Lehigh Football Nation

It wasn't supposed to be like this for the Raiders. Before the 2011 football season got started, it was easy to circle October 29th on the calendar and say, "This will be a big game on the Patriot League schedule." And CBS College Sports, too, agreed, making it one of their two nationally televised games on the year. Somewhere along the way, though, the Raider season jumped off the tracks. And now, with two conference losses and their chances at the Patriot League title basically having evaporated, Colgate is now playing to get back to .500, protect a perfect 3-0 record in "their house," Andy Kerr Stadium, and finish out the year strong. There would be no better way for the Raiders to do that than to upend a Top Ten team - and a pretty good rival, at that - in Hamilton this weekend.

Colgate head football coach Dick Biddle , now entering his 15th year as head coach of the Raiders, has been to a few Patriot League Media Day rodeos before. Looking as uncomfortable as ever in a rumpled shirt and tie - he never has been a "suit" type of guy - he did something at Media Day that was extraordinary. He heaped praise on one of his players. "He may be the best player I've coached as a football coach," Biddle said of his senior Payton Award candidate, senior RB Nate Eachus .  For him to say that, a guy who has coached not only a Payton Award winner ( RB Jamaal Branch ) but the leading rusher in Patriot League history ( RB Jordan Scott ), that's saying something. (more)