Lehigh Football Nation

Below, we're going to do a quick once-over of Lehigh's game notes and possible injuries, then we'll dive right into 5 things to look for with Sacred Heart, my Keys to the game, and the cherry on top will be my Fearless Prediction. You can read my College Sports Journal preview of #155, complete with TV and streaming information, here. Keith Groller of The Morning Call headlined his piece " Lehigh’s defense has been its best in years, but it hasn’t translated into a winning season ".  Additionally, Paul Reinhard of The Morning Call headline his preview " Lafayette football has more than just bragging rights on the line vs. Lehigh ". Lehigh's Davis Maxie (95) tackles St. Francis punter Ryan Oliver (33) after Oliver fumbled his punt attempt in the Mountain Hawks season opener at Goodman Stadium on Aug. 31. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call) Game Notes There is some good news and some bad news in the game notes . Last week, RB Rashawn Allen ...

You can read College Sports Journal's preview of the game here , and my mostly-football-free "Tailgate Report" here . Below, we're going to do a quick once-over of Lehigh's game notes and possible injuries, then we'll dive right into 5 things to look for with Sacred Heart, my Keys to the game, and the cherry on top will be my Fearless Prediction. Keith Groller of The Morning Call headlined his piece " Lehigh football tries to regroup at Sacred Heart with season slipping away ".  Part of the article talked about the frustration of last week's 20-10 loss to Bucknell . “We didn’t handle our business, but all you can do is learn from it and plan to fix it for the future,” senior WR Dev Bibbens said. “We need to win this game and get things turned around against a quality opponent. There’s always a lot to play for. Any time you have an opportunity to play a game on a Saturday, that’s a lot. We don’t take that opportunity lightl...

We're going to try something different this week.  No, don't worry, we'll still break down this week's game and everything, but we're just going to make it it quicker and a lot easier to read. You can read College Sports Journal's preview of the game here , and my mostly-football-free "Tailgate Report" here . Below, we're going to do a quick once-over of Lehigh's game notes and possible injuries, then we'll dive right into 5 things to look for with Bucknell, my Keys to the game, and the cherry on top will be my Fearless Prediction. I called this game a "Family Reunion", thanks to all the coaching links between Tom Gilmore, Dave Cecchini and the makeup of both coaching staffs, and in Keith Groller's preview of the game in The Morning Call , he and Gilmore went into even more detail. “It has been a long relationship,” Gilmore said of Cecchini. “I coached Dave’s younger brother, J.T., at Dartmouth in the ...

We break down the Georgetown game - and we give our fearless prediction below the flip. You can read College Sports Journal's preview of the game here , and my mostly-football-free "Tailgate Report" here . I forgot in my "Tailgate Report" to do a look at Lehigh's game notes , so I'll do it here. To most fans, seeing QB Addison Shoup on top of the depth chart at quarterback was probably the biggest eye-opener as QB Tyler Monaco was the starter last week, and was in the game until the last couple of plays in overtime.  As of the time of this writing, although some people have assured that Monaco is well enough to go, the truth is he didn't practice the entirety of this week, so I would more characterize more as a "gametime decision" as to whether it is Monaco or Shoup under center.  It seems fair to say that Monaco will start and play if he's able. CB Marquis Wilson has struggled to get back to 100% from his inj...

One thing has remained remarkably consistent for the last six years - Fordham has had Lehigh's number. It hasn't mattered that Fordham has had Joe Moorhead, Andrew Breiner, or Joe Conlin , or whether Lehigh was gunning for a Patriot League title, or not - during that time, Fordham has done only one thing consistently, and that's beat Lehigh. Granted, during many of those years, Fordham has some all-time teams, with UConn transfer QB Michael Nebrich , current Arizona Cardinal RB Chase Edmonds , and a cast of terrific Patriot League players too numerous to mention.  But then again, during Lehigh's last Patriot League title year of 2017, fourth-string RB D'Angelo Palladino ran for almost 300 yards on the Mountain Hawk defense for a 45-35 win , something the Lehigh seniors remember all too painfully well. In a year of lowlights, last year's 43-14 loss to Fordham for head coach Joe Conlin's first win as Fordham head coach really stood out to ...

Lehigh and Colgate is always a big game, whether both teams are going in undefeated or, as in this case, an 2-7 team is squaring off against a 8-0 team. In a testimony to how evenly matched both of these teams have been over the years,  no team has won more than 3 straight against the other since the inception of the Patriot League. Colgate and Lehigh have faced off 55 times, and the overall record has been, fittingly, close, with Colgate holding a slender 30-24-2 advantage.  The last tie came in 1980, a 17-17 tie at Taylor Stadium in which Lehigh's John Whitehead and Colgate's Fred Dunlap faced off as head coach.  In a way, that hotly-contested tie sort-of epitomizes the competitiveness of this rivalry today. Last year, Colgate cruised to a 48-6 victory , one of the more lopsided in the rivalry's recent history.  This year's edition is unlikely to be a similar outcome.

It's what we do every week: copiously go over the opposing game notes and analyze the upcoming game matchup.  I'm starting to call these the "football nerd" previews because it feels like the audience for these detailed team breakdowns are other football nerds like myself.  For Lehigh fans, there is no greater need for a "football nerd"-level breakdown of an opponent than Merrimack.  Few opponents have been as big as an unknown to Mountain Hawk fans as the school that formed right after World War II in North Andover, Massachusetts.  Helping that sense of mystery is that the Merrimack Athletics' website offers no football game notes, and when you click on the link called "Weekly Two-Deep", you get a two-deep from 2018. Merrimack, until recently a member of the Northeast-10 conference in Division II, announced they are going to join the NEC as a full Division I member in time for the 2023-2024 season. “The College’s 2011 strategic ...

It's what we do every week: copiously go over the opposing game notes and analyze the upcoming game matchup.  One thing that has been undoubtedly very cool about this rare West Coast game for the Mountain Hawks is how great the Aggies have been in terms of getting out game notes , cool content celebrating the 1977 Division II semifinal , and even local press (I see you, Davis Enterprise ) . We live in a world where local press is dying, along with it the written word about previewing what are interesting, fun sporting matchups.  This week has been refreshingly fun, and easy to break down, thanks to all the content celebrating the first meeting, and previewing the upcoming meeting.  It's great to see two football communities from across the country come together for a week of good-spirited competition. A special shout-out has to go to The Davis Enterprise again for the incredible pictures of not only the Division II semifinal game but also the eerie, foggy atmos...

It's what we do every week: copiously go over the opposing game notes and analyze the upcoming game matchup. Thanks to St. Francis (PA)'s game notes , which is the source of most of this research (and a very, very long offseason of obsessing over this game).  The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat , too, had lots of good preseason content on the Red Flash I used to research. Let's not wait any longer, and let's get right to this thing!

Lehigh and Colgate is always a big game, whether both teams are going in undefeated or, as in this case, an 2-7 team is squaring off against a 8-0 team. In a testimony to how evenly matched both of these teams have been over the years,  no team has won more than 3 straight against the other since the inception of the Patriot League. Colgate and Lehigh have faced off 55 times, and the overall record has been, fittingly, close, with Colgate holding a slender 29-24-2 advantage.  The last tie came in 1980, a 17-17 tie at Taylor Stadium in which Lehigh's John Whitehead and Colgate's Fred Dunlap faced off as head coach.  In a way, that hotly-contested tie sort-of epitomizes the competitiveness of this rivalry today.

We break down the Bucknell game - and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip. Like Lehigh, the Bison are 1-7, but unlike Lehigh, the Bison have played a whole lot of close games. Two weeks ago, Bucknell came a two-point conversion away from tying Lafayette but fell just short in a 29-27 loss to the Leopards, and had the ball with a chance to win the game late in the fourth quarter. They also played William and Mary close to start the season, falling 14-7, and their lone win of the season came against Holy Cross, the same Crusader team that walloped Lehigh last weekend 56-0.  When the Bison played them, two Bucknell touchdowns and two Bucknell field goals were enough to carry the Bison through in a 19-16 win. Like many Lehigh opponents, Bucknell always enjoys extracting their pound of Mountain Hawk flesh if they are able.  The Mountain Hawks have won 17 of their last 19 meetings against the Bison, and they are likely to put their absolute best foot forward ...

We break down the Holy Cross game - and we give our fearless prediction below the flip. Head coach Bob Chesney is in his first year in Worcester and is working to build up his mark on the program, despite a 1-6 record. He came to Holy Cross from Assumption College, where he compiled a 44-16 record and made the nearby school a solid member of the NE-10 conference. Assumption has been a strong D-II school over the last decade, engineering an upset over Fordham in 2010 (though that was before Chesney's time). When Chesney came to Holy Cross, he brought in an almost entirely new staff from the one that Tom Gilmore had assembled.  Only four positional coaches remain, while Chesney brought in a new offensive and defensive coordinator. Holy Cross also had, by far, the toughest schedule of any school in the Patriot League in September, starting with Colgate, who sits undefeated, Dartmouth, who sits undefeated, and Boston College - yes, that Boston College.  Throwing out t...

We break down the Georgetown game - and we give our fearless prediction below the flip. Normally, we don't need to break out the Las Vegas betting lines to motivate Lehigh football players.  But in this very special case, it seems worthy to make an exception. The people who make a living betting on the outcomes of sporting contests have seen Georgetown, yes, Georgetown, set up as 14 point favorites to beat Lehigh.  Don't believe me?  Check it out . You know what else is interesting?  The line started out with Georgetown only 4 point favorites.  Over the course of the last 48 hours, apparently, so much money has come in on Georgetown that it has actually swelled to a 14 point difference. If there was ever a concrete indicator that there are a lot of people that believe Lehigh will fail this weekend, and fail by more than two touchdowns, this is it.

It's time to go full nerd and do a full-blown breakdown of the Fordham Rams. The first point of information about the 0-5 Rams you need to know is that they are young, and rebuilding.  Joe Conlin is their first-year head coach, and you had better believe that he and his team would love nothing better than to get Conlin's first head coaching victory against Lehigh, a team that Fordham has beaten in four of the last five meetings between these two programs. But the 2018 Rams are vastly different than the team that suited up QB Kevin Anderson and current Arizona Cardinal RB Chase Edmonds on their roster.  Anderson, who was a transfer from an FBS school (Marshall), had loads of experience and additionally used a redshirt year at Marshall, and Edmonds, as any reader of this blog would know, stepped in immediately as a freshman on Rose Hill and it was abundantly clear he was a generational talent running the ball. For Fordham, this team is adopting a new philos...

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: Philadelphia Inquirer) It's time to go full nerd and do a full-blown breakdown of the Penn Quakers. Penn's  game notes were out in good time, and The Philadelphia Inquirer , thankfully, still does a pretty good job in covering the Quakers in an independent way.  Both were invaluable for my analysis. Unusually, Lehigh faces Penn this time around in a game that is not the Quakers' season opener.  In prior years that made it tricky for the Mountain Hawks to sometimes get a full sense of what head coach Ray Priore might be doing, because there would be no true game film to study, only practice film and, if they're lucky, an accurate two-deep. This year, though, Penn has already had their first game, playing Bucknell in a game which they won 34-17 .  It was a strange contest, basically won in the first five minutes thanks to 17 points donated to the Quakers via two Bison turnovers and a blocked punt.  Both teams would only put up 17 poin...

(Photo Credit: Capital-Gazette) It's time to go full nerd and do a full-blown breakdown of the Navy Midshipmen. I can't tell you how many of these previews I've done where I get game notes late Friday evening, had to play games with Ivy League depth charts to try to divine game plans, and the like.  Some schools Lehigh plays don't have any local media anymore, so finding out more about the starting players and the like is extremely difficult. Not so this week.  For the first time in 15 years, Lehigh plays an FBS team, but not just a regional school, say, from the Midwest - they play Navy, a school with national and international reach.  Game notes were out early and were detailed. The coverage of Navy football isn't just from the local Capital-Gazette - which continues, through tragedy, to be stellar - but from national media, too.  In fact their last two games - against Hawai'i and Memphis - were big-time affairs in the national world of coll...