Lehigh Football Nation

It's time to go full nerd and do a full-blown breakdown of the Princeton Tigers. Princeton released their game notes earlier in the week and today added to their preview pack an interview previewing the Lehigh game from head coach Bob Surace . Surace did make an observation about Lehigh that was worth mentioning, after philosophic about the abilities of RB Dominick Bragalone . "You wanted to play them when Penn played them," he said.  "After playing a Top 4 type team in Villanova, and against a Navy team that plays in a bowl game every year, you wanted to play them then, not after a bye.  Those change the outlook of everything you're doing." As Lehigh fans, we do tend to forget that Lehigh has arguably played the most challenging schedule they've had in a decade.  Not that that's any sort of excuse, but the truth is that in order to be considered a top team in FCS, the Mountain Hawks need to be able to compete in games like this against ...

(Photo Credit: Justin Lafleur/Lehigh Athletics) Once upon a time, Lehigh's offense had the nickname "Air Lehigh", and players like QB Scott Semphiphelter, QB Phil Stambaugh and many other Mountain Hawk quarterbacks hucked the ball around Murray Goodman Stadium like kids in a sandlot, and posted some serious passing numbers that made the place a very fun spot to watch college football on Saturdays. Today at Murray Goodman, senior QB Nick Shafnisky brought us back to those Air Lehigh days with a game with the same type of offensive firepower. Pairing up with junior WR Troy Pelletier and junior WR Gatlin Casey for more than 100 yards receiving apiece, the Whitehall, PA native brought Lehigh fans back to the future with a 461 yard passing performance, coming oh-so-close to setting a Lehigh record in the process. In the end, Lehigh fans left Murray Goodman stadium with a lot of pleasant memories about a beautiful, unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon and a resoundi...

We break down the Princeton game - and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip. Something of note this week that I forgot to mention in my Narrative Street and my Game Preview is the fact that the two opponents that Lehigh lost to earlier in the year, Monmouth and Villanova, are doing extremely well.  Both teams' only losses have come to FBS programs, and both schools acquitted themselves very well in both circumstances. 2-1 Monmouth was never out of the game vs. Kent State, falling 27-7 to the Golden Flashes in a game after Kent State was stunned by fellow FCS member North Carolina A&T in four overtimes, 39-36.  The Hawks largely kept Kent State's offense in check and kept them in the game, and their star defensive player, DB Mike Basile , had an eye-popping 16 tackles and a blocked kick. If Monmouth can upset heavily-favored and nationally-ranked Charleston Southern this weekend in their home opener, the Hawks would go to 3-1 and would most likely g...

I hinted at this #NarrativeStreet in yesterday's Game Preview, but the narrative that keeps jumping to the forefront in the run-up to the game this weekend is the "disaster" - head coach Andy Coen 's words - of last year's game at Princeton. There were other losses in the 2015 Lehigh football season. There was James Madison, where the eventual playoff-bound Dukes impressively blew the Mountain Hawks out of the water, 55-17.  The 59-42 loss to Fordham where QB Nick Shafnisky was lost to injury right before halftime.  The Colgate game.  The Yale game. But there was something about the loss at Princeton that really got under coach Coen's skin that was different than the other losses - an anger at the way it happened, the way that things seemed to come apart in the second half after matching the Tigers score-for-score in in the first half. All the narratives seem to point to last year's "disaster", and hoping that the team has learned from...

What a win it was. The consensus from anyone on the Lehigh side was that the 0-2 Mountain Hawks needed a win.   Any win.  And it wasn't going to be easy, against last year's Ivy League champs, out for vengeance. And then it happened - the sort of half of football that makes all the loss experiences worth it, the type of tale of redemption after the disappointment of being so close to tasting victory and possible national recognition, only to have it taken away by a few yards in a game of inches, or a drive where the defense couldn't get that one final stop. Suddenly, all the narratives that defined the first two losses were overturned.  Times when the offense were stopped short became touchdowns.  The defense became a Steel Curtain.  The win was as definitive as it was season-affirming.  It was difficult to find much to criticize in Lehigh's 49-28 victory over Penn that had spent all offseason plotting their vengeance against the Mountain Hawks , ...

Today's "Know Your 2016 Opponents" series continues with the team that is predicted by College Sports Journal to finish 4th in the Ivy League : Princeton. Lehigh's visit to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium last fall wasn't a whole lot of fun for the Mountain Hawks.  In fact, it was one where head coach Andy Coen felt like Lehigh made too many mistakes to win. But what really stood out to me was Andy's response to a question I had - whether he felt like the Mountain Hawks needed to play the perfect game to win on that thick, hot, humid evening. "Absolutely not. I'll go back out and play them [again] right now," Coen said .

I always enjoy making the trip to catch a Princeton game when I can. Aside from the sentimental attachment that I have to the place, there's a lot to recommend it as a destination for anyone. After Lehigh's 52-26 loss to Princeton , however, the Mountain Hawk people I saw after the game couldn't wait to get out of there and regroup. Everything about this early, challenging schedule for the Mountain Hawks seems to have been designed to determine how close Lehigh is at becoming contenders once again.  It's a challenging, strong out-of-conference schedule that doesn't need an FBS team on it to make it a stern test for this group of players. If anything in particular was learned about this weekend's game, it's that this Mountain Hawk team still needs work in order to win their Patriot League games and possibly win a Patriot League championship.  Spectacular individual plays, like junior CB Brandon Leaks upending Princeton RB Dre Nelson , are great, an...

Head coach Andy Coen stood outside the locker room, obviously agitated at the result of the game.  Outside, beautiful fireworks were exploding over Princeton Stadium on a beautiful night. In front of the locker room, the fire was coming from Lehigh head coach, verbalizing what all the players, and fans, saw on the evening. "The turnovers, the penalties, the blocked extra point, losing momentum there, that was all stuff we had control over," Coen said, seemingly wanting to get back onto the field right then and there, with the fireworks going off, and play the game all over again.  "They had no control over that.  It was our problem jumping offsides, it was our problem dropping balls, our problem not being focused enough.  And if you are not focused enough, then someone else will play." It was so frustrating because the Mountain Hawks had some real pretty looking numbers on the stat sheet.  They outgained Princeton 561 yards to 497.  Junior QB Ni...

We break down the Princeton game - and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip. It's rare that I talk about last week's opponent in this space, especially when the focus should really be on how to beat Princeton.  But Penn's 24-13 win over No. 4 Villanova was so stunning to this reporter and such a great thing for head coach Ray Priore 's Quakers that it's worth mentioning here. It was a result that seemed to even stun Penn's head coach, who earned a whopper of a first win thanks to winning the time of possession battle (holding onto the ball for more than 39 minutes on offense), benefiting from Villanova miscues (a roughing-the-punter call kept one Penn drive alive that ended in a touchdown) and making huge plays (as the Wildcats were driving to score, Penn LB Tyler Drake strip-sacked Villanova's quarterback, leading LB Donald Panicello to scoop and score a 92 yard touchdown return). "Wow, just wow," Priore said after the game...

Lehigh's relationship with the schools of the Ivy League go all the way back to the 1880s. Yes, really. 1887 was the year that Princeton, one of the first institutions of higher learning that sponsored o football program, first squared off against Lehigh, throttling them 80-0. And it would be 1890 when Yale, another one of the early football powers, first hosted Lehigh, with the Eli ending up as 26-0 winners. These traditional Ivy League football opponents appear on Lehigh's football schedule for 2015 and will be a critical litmus test for this your Mountain Hawk football team after Lehigh hosts Penn. These games, too, will not simply be speed bumps in the schedule, either.  There's a lot more emotion in these games for Lehigh than meets the eye.

(Photo Credit:  Keith A. Muccilli / Trenton Times ) We break down the Princeton game - and we give our fearless prediction below the flip. Though I didn't get much help from the Ivy League website , doing the Princeton preview is always pleasant because I have a network of people that make it that way. The Big Green Alert and Roar Lions writers gave me a huge assist in making this week's preview.  They are always huge assets when it comes to anything about the Ivy League, and neither disappointed. And Princeton's game notes themselves are also, as expected, top notch.  It's a pleasure to read lead-ins like this: There is a reason why mid-terms are in October and finals are at the end of the semester. Students do the work class after class, week after week, and then get challenged afterwards.  Imagine getting your syllabus, having a couple weeks to do some reading, and then taking a major test during your first class.  That’s what you, as well as...

(Photo Credit:  Keith A. Muccilli / Trenton Times ) "Once you have some positive things going, you start saying, 'Wow, I know Lehigh is a great team'.  We started playing football, and it was nice to see.  After this game, there's going to be some 'attaboys', 'good efforts' and everything else, but for us to improve as a team it's got to go beyond the great effort, the good effort, the hanging in there.  It's not enough.  It can't be the case.  It needs to be winning a game that we gave ourselves an opportunity to win." That was Princeton head football coach Bob Surace last year after his Tigers came close to beating the Mountain Hawks at Murray Goodman last season, but coming up just a bit short, 17-14 . Princeton's strong effort that Saturday last season was an indicator that the Tigers, who were 1-9 in 2011, were poised to be a much better team in 2012. They were. After a 5-5 season, where the Tigers beat Harvard and...

Last season, as he does for the Sports Network every year, Craig Haley gave his predictions for the Ivy League. Haley, who used to work for Princeton, made a bold prediction: that the Tigers would climb out of the Ivy League cellar after a 1-9 season , saying, for good measure, that  "it seems time for the Tigers program to win more often. At least that's what everybody thinks." Like some people, I chuckled to myself.  Princeton?  Out of the cellar?  Really?  ( Jake Novak , of the Roar Lions blog, noted about his prediction : "Actually, NO ONE thinks that. Princeton is picked last in every other poll.") As it turns out, Haley's prediction came out looking pretty good, making me very glad that I didn't put my own reservations about Princeton's chances in writing.  (Or put Haley's face with the caption, "What's he smoking?" underneath it, like Roar Lions did.) The Tigers confounded their last-place expectations and inst...

(Photo Credit: Image By Hugo ) It's an old saw, but one of the ancient adages of football is that the difference between winning and losing comes down to one play, one caught pass, one first down made or denied. In football specifically, no matter what the score, no matter when it happens - the opening kickoff, two minutes to halftime, or with the final seconds ticking off the clock - "that moment" can come anytime.  Frequently, it's a moment you don't even know is important even when you're watching it. On Saturday, that time came on a critical 4th down-and-half-a-yard conversion opportunity for the Tigers in the first half, deep in Lehigh territory, which was resoundingly stuffed by senior DT Sajjad Chagani , and the Mountain Hawks took over on downs. It didn't feel like the play of the game at the time - Lehigh up 7-0, with more than a half of football to go.  But after Lehigh cruised to a 17-0 lead, and Princeton held firm in the second half...

We break down the Princeton game, and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip. So how, exactly, do you preview a team with so many unknowns at key positions?  So many potential changes in offense, defense, and special teams?  The answer is you have to dig in and do your research, which I've done.

(Photo Credit: Princeton Athletics) Remember Week 1? There is no better feeling as a football fan, coach, or player.  After a long, long offseason for the players and coaches, there is finally the opportunity to show the world of what stuff you're made.  And for the fans, the thirst for football can finally be quenched after nine months without drink. For Lehigh, that time has come.  Week 1 came with a victory over Monmouth, and the Mountain Hawk offense and defense has been unveiled. For Princeton, their unveiling is this Saturday - and it's that energy, and that unpredictability, that makes them "scary", as head coach Andy Coen put it, this week at Murray Goodman Stadium.

When Princeton head coach Bob Surace took over as the Tigers' head man in 2010, it was all puppy dogs and ice cream as to how he was going to turn around the program from Roger Hughes . There was talk of a "tougher, smarter, better conditioned" defense.  There was talk about a new, cutting-edge "fast-break offense" - "85 plays a game", Surace mentioned - and a new attitude that would propel Princeton to consistently be in the running against Harvard and Yale. It didn't quite work out that way. Two wins and eighteen losses later, Surace goes into 2012 with much more modest expectations.  Part of that is due to the struggles of the past two years, but part of that also is due to something totally unexpected - and tragic.

(Photo Credit: Ben Rosales/The Daily Princetonian) This week's gut-check vitory at Princeton resulted in 0 what else? - another Patriot League Player of the Week award for senior QB Chris Lum ,with his 384 yard, 4 TD, zero interception performance in Lehigh's 34-22 victory . While the Morning Call folks might have found the award ho-hum , there was plenty of press surrounding this hard-fought game this weekend.  (more)

As a head football coach, you always have to be looking for potential "traps" in the schedule for your team. Traps are generally, for example, games on the road. They can be games sandwiched in between "big-emotion" games - like, say, last weekend's 48-41 overtime defeat against nationally-ranked new Hampshire and next weekend's home game against nationally-ranked Liberty. They can also be games that are the home opener for the team involved, where the home team is playing to get the season under way to "defend their house". By any of these three criteria, the game at 6:00PM at Princeton Stadium this weekend would be considered: trap, trap, and trap.  And if there's such a thing as a five-alarm trap game, this game is it for the Mountain Hawks.  (more)

(Photo Credit: Princeton Athletics) Who are these Mystery Men , anyway? You used to pretty much know exactly what you were getting from the Princeton Tigers when Roger Hughes was the head guy.  You had a multiple 3-4 defense.  An athletic QB that would, for the most part, dink and dunk and use a balanced attack to grind out the clock and advance the football. Now, with Hughes terminated after the 2009 season, new head coach Bob Surace brings in a whole lot of "new" and "mystery" to the Tigers.  Don't expect Blue Raja, Shoveler, or Invisible Boy to be suiting up for the Tigers - but expect a whole lot of difference from the team that beat Lehigh 17-14 at Murray Goodman last year.   (more)