Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credits: Delaware Online ) When I heard the news  Tubby Raymond , legendary Delaware head football coach, died last week at the age of 92, two immediate memories came rushing back to me. One occurred on October 16th, 1999, when Tubby had made a complaint to the local paper or radio in the run-up to  Kevin Higgins ' Mountain Hawks beating his Blue Hens on Delaware's homecoming, 42-35. I have no idea if the quote even actually happened, but my recollection is that Tubby said that Lehigh had "St. Bartholomew's" on their schedule, and hadn't played anybody.  It was a verbal jab that many Delaware fans took with them to the stands to heckle the Mountain Hawk fans that made the short trip to Newark. Up until that point, I had watched a bunch of Lehigh football games over the years.  I experienced their rise in the 1990s.  I enjoyed wins, and championships, and playoff victories. But never had I felt a win so viscerally vindicating than the one ove...

This year's FCS playoffs, the first since the field was expanded to 20 teams, has made for a season of growing pains.  Not necessarily bad ones, but pains nonetheless. With a 16 team bracket, it made for an easy beginning and end to the FCS regular season.  It always ended the weekend before Christmas, the all-America teams were done - and the national champions were crowned, as all of the world of FCS partied on the eve of the new year. But with an extra round of playoffs, it was the semifinals that would end the week before Christmas - and three long, long weeks before knowing for certain the identity of the national champions. And the team that defeated Lehigh in the playoffs the week after the playoffs may very well be the team that is this year's champion. (more)