Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Zennie62 blog from the San Francisco Chronicle ) Normally, Patriot League watchers don't pay a lot of attention to the NFL Draft, at least in regards to which rounds the "best of the best" Patriot League players might end up.  With this year's crop of players, however, there were three players (and, arguably, four) that had solid chances to be picked in the NFL draft - if things fell just right.   Unsurprisingly, things did fall just right for QB John Skelton , who saw the NFL's Arizona Cardinals trade up to the 5th round to grab the strong-armed Texan by way of the Bronx.  For the rest of the Patriot League, the phone calls did not come on draft day itself.  They came shortly after Weber State WR Tim Toone was picked as the final college player in the NFL draft, and they all became free agents, able to pick their spots.  And all the big names: QB John Skelton , QB Dominic Randolph , and WR Pat Simonds - have great NFL opportunities this ...

(Photo Credit: Yahoo! Sports and Five Boro Sports) On September 16th, 2006, I found myself heading to Baker Field in Manhattan to watch a budding rivalry. Columbia's game with cross town rival Fordham in the fourth edition of the " Liberty Cup " was national news only in the sense that Columbia head football coach Norries Wilson became the first Columbia head football coach to win his opener since Aldo "Buff" Donelli in 1957. I never knew that I'd be calling back on my memory of that game to think about NFL draft darling QB John Skelton 's debut as a member of the Rams.  Put into the game by coach Tom Masella after senior starter QB Derrick Daniels failed to get anything going offensively, Skelton's 3-for-7 performance - throwing an pick-six interception to DB Drew Quinn to put the icing on the Lions' 37-7 win - was nothing to write home about.  (After the game, coach Masella said, "We have bye week coming up.  Thank God.") M...

Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth. - Wikipedia So what does this mean for Patriot League football fans, aside from a gratuitous reference to the movie starring Will Smith and Stockard Channing ?  In researching the latest news around the Patriot League and some of the coaching moves that have been happening this year, at times it feels like every coaching move is related, in some way, to the Patriot League.  (More)

Seeing as my "Word" last week - "Lidge" - did way worse than Lehigh did this weekend against Colgate, it's probably time to go to another topic that is probably worth discussing. (Um, guys? Don't think about "Lidge" any more. Please.) I try to watch as many Patriot League games as I can during the year (as long as it fits into my, um, Lehigh viewing/attending schedule). I knew Colgate had some really good athletes, but the couple times I saw them during the year were not their best days. On ESPNU a few weeks ago, Colgate escaped Princeton in a game that probably won't make anyone's highlight reel, and the Fordham game wasn't one for the ages, either. The artists formerly known as the Red Raiders did, however, win those games. And they beat Lehigh with some players that are bona-fide "stars". In my Sunday "Words" this year, it probably seems like I've been down on the Patriot League in general. Is it becaus...

(Photo courtesy the Worcester Telegram-Gazette) It was the FCS Game of the Week last week - and unless you were prepared to pay Stretch Internet to watch the game or lived in the Worcester area, you couldn't watch the game - but Holy Cross' 27-20 victory over Harvard was not only the only matchup between nationally-ranked teams, it was one of the best games of the weekend. (Don't take my word for it: just click on Crusader Vision on the Holy Cross football website and see for yourself the report filed by NESN.) There was more going on that just the Holy Cross/Harvard game, but the Crusader's big win was the Patriot League's best win of the year in a year where the League desperately needed one. Despite the best efforts of Harvard's student newspaper to paint this game as a "David vs. Goliath" story, Holy Cross' 27-20 win in this game was anything but. "This was a marquee game in the early part of our season," head coach (and former L...