Lehigh Football Nation

"I was at Delaware practice the other day,", a message board poster on Any Given Saturday said , "and asked a couple of the seniors how they felt about the one time rival. "Both said the same thing, before my time ." This is absolutely true, by the way.  The last time the Blue Hens and Mountain Hawks played on the gridiron was 2005, so the players do have a point.  If they were Blue Hens at that time, that would have made them redshirt freshmen when a missed extra point in overtime doomed Lehigh to a 34-33 defeat . The talk this week will be of the renewal of a regional rivalry that dates to 1938.  It will involve talk of talkative former Blue Hen head coach Tubby Raymond , whose games with Lehigh in the 1970s up until the 2000s have gone into "legendary" status.  There will be a lot of rejoicing that the FCS playoffs can - once again - rekindle a regional rivalry that ought to happen a lot more often than it actually does. But for the kids on...

It's not often that I have to lead my "Last Look" blog posting with a scoreboard shot  from my cell phone, but there were no other real good pictures of the game at Fitton Field this weekend from Holy Cross or Lehigh, so I had to settle for my own Plan B. I've gone away from taking photographs of the games - something I used to do - but I forgot that sometimes, at away games, it's crucial.  I didn't even bring a camera to Fitton this weekend - all I had was my phone that was decidedly not very smart. Fortunately, when it came to print recaps this weekend, the game was much, much better covered by the Morning Call and the Worcester Telegram-Gazette . (more)

(Graphic Credit: CollegExperience.Net) It was a fantastic weekend for Lehigh all around, for the players, coaches, fans, and even their "fearless cheerleader", as I was called on the Lehigh Sports Forum this weekend . The 7-2 record looks great. The 3-0 conference record looks even better. The offense is putting up points, the defense shutting down Patriot League opponents. Confidence is there. Parts of the game that had been trouble spots in September are now becoming assets. Things are looking pretty good. But junior QB Chris Lum had a quote in the postgame this weekend that is crucial for Lehigh to remember this coming weekend. Simply, that Lehigh needed to stay "hungry". They absolutely do. (more)

(Photo Credit: Kevin Mingora/The Morning Call) This weekend's game between the Mountain Hawks and Raiders saw The Sports Network 's Craig Haley in attendance, adding a national voice to the press voices reporting on Lehigh's 44-14 domination over Colgate: "When senior CB Jarard "Main Man" Cribbs picked off a Steve Rizzo pass at the Colgate 48-yard line, he saw open field to the Raiders' end zone. He then went the distance to highlight Lehigh's surprisingly easy, 44-14 pasting of Colgate, a win which has put the finishing line in sight of the Patriot League leader - a possible first league title since 2006 and a first berth in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs since 2004." As Haley put it , a Patriot League title "in view" means a whole lot of happy recaps of the game on the Lehigh side, including a live blog by Ben Watanabe from the Express-Times. (more)

Should I just hand out my awards to sophomore WR Ryan Spadola every week? This week's LFN Players of the Week awards go to: Offense: Senior WR Craig "Braveheart" Zurn (6 catches, 51 yards) and senior RB Jay Campbell (106 all-purpose yards, 80 yards rushing, 26 yards receiving) Defense: Junior LB Tanner Rivas (4 tackles, 2 QB hurries, 1 forced fumble against a very athletic QB) Special Teams: Senior CB Jarard "Main Man" Cribbs (3 punt returns for 31 yards, 4 tackles, 1 interception) Underclassman: Sophomore WR Ryan Spadola (was there ever a doubt? 6 catches, 111 yards, 130 all-purpose yards, 3 TD grabs, and a downed punt inside the 1 yard line) Congratulations to the winners!

(Graphic courtesy WKYC) Ten years ago today, I was late to a football game. It was a picture-perfect night for football. While I wasn't a blogger about Lehigh football at that time, I still was a crazy Lehigh fan, and despite the fact I lived in Connecticut I had somehow convinced my friend Matt to go to the first night game at Palmer Stadium in Princeton with me. He was coming back from the Yankee game earlier that day, and I drove down to meet him in central New Jersey to pick him up to head to Princeton. That day the Yankee game fatefully ran later than usual, and we got to Princeton after dark. So we found ourselves wandering around the Princeton campus, after listening to the first quarter on the radio. It's then when we met Kim and a friend of hers. Kim wasn't a Princeton alumna, nor had she ever seen a college football game before that day. She had been volunteering for the Red Cross and was helping recovery efforts from Hurricane Floyd that had passed through...

I made the rules, and I'm living by them. This week's Player of the week, as voted on by you, the fans is, sophomore P Alex Smith . His 4 punts for 39 yards, including a booming 47 yarder, was excellent against a CAA team that prides itself on special teams excellence. Two landed inside the 20 yard line. Congratulations! Other Players of the Week this week include: Fans: Sophomore P Alex Smith Offensive Hawk: Junior WR Craig "Braveheart" Zurn (6 catches, 72 yards, 1 kickoff return of 10 yards) Defensive Hawk: Senior LB Matt Cohen (8 tackles, 1 sack, 1 touchdown-saving tackle of Villanova senior WR Matt Szczur ) Special Teams Hawk: Junior DB/RS John "Fear Itself" Kennedy (100 yards of kickoff returns, 4 tackles) Lehigh's bye week is this weekend. Tune in this weekend for a special "Bye Week" word, and a Friday water cooler looking over the upcoming Patriot League weekend.

(Photo courtesy of Kevin Mingora, The Morning Call) Junior QB J.B. Clark and junior WR Craig Zurn seem pretty excited about something in this picture - could it be all the press coverage of Lehigh's Sprng game? The press reports are in from the Brown & White game - including a photo gallery from the Morning Call (and one from yours truly - coming soon when I get a spare moment!) There are no fewer than three press release articles and three blog postings (including the one from yours truly), making this arguably the best-covered spring game in all of FCS. The consensus was that it things seem pretty hopeful on South Mountain after Saturday's final contact until August. The Morning Call: QBs Shine in Lehigh Spring Game ‘’We’re definitely headed in the right direction,'’ [Coen] said. ‘’This is the best I’ve ever felt at this time of year during my tenure here. I don’t know what that means, but I like the attitude of our guys and we’ve got a good recruiting class comin...

I'm away from the blog now, but if you want to nominate someone for Player of the Week vs. Georgetown, you can nominate them by adding a comment to this post. [EDIT] It's a little late, but I did read all the comments and its senior FB/RB Adam Watson who gets LFN Player of the Week honors this week. When senior RB Matt McGowan went down with a bad ankle injury, Watson took over with 38 yards on seven tough carries, including five on Lehigh's final drive to ice the game for the Mountain Hawks. It's hard to underestimate the effect that a big injury has on the offensive gameplan, and Watson made sure that the gameplan never suffered. Other honorees this week: Reader's Choice: Senior FB/RB Adam Watson Offense: Junior WR Brien Ruyak (6 catches, 86 yards, 1 TD, all career highs) Defense: Junior LB Al Pierce (7 tackles, first play of second half was a 37 yard interception for a TD) Special Teams: Sophomore WR Craig "Braveheart" Zurn (2 kickoff returns for ...