, so finding out more about the starting players and the like is extremely difficult. Not so this week.  For the first time in 15 years, Lehigh plays an FBS team, but not just a regional school, say, from the Midwest - they play Navy, a school with national and international reach.  Game notes were out early and were detailed. The coverage of Navy football isn't just from the local Capital-Gazette - which continues, through tragedy, to be stellar - but from national media, too.  In fact their last two games - against Hawai'i and Memphis - were big-time affairs in the national world of coll

Even at the time, legendary Lehigh QB Pat Pazzetti had a reputation for doing it all. The Brown and White's dynamic playmaker did a little of everything for the team.  Back in the days when players went both ways and there weren't designated specialists, Pazzetti not only was the quarterback, but he also kicked punts and returned kicks as well. In 1912, after a 35-0 thrashing by national powerhouse Princeton and facing the prospect of playing Navy - who had gone 9-0-1 against Lehigh in their last ten games - things had to be looking bleak for the Brown and White's season, even with a team with some national ambitions. After all, Navy hadn't lost a football game in three years' time.

Game on. Like me, you probably heard that Hurricane Florence was barreling down on the North Carolina coastline, and earlier in the week it looked like a historic rain event could have possibly caused Lehigh's first meeting against an FBS opponent in 15 years to be delayed, or even cancelled. Meetings were had, and the situation monitored, but over the last 24 hours it looks like, at least for Annapolis and the Maryland area, it will be spared the worst of the storm. According to the Capital-Gazette , "if the latest forecast holds Hurricane Florence won’t present any problems for Anne Arundel County, but officials warn residents should remain vigilant for any changes in the storm’s track." The shorter version, for Lehigh fans, anyway: Game.   On.

It's a lot less fun to go through the "Players of the Week" and report card after a loss, but it's still got to be done.  Last week's somewhat humbling 31-9 defeat comes at a point of the season where it's more of a learning experience than a death blow to the season, and also came against one of the very best teams in all of FCS. It wouldn't surprise me to see Villanova win the CAA this season. In any event, here we go.