Lehigh Football Nation

It's been a bye week when I've been thinking a lot about Jack. And that's thanks to the latest member of the Lehigh football team, second grader  Jack Knudson . Jack is an incredibly inspirational kid from nearly Salisbury Township who hasn't let anything keep him down, or kept him from pursuing his dreams. And a few weeks ago, members of the Lehigh football team added Jack as their newest member. Stories don't get much better than this.

Preseason camp didn't end this year with the fanfare of past campaigns.  Hurricane Irene made sure of that. But offensively, preseason camp ends with tremendous promise, thanks to the giant strides made by the 2010 edition of the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. Thanks to head coach Andy Coen , offensive coordinator Dave Cecchini and a slew of returning starters, the challenge for this 2011 offensive unit is to build on the foundation they established - and build it into something even better. (more)

The past two seasons, the Brown & White Scrimmage was notable in the fact that it was at least in part trying to answer some gigantic questions. Questions like: who's the starting quarterback?  Will the offense change with the presence of Dave Cecchini as offensive coordinator?  And perhaps the biggest question of all: Does Lehigh have the tools to compete for a Patriot League championship? This year's spring game, Cecchini's second as offensive coordinator and the first where a senior, senior QB Chris Lum , was the unquestioned field general, had none of that same drama.  Matter of fact, rainy weather and a depleted "O" line meant that the already-basic spring playbook was probably closed even further. All of that made the Spring Scrimmage a showcase for the Brown team defense. (more)

The spring season has featured October weather and an offensive line depleted due to injury. But to head coach Andy Coen and the rest of the Mountain Hawks, it's been more sunshine this Spring season than clouds. That's what a ten win season, a Patriot League championship, and the League's first playoff victory since 2001 can do. This Saturday, the 2011 Lehigh football team will prove which team reigns supreme - Brown (defense) or White (Offense). And don't think it's anything but serious, the competition between the two sides. (more)

(Photo Credit: Matt Smith /The Express-Times) Senior QB Chris Lum has found himself in a very unfamiliar place this spring - the unquestioned starter as signalcaller. It's been a long road for Lum, who competed hard for the position against  QB J.B. Clark , the quarterback that broke Lafayette's four game winning streak. As a freshman, he was MVP of the scout team.  As a sophomore, he worked his way to backup, and when Clark struggled, Lum came in.  And last spring, he was faced with an open tryout with the senior Clark for the starting nod. Now, he's probably the one position on the field where he's the unquestioned starter. And with targets like senior WR Jake Drwal and junior WR Ryan Spadola to throw to, he's looking to this spring to allow him to have a breakout senior year. (more)

Spring football is going along well, even when the temperature outside seems more like a mid-summers' day than early April.  Viewed in that light, it seems pretty apropos that Lehigh's theme for this year involves the heat - or, as head coach Andy Coen explained to Keith Groller of the Morning Call , 212 degrees: 'That's the boiling point of water,'' Coen said. ''The thought is that you want to heat up and when you get to 212 degrees, you boil and you can do some special things. I think they picked up a good theme because we have been close the last couple of years. We have been playing at 210, 211 degrees in a lot of games. This year we need to get to 212.'' It's been an incredibly busy month for Lehigh athletics - two NCAA tournament appearances, an EIWA and NCAA Wrestling championship, and another appearance on CBS College Sports this weekend - this time for men's lacrosse, where they head up to Hamilton to engage in their own sprin...