Lehigh at Fordham Tailgate Report 10/19/2019: A Sloppy And Rushed Trip to the Bronx, Delicious Pizza, And More
The idea of the Lehigh Tailgate Report is to provide a fun report on what to expect at the game, or not at the game, for this week's upcoming game.
If you're planning to go to the game, great! It's at Jack Coffey Field in the Bronx, NY. Kickoff is at 1PM.
If you can't make it to the game, the game is available to watch or listen in a variety of ways.
Lehigh's local radio broadcast, which starts an hour before kickoff and sets the table for the day's game, can be caught on your AM dial on Fox Sports Radio AM 1230 or 1320. (In the Lehigh Valley, you can also catch the game on 94.7 FM). Matt Kerr, Jim Guzzo and Matt Markus are on the call this Saturday.
Through internet radio, the pregame, game, and postgame can be streamed through TuneIn or just simply going to the LVFoxSports.com webpage. Full disclosure: When I'm at home, this is my preferred method to catch the game action. Streaming the audio is #LFNApproved.
In the Lehigh Valley, the game can be streamed live over the internet through the Patriot League Network. PLN is free and allows you to stream most Patriot League home games and league football games. It can be streamed in a web browser, or if you have a Roku box, you can access all the Patriot League Network games through the WatchStadium App.
To read the full(er) Lehigh/Fordham preview for the College Sports Journal I wrote, click here.
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| WR Austin Dambach |
Lehigh's game notes reveal two injuries at wide receiver. WR Jalen Burbage was lost for the season two weeks ago with a leg injury, while WR Dev Bibbens was left off the depth chart as he's recovering from a very big hit on him made in the Colgate game as well. The staff wasn't sure if he was going to make the trip to the Bronx earlier in the week, but there was a chance. Call it a gametime decision as to whether he'll play, and if he does, we'll have to see if he's going to be in his regular every-down role.
With Burbage's injury, WR Austin Dambach becomes his no-doubt-about-it replacement at that position. He has 9 receptions for 128 yards and could be in position to find the end zone this week. If Bibbens is unable to go, WR De'Shun Mickens steps up into the receiving corps. He has one reception on the season.
Other than that, Lehigh comes into this game pretty settled everywhere else. The offensive line and defense is healthy and fully ready to go.
Weather Report
Just like two years ago, it's going to be perfect, unseasonably warm football weather in the Bronx, a sunny say with a high of 60 and little wind. It should be perfect for a battle for the top of the Patriot League.
Coffey Field at Fordham is hardly as urban as one might expect, going there for the first time - it's as if someone took, say, a portion of Duke's campus, and plopped it down in the middle of the Bronx. It has a rolling green lawn in the middle of campus and looks and feels like any other private Patriot League University, except that it's in the middle of a city.
It's easy and sometimes relatively quick to get around three miles from Fordham's campus, which is very near the Botanical Gardens and the Bronx Zoo. The challenge is getting to the Fordham campus in that three mile area, which will be the longest, trafficy-est part of your trip. Once there, though, there is an outdoor parking lot for tailgating and a parking garage right next to it. You'll know when you get there that a football game is going on.
Fordham's website has good directions on how to get to campus, by car or by public transportation.
Saturday's game will be Fordham Football's annual Cancer Awareness Game, presented by New York Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital with NYP Lawrence Hospital President Michael Fosina serving as a guest coach. The game will feature in-game recognitions and player tributes to honor those effected by cancer. Lawrence Hospital, the Official Hospital of Fordham Athletics, offers a state-of-the-art Cancer Center located in Bronxville, N.Y.
I won't lie; I had a very busy week. Literally everything I wanted to do go shoved by the wayside as I took care of business on the things I wanted to take care of. But that's life; sometimes, you've got to plan for your tailgate with no plan, no time and literally no idea what to do. (Yes, Viginia, this has happened to me before.)
Fortunately for those of you going to Fordham, there is an easy solution - The Pizza Studio.
They are a chain, but they have two things really going for them - you can order ahead, online, and you can pick up the pizza at a location which is very close to Jack Coffey Field.
I mean, hey, if you need tailgate food quickly, in a pinch... it works!
In keeping with the theme of "sloppy, rushed" tailgate - hopefully this preview also doesn't seem sloppy and rushed - I'm going with a sort of grab-and-go sort of tailgate drink.
It almost guarantees that this "Drink of the Week" is going to be a beer, as it's the perfect complement to a warm tailgate pizza.
This week I'll choose what's in my fridge right now - a six-pack of Red Star Heineken. In our house, we always have some of that around, and if I were deciding to go to a tailgate on an hour's notice, that's exactly what I would grab.
As always, Drinks of the Week have a place in responsible tailgates, but only if you behave yourself, don't get behind the wheel while impaired (or worse), and are over 21. Please do that. And leave plenty of time to sober up.
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