Lehigh Football Nation

I wish I thought this would actually happen. I wish the Patriot League was proactive, and thinking several steps ahead. But as an observer of the Patriot League for more than twenty years, I don't think the Patriot League Presidents, or any of their athletic representatives, are nimble enough and proactive enough to actually take a look at what's happening with the CAA right now in regards to James Madison possibly leaving for the Sun Belt . If they were like me, they'd take a look at the CAA in football in a post-James Madison world.  They'd see an extremely unwieldy 11 team conference without much of a theme. Only four CAA members would be a part of "CAA Football" - Delaware, Towson, William and Mary, and Elon.  There would be just as many America East Members as CAA members - UNH, Maine, Stony Brook, and Albany.  The other three - Richmond, Villanova and Rhode Island - are in hoops-only conferences. Could they soldier on as a divisional conference?  Maybe. ...

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 my No. 1 and No. 2, James Madison and North Dakota State , amply proved their worth again in tough conference matchups where they ended up victorious. It wasn't as easy as the 30-8 final score might indicate, but James Madison finally solved the Villanova defense in the fourth quarter just when the Wildcats were threatening to tie the game.  The Dukes' remarkable winning streak just keeps rolling along - since losing to Colgate in the FCS playoffs in 2015, defending FCS National Champions James Madison has gone 20-1, their only loss coming to a North Carolina team last year that played in a bowl game. North Dakota State's 27-24 win, however, against the runner-up in last years' FCS Championship game, Youngstown State, was a prizefight won in overtime when PK Cam Pedersen booted a 36 yard field goal to beat Bo Pelini's Penguins' o...

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 this week, unsurprisingly, I think James Madison was, and still is, the No. 1 team in the nation. Not exactly going out on a limb, am I? If you try to pick FCS games, one of the easiest picks of last week was to take the Dukes to upset the Pirates.  Pretty much all the experts across the board thought that James Madison, even with some suspended players, was stacked enough to take over rebuilding East Carolina, and boy, did they ever. Remember the days when FCS vs. FBS matchups were defined by the FCS teams "wilting" in the fourth quarter?  With upper-echelon FCS teams like James Madison, that myth has been debunked for a while, but it was brutally apparent in this game, when RB Cardon Johnson  easily eluded East Carolina tacklers on two 80+ yard touchdown runs. That didn't surprise me at all this weekend.  And they're still my No. 1 te...

Still bummed that Lehigh's Patriot League Championship season is over?  Yeah, me too. That doesn't mean that I've totally tuned out the college football landscape, though. Starting tonight, there's some terrific games on TV and online streaming that I'll be watching, both at the FCS and the FBS level.  Happily, the FCS Round of 16 games are not all going up against each other like last week, so the opportunity is there to catch one or more of those games - and you can bet that I will be. Below the flip, starting with the MAC championship game tonight, are my picks for games to watch, and - why not? - some picks as to who I think will win. (Yes, it includes Penn State.  Stop asking.)

You didn't ask for them, but here's my pick for this week's FCS Top 25. I'm pretty proud of myself for not falling into the trap of South Dakota State . Many people, after the Jackrabbits' huge win over North Dakota State , vaulted them to the Top 5 of their polls, but I know better.  The craziness of the Missouri Valley I thought would eventually catch up with them, so I had only reluctantly put them at No. 10. Their loss to 3-5 Illinois State , taken in isolation, was a shocker - but perhaps not completely shocking, though, considering the Missouri Valley has not one but two teams that have beaten Power Five Teams and also have five losses . In fact, there are three Missouri Valley teams - Illinois State, South Dakota and Northern Iowa - that can plausibly say, if they get to 6-5, they have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs as an at-large team, thanks to perceived quality wins.

You didn't ask for them, but here's my pick for this week's FCS Top 25. I love picking games correctly involving teams 1-13 because it makes picking the Top 25 very easy - simply cut, and paste. Most of that comes from not overrating teams like Northern Iowa , who dropped out of my top 25 after a bad loss to South Dakota , and properly rating Villanova , who keeps winning and has been a regular in my Top 10 for several weeks now. One of the teams I had been considering for the Top 25 is Dartmouth , but after a stunning 21-13 loss to Yale , I've had to re-evaluate that assessment. Many a transitive property that puts Lehigh in the playoffs or maybe even the FBS National Championship game could start with "Lehigh beat Yale, and Yale beat Dartmouth, and Dartmouth beat New Hampshire..."

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...

If you'd like, you can check out my FCS Top 25 vote below. People around the country are starting to understand that James Madison is a pretty damn good FCS football team. At 6-0, they bear little resemblance to the team that squeaked by 3-8 Lehigh last season.  The lowest offensive point total they put together in a game was 38 - versus Stony Brook , who could be a playoff team.   QB Vad Lee is firing on all cylinders, just showed up in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd, and the Dukes faithful may be getting a look from College Football Gameday in a few weeks. After they made mincemeat of Lehigh in Week 2, I knew they were good.  But I didn't really know how good until they got into the league portion of the schedule.  They pounded Towson 51-30 last weekend, and they will in all likelihood go 7-0 after their trip to 2-4 Elon this weekend.  I've had them at No. 1 the past three weeks or so, and they've amply justified my pick.

If you'd like, you can check out my FCS Top 25 vote below. I don't ordinarily do do two things with my poll that I actually did this week: 1. I usually don't demote a team completely out of the Top 25 if they're a Top 5 team and they lose. 2. I usually don't demote a team from the No. 1 slot if they win their game. But that's exactly what I did, after I looked at my poll with a fresh new set of eyes after some of the more interesting outcomes from the weekend. I'd been meaning to demote Villanova for some time, not only due to their sort-of lackluster performance over the beginning of the season, but for their seemingly lackluster play going back to last season when Sam Houston upset them in the FCS Round of 8 last season.  I was looking for a dominant performance against the worst team on their schedule, Penn, and instead the Quakers upset the Wildcats 24-13 . You could argue that they were getting things done with defense.  You could have sa...

Rarely are scouting opportunities so accessible. Shortly after Lehigh beat Penn last weekend, there was an opportunity for a Patriot/Ivy doubleheader for FCS football mavens, and a chance for Lehigh football fans to get a sneak peek at next week's competition. What they saw couldn't have made any Mountain Hawk fan breathe easy. What they saw was a dominating performance by the Tigers, a 40-7 walloping that had local sportswriters like Brad Wilson of the Express-Times dig down deep to describe the depth of the blowout.  "If Frank Tavani had seen Saturday's train wreck of a 40-7 loss to Princeton by his Lafayette football team coming," he wrote , "he'd have done everything in his power to derail the Leopard Express from proceeding down the track to Disaster City." In Wilson's defense, the depth of the completeness of the win over Lafayette was hard to adequately describe.  Princeton only allowed six first downs in the first half, and...

When James Madison head coach Everett Withers was asked about attempting an onsides kick against Lehigh while up 31 points, he made the simple observation that the opportunity was there for the taking. At home, watching the game streamed live to my big TV screen, I won't lie - I was furious. After thinking about it a day, though, maybe I should be thanking him. For coach Withers may not have meant it in this way, but the key to a successful season for Lehigh in 2015 may have been that onsides kick - what it meant, what it showed, and how this football team can take that moment going forward.

It was still very much a game after the first quarter. After James Madison took their opening drive and drove 72 yards in 8 plays to go up 7-0, Lehigh responded with a perfectly-executed pass from junior QB Nick Shafnisky to freshman RB Dominic Bragalone over the middle, where the speedy running back from South Williamsport, PA showed a burst of speed, outracing the entire James Madison secondary to tie the game at seven. They absorbed the Dukes' first wave of offense, and showed a sign that they might be able to get into a shootout with James Madison. But in short order, the Dukes offense, pelting the Lehigh defense in waves, proved to be overwhelming. Buoyed by 334 yards passing by QB Vad Lee,  286 yards rushing by a bevy of backs and a big special teams play converted into a touchdown, the Dukes scored 31 unanswered points in about a 14 minute span in the second quarter to overwhelm the Mountain Hawks.

Short and sweet.  Live video of the game from JMU (including a JMU pregame show) is available here: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/jmu/ Everyone's favorite radio call will be available here from Matt Markus : http://www.espnlv.com/ That's how I'll be enjoying the game.  4PM start! Other games if you're crazy like me and will have a zillion windows open watching as much action as you can: Villanova at Fordham live stream via Campus Insiders, 6:00 PM start: http://campusinsiders.com/network/patriot_league/live/54ed6d2ae4b0c34b48f21b51 Marist at Georgetown live stream via Campus Insiders, 6:00 PM start: http://campusinsiders.com/network/patriot_league/live/552df696e4b0b0ea74082e09 New Hampshire at Colgate live stream via Campus Insiders, 6:00 PM start: http://campusinsiders.com/network/patriot_league/live/football-new-hampshire-at-colgate-2015-08-07 Duquesne at Bucknell live stream via Campus Insiders, 6:00 PM start: http://campusinsiders.com...

We break down the James Madison game - and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip. This will be the Dukes' second game of the season, after last week's shellacking of non-scholarship Morehead State, 56-7. They never really took their foot off the gas. The Dukes racked up a school-record 713 yards against the hapless Eagles, including three position players rushing for over 100 yards.  Morehead State only turned over the ball twice, but the frenetic-pace-of-play Dukes still managed to execute 90 plays on offense and probably could have gotten up to 100 plays had they not relented just a little in the 4th quarter. It's not enough for Lehigh to hold James Madison to less than 713 yards in order to have a chance.  They'll need to do more.

"We told the kids to go in and watch the tape from a year ago," head coach Andy Coen said in this week's preview of the James Madison game from The Morning Call .   "We probably should have won the game. We missed three field goals. That was the difference. We had a great opportunity to beat them." There was a lot of frustration in last years' 3-8 season for the Mountain Hawks, but the 27-24 opening weekend loss was probably the second most frustrating. Let's be blunt; Lehigh had James Madison on the ropes. Whether the Dukes were in the middle of a letdown after their 52-7 loss to Maryland the weekend before, whether their talented team wasn't ready for Lehigh's best shot, whether the Mountain Hawks played the games of their lives, it didn't really matter.  With just about 12 minutes left, Lehigh had the ball at midfield, up by 4 on James Madison and the opportunity of opportunities to put the game away. Two penalties, a punt and ...

In a typical Lehigh football season, there is one early "stretch game" that tests the Mountain Hawks in regards to their potential stature in thw wider FCS world. There's little question that Lehigh's trip to Harrisonburg, Virginia is going to be that test. Last year, first year head coach Everett Withers guided the Dukes, whose fan base expects FCS playoff appearances and deep playoff runs, probably exceeded expectations, going 9-4 and making the playoffs in his first year as James Madison head coach. In 2015, the Dukes will be in an unfamiliar place - living up to the expectations.

James Madison vs. Virigina Tech (HamptonRoads.com) This article from the Virginian Pilot-Online might have escaped your attention, but it could be something that has deep-ranging effects on collegiate athletics. While the bill only affects schools in Virginia, if other state houses take up similar legislation across the country, it could deeply impact and potentially hurt smaller public universities across the country. The article, written by Harry Minium , says it like this: Old Dominion, Norfolk State and many other state schools will have to depend more on fundraising and ticket sales and less on student fees to fund their athletic budgets under a bill signed into law by Gov. Terry McAuliffe Sunday night.  McAuliffe signed HB 1897 without any amendments. The bill, sponsored by Del. Kirk Cox , R-Colonial Heights, sets limits on the percentage of athletic budgets that can be funded through student fees.  “I am very happy to see that Governor signed the bill,...

It's no secret I don't take losses well. Despite the fact that I picked JMU to win, and logically, I saw the task of beating JMU as a tough one for these young Mountain Hawks, starting over a dozen new names, emotionally I can't separate the logical and emotional sides of my brain very well.  When the Lehigh offense was driving down the field with about a minute to play, I saw the win at the end of tunnel of light. It would have made my day, given me a rush of adrenaline that would have carried me through the day, and perhaps a good chunk of the week. But it didn't happen.  The adrenal rush never happened.  I drove home, the loss not sitting well with the Chinese food we ate, nor the breakfast I ate.  The food didn't taste good.  The tiredness took over. Something funny happened, though, on the way to next week. A spark of "faith" that after one game, things might be OK.