Lehigh Football Nation

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League....

This week, Lafayette plays Harvard up in Cambridge, where the 2-4 Leopards are expected to lose to the 2-2 Crimson.  I say expected to lose because with one exception since 2000, that's what's happened every time Lafayette has played Harvard: they have lost 12 out of their last 13 to the Johnnies, and have a lifetime record of 3-19 against them. The expectation among Patriot League football fans is that football scholarships were supposed to change all of that.  Simply offer conventional football scholarships, add to that a chance to play in the FCS Playoffs, and suddenly football recruits choosing between Harvard and Lehigh for business would start choosing Lehigh. It hasn't worked out quite that way. Through five games in 2017, the combined record of the Patriot League is a mind-boggling 8-21 outside of Patriot League contests.   And of those eight wins, only one has come against a team from the Ivy League - Colgate's 21-7 win over Cornell.  Collective...

I don't officially vote in any of the FCS Top 25 polls, but I do share who I think deserves to be in the Top 25, and for the second straight week - hold on to your hats - I think James Madison was, and still is, the No. 1 team in the nation. I know, right?   Crazy. Truth be known, the top layer of FCS teams did little to move themselves much.  When teams like New Hampshire were beating FBS teams and teams like Villanova were taking FCS teams to the wire, much of the Top 10 proved they were Top 10 worthy teams.

No college football coach wants to face a team boxed in a corner. In that way, Harvard was stepping into a purple hornet's nest last weekend when the nationally-ranked Crimson came to play the wounded Crusaders. After their injury-riddled team failed to hold onto a win against Bucknell, ultimately falling 21-20, Tom Gilmore 's team needed to make a stand against a really good football team in order to keep their season from a limp to the finish. Even if they didn't win, they had to keep things close - few pundits gave Holy Cross much of a chance against the better bankrolled, historically dominant Harvard team that hadn't lost a road game a non-conference game in their last sixteen tries. Cornered like rats, Holy Cross responded in a big way.  Six sacks and a second-half shutout later, the Crusaders would notch their first win over a nationally-ranked opponent since 2009, thus turning things around at the exact right time for them and the exact wrong time for ...

If you'd like, you can check out my FCS Top 25 vote below. Pity Dartmouth . The Big Green and Harvard , whom I've had in my Top 25 all season, played a game last Friday that was as great as a game between Top 25 teams can be. For 3 1/2 quarters, Dartmouth controlled the game, up 13-0 and the Big Green's defense, somewhat surprisingly, completely smothering Harvard's potent offense. Then, in the span of about six and a half, Harvard, amazingly, pulled out the win. One touchdown pass to WR Seitu Smith , one Dartmouth fumble and another touchdown throw from QB Scott Hosch to RB Justice Shelton-Mosley , and Harvard took their first lead of the game with 36 seconds left in the game. It was a great game to watch, and amply showed that both teams were worthy of Top 25 status, but it is impossible, as a neutral fan, to not feel for the Big Green, who had them right there .

If you'd like, you can check out my FCS Top 25 vote below. The story of the week in James Madison after their loss to Richmond wasn't the fact that College Football Gameday was there, nor was it about their big CAA conference loss, which took them out of the drivers' seat for the CAA title and conference autobid. It was the fact that their superstar quarterback, QB Vad Lee , sustained an injury that would require surgery and take him out for the remained of the season. The play didn't look like much.  The Dukes, who were already down by two touchdowns, saw Lee simply try to make something happen on a routine 2 yard run left.  A shoestring tackle by Richmond's linebacker wasn't particularly dirty, though in retrospect it looked like his foot was tackled awkwardly. A play afterwards, Lee remained in, and collapsed after hucking a deep pass, and his incredible career at JMU was done.

If you'd like, you can check out my FCS Top 25 vote below. Last week, I said people around the country are starting to understand that James Madison is a pretty damn good FCS football team. Apparently, someone at College Football Gameday was also paying attention to the Dukes as well. At 7-0, James Madison University was chosen as the site for ESPN's pregame show College Football Gameday, to highlight their game versus another Top 25 school, Richmond. It's not the first time College Football Gameday has elected to cover an FCS school.  The nationwide program has already made a couple stops in Fargo, North Dakota to cover the North Dakota State Bison, and last year the hot rumor was that Gameday was going to cover Lehigh vs. Lafayette 's 150th celebration at Yankee Stadium, but ultimately decided to go with Harvard vs. Yale , as "The Game" was for an Ivy League championship and "The Rivalry" ended up being for pride. Harrisonburg...

My vote for the FCS Top 25 for the week ending 10/28/2013 follows below the flip. But first, check out this great picture from Samford WR Chris Cephus after scoring a touchdown in the Bulldogs' 34-27 win over the Wofford Terriers this weekend.  (Photo Credit: Marvin Gentry / MGPhoto.com ) In the SoCon, this game was huge, but what was especially amazing was that the Bulldogs overcame four turnovers, including one interception that was returned by Wofford LB Alvin Scioneaux for a touchdown. But with a smothering defensive effort from Bulldog LB Jaquirski Tartt (17 tackles) and a big day returning the football by RB Fabian Truss , the Bulldogs moved to 4-0 in SoCon play and put themselves in the drivers' seat in regards to qualifying for the FCS playoffs.

It's that time of the week where I share with you your weekly Lehigh fan viewing guide for Week 9 of the college football season.  Why go to website after website when all the information you need is right here? If you are not able to attend the game this weekend at Bucknell you can follow the game from the following sources: Online Streaming: Patriot League Network (free) Radio:   ESPN Radio 1230 and 1320 Internet:   Lehighsports.com/ESPNLV.com After the game, there are a boatload of important games, most which are available via live streams!

My vote for the FCS Top 25 for the week ending 10/7/2013 follows below the flip. But firstcheck out this great picture from the Fargo Dome last weekend as the other battle of unbeatens, Northern Iowa against North Dakota State, unfolded.  (Photo Credit: David Samson / The Forum ) The battle of unbeatens in the Missouri Valley lived up to its billing, but also had an awful injury to Panther LB Jake Farley , who had to leave with UNI ahead 23-17 with 5 minutes remaining with a broken leg that will likely sideline the all-American candidate. As if that wasn't bad enough for his father, head coach Mark Farley , he then had to then endure watching the Panther lead slip away in the final minutes, as the Bison completed the come-from-behind win to pull it out, 24-23 .  It would be the Bison's first lead of the game, and one that would hold up.

My vote for the FCS Top 25 for the week ending 9/23/2013 follows below the flip. But first, by all means, enjoy this great shot of a big Top 25 game last week, McNeese State at Northern Iowa.  (Photo Credit: Matthew Putney / The Waterloo Courier ) The picture tells the story of the game pretty well, as the Panthers in the UNI Dome took apart McNeese, 41-6.  In my poll last week, both were Top 10 teams.  Not this week, though I didn't drop the Cowboys too far.

My vote for the FCS Top 25 for the week ending 10/1/2012 follows below the flip.

(Photo Credit: Barry Chin/The Boston Globe) In the live blog penned by the Harvard Crimson, from the first sentence describing the Mountain Hawks - "Fashion check: the Crimson's looking sharp in Crimson jerseys and gold pants. Lehigh looks silly dressed in white-on-white" - it's easy to hate Harvard, and by extension, revel in the victory that Lehigh enjoyed this Saturday. It's funny how the live blogger at one point messed up who they were playing - "Mike Colvin in at QB for Lafayette . His pass intended for Spadola falls incomplete" - and it was equally as funny to hear the Harvard broadcast team call Lehigh the "Engineers" time and again on the broadcast, when - how long has Lehigh been the Mountain Hawks? A decade? 15 years? But announcers and live bloggers aside, Lehigh got a strong media writeup this week up in Boston and down here in the Lehigh Valley, rightfully honoring the "boys in white" with the gold helmets for t...

It looked, for all practical purposes, like another Mountain Hawk egg that was about to be laid against an elite opponent. It seemed like Lehigh could not do much right in their first half against Harvard. Two turnovers led directly to Crimson touchdowns. Only two offensive drives in the half yielded and first downs. And - in a chilling similarity to the New Hampshire game - Lehigh's defense and special teams handed the Lehigh offense two golden opportunities to score points, and both times Lehigh came away with nothing. But head coach Andy Coen must have channeled his inner Knute Rockne at halftime, for the team that came out in the second half was transformed. Against an elite team of the Ivy League, Lehigh came back from a three-score deficit and sent notice to the rest of the Patriot League that Lehigh is back. (more)

(Photo Credit: Campus Media Group Blog) It's an old story, but still a great one: at a classic meeting of Harvard and Yale - you know, that Game where the Crimson and Eli try to catch up to Lehigh and Lafayette in terms of most played college football rivalry - a group known as the Yale Pundits convinced many Harvard fans at halftime that their poster boards would spell out "Go Harvard" - but instead spelled out the words you see to your left. As old as the prank was, it never fails to make me smile. Less obvious that the truism that the Pundits exposed on that fateful November day is a dirty little secret: that there are an awful lot of folks who have passed through Cambridge and have been screw-ups. Behind that demeanor of faux-competence, over-confidence and just flat out arrogance, Harvard folks screw up a lot. This matters, too: for if I screw up on my blog, maybe a dozen people are offended, and never hurt. When one of these yahoos screws up, the entire gl...

Harvard is the dynasty nobody knows about. Part of that is the Ivy League's fault, and part of that is Harvard's fault. But make no mistake, they are a dynasty and they are a team that, year in and year out, are filled with talented players. Look at this week's Gridiron Power Index , and you'll see the Crimson in the middle of the pack, at No. 59.  But that's no indication of the talent on this team at all.  There are currently five players in the NFL that came from Cambridge, and this list details the number of pros that have come from Harvard - and fourteen of those, you'll note, have played for the Crimson in the last ten years - and have faced off against Lehigh in non-league action. But thanks to the stubbornness of the Ivy League President's office, the (presumed) intransigence of Harvard's presidents, and the unwillingness of the Ivy League's or Harvard's sports information directors to much care about the Crimson's status natio...

Weren't scared enough of a opening weekend trip to Des Moines to face off against a team featuring an NFL prospect on the defensive line?   Not intimidated by playing against last year's national champs ?  Think it will be easy to knock off a nearby rival that has owned us in three of the last four meetings?  Or perhaps you think a game on the road against a team that was nationally ranked in 2004... and hasn't left the Top 25 since , will be a good shot at a Lehigh win? You'd think the schedule would get easier after that tour of the Theatre of Pain . But you'd be incorrect. The schedule originally had Lehigh getting a bye week, and starting off a nice long homestand against Harvard on October 9th. But a scheduling snafu meant instead that Lehigh would be spending the week after their break going back to Cambridge to face off against the Crimson, who have beaten them three of their last four attempts. This New England trip won't be any easier than the...

(Photo courtesy Fred Comegys/The Delaware News Journal) Going into last weekend, the specter of five CAA teams in the playoffs loomed large. But with James Madison's 20-8 upset of Delaware and Maine's 19-9 upset of UMass made it that much more likely that the CAA only puts three at-large teams into the playoffs. If there was any thought that Mickey Matthews' James Madison team was going to roll over the rest of the year, that was dispelled this past weekend on the road against the Blue Hens. Trailing 3-0 at halftime, the Dukes' long-dormant offense finally came alive, with freshman QB Justin Thorpe breaking a ten quarter touchdown-less streak with a 12 yard run. Add to that a smothering defensive performance - forcing Hen junior QB Pat Devlin into a 19-for-42, 2 interception day, and only allowing the Hens a paltry 9 yards rushing. Since beating New Hampshire and remaining in the hunt for a playoff spot, UMass has self-destructed. There's no other way to d...

(Photo courtesy Holy Cross Athletics) Jenifer Toland of The Worcester Telegram-Gazette helpfully reminded her readership last Friday that it had been 343 days since Colgate knocked off Holy Cross in Hamilton 28-27. Not only did that game mean that the Crusaders would come up just short for the Patriot League title for the third straight year (and a shot at a national championship in the FCS playoffs, too), it would be a driving factor for senior QB Dominic Randolph 's return to Worcester for his final year of eligibility. “Every game’s a big game, but now that we’re back in the Patriot League, this is the biggest game of our season,” Randolph told her, “and it’s the biggest game we’ve had in a while because we came up short against them last year for the championship. I still have a sour taste in my mouth from that loss. We’ve been looking forward to this game for a while.” “That was probably the worst feeling I ever had in my life,” senior WR Bill Edger (pictured) said. “We coul...

(Photo courtesy the Laconia Citizen/AP) For the second week in a row, the No. 2 team faced the No. 5 team in the in the Sports Network Top 25. Last week, it was Villanova who jumped out in front of William & Mary to coast to the victory, but this weekend would end quite differently for the Wildcats. In Durham, New Hampshire, two top defensive teams slugged it out and it would be No. 5, New Hampshire, that would emerge on top 28-24 . After UNH jumped out to a 22-7 lead midway through the second quarter, Villanova junior WR Matt Szczur showed he is the heart and soul of their offense, scoring two big play touchdowns (one 26 yard reception, and a 58 yard touchdown run) in the next two quarters to give Villanova the 24-22 lead. He would have an eye-popping 283 yards of total offense on the afternoon - more than half of the Wildcats' yards from scrimmage. But it was UNH's defense, led by senior LB Sean Ware (10 tackles) and sophomore S Ryan McGuinness (10 tackles) that hel...