Lehigh Football Nation

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.

It's a few days before what could be a spectacular finale to senior QB Chris Lum 's Lehigh football career. This weekend, he's headed to Frisco, TX, where he will discover if he'll be Lehigh's first-ever winner of the Walter Payton award. The Payton Award, offered by the Sports Network to the most valuable player in Division I Football Championship Subdivision, has been called the "Heisman Trophy" of FCS. So what was the first thing he mentioned to me when I contacted him? His grades from the past semester.

Since Lehigh head football coach Andy Coen took over the reins of the Mountain Hawk football program in 2006, none of his teams had ever put up 49 points in a single football game. Until today. At West Long Branch, New Jersey today, the Mountain Hawks fell behind 7-0 to Monmouth - and then, with a crispness and confidence on offense not seen in quite a while on South Mountain, Lehigh ripped off three straight impressive touchdowns on their first three possessions, and Coen's team never looked back in an impressive 49-24 win. (more)

Have I mentioned I've been incredibly busy? Ok, I guess I just did. But I'm not too busy to put through my picks for Week One of Patriot League football action, compiled from my picks at the College Sporting News for Thursday's game and Saturday's games . And they all appear under the flip. (more)

(Photo Credit: Monmouth Examiner) Three days from today, Lehigh will be travelling to Kessler Field in Monmouth, New Jersey to open their 2011 football season. The Hawks and, er, Mountain Hawks have played each other twice in their history: once in 1999, and once in 2005, both times at Murray Goodman stadium.  Both were blowouts; in both games, Lehigh put up more than a 50-spot on Monmouth as well. Lehigh is extremely unlikely to put up a 50-spot on the Hawks this weekend, though.  Since that 54-26 victory in 2005, both Monmouth and their athletic conference, the NEC, have improved immensely.   (more)