Lehigh Football Nation

I've written a lot about Lehigh/Lafayette history so much over the years.  I've written a book about the early Rivalry between Lehigh and Lafayette , and I've blogged and recapped many Le/Laf games over the course of my life. Lehigh and Lafayette have met on the football field over 150 times, and each meeting is its own story.  I know many of the stories well. I've found during "Rivalry Week" for Lehigh and Lafayette that with the sheer volume of games, it's possible to find prior meetings that seem to match similar, but not exact, "vibes".  There are narratives of titles on the line, teams with losing records upsetting teams with winning records... pretty much everything under the sun. This week, 2-8 Lehigh will face off against 8-2 Lafayette.  If the Leopards win, they win no worse than a co-championship with Holy Cross, win the Patriot League autobid to the FCS Playoffs, and - probably the best part of all - they get to celebrate a victory on

  I am an outlier.   I'm a fan of a 1-6 college football team, and I'm headed out to Bucknell next weekend, rain or shine, to watch two Patriot League squads with losing records face off against one another. I realize somewhere in my head that normal people don't do this type of thing. I have no kid playing for Lehigh or Bucknell.  I'm not paid by either school.  I am not paid to watch the game.  But I'll still go.  Like I've done so many times before, I'll still preview and watch the game. And I might get excited, or mad, or want to rip my hair out.  The outcome might cause a deep, gnawing pain deep in my gut or an overwhelming sense of cathartic relief.  But I'll still do it. Why?  It's a question I've asked myself many times over the years. Certainly a game like this weekend against Georgetown, a game were I look at my ripped-out hair, the deep, knawing pain deep in my gut, and the completely irrational anger I feel, definitely does make me pa

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

  One of my guilty pleasures last fall during the Lehigh football season was watching the FX show "Welcome to Wrexham".  It was a surprising balm on a tough 2-9 year. It only came about - surprisingly - at the insistence of my wife. She had just returned from jury duty in Philadelphia, and one of the people she chatted with recommended the show.  She was excited to see it.  For my part, I thought, sure, a show about sports and English soccer?  Sign me up.   The story of how two Hollywood stars bout a Welsh soccer team is interesting.  During the pandemic, the British actor Humphrey Ker suggested to actor Rob McElhenny (creator, writer and star of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) watch the excellent sports docuseries “Sunderland ’Til I Die,” which documented the doomed task of Sunderland and their fans as they tried to bring their club back up to the Premier League alongside international brands Manchester City, Liverpool, and Manchester United where they had compe