Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: John McDonnell/The Washington Post) I don't make it a habit to read the Casual Hoya blog, whose main focus is their Big East-playing, fisticuffs-in-China-flying, men's basketball team. But when he had his version of a prediction of the Hoya football season, I couldn't help but laugh out loud . Here's something else that isn't a laughing matter: the Hoyas are a far cry from the sad sack team that went 0-11 in 2009.  They will win more Patriot League games this year.  And if the cards fall right, they could find themselves in November once again fighting for a Patriot League championship. (more)

(Photo Credit: Rick Sinclair/The Worcester Telegram & Gazette) If you look at the previews and the musings of FCS pundits across the land, you'd think that the Patriot League title race was most likely going to come down to Lehigh or Colgate. But there was another team last year which concluded the year winning three of their last four games - including one over the team who has the preseason superstar for the Patriot League, senior RB Nate Eachus . Holy Cross doesn't have a lot of big names on the squad. They don't have the record-setting quarterback from last year, QB Dominic Randolph , that would make them a sexy pick for the title. But what they do have is a solid team without a lot of overt weaknesses that make them an especially dangerous team in 2011. (more)

Colgate head football coach Dick Biddle , now entering his 15th year as head coach of the Raiders, has been to a few Patriot League Media Day rodeos before. Looking as uncomfortable as ever in a rumpled shirt and tie - he never has been a "suit" type of guy - he did something at Media Day that was extraordinary. He heaped praise on one of his players. "He may be the best player I've coached as a football coach," Biddle said of his senior Payton Award candidate, senior RB Nate Eachus .  For him to say that, a guy who has coached not only a Payton Award winner ( RB Jamaal Branch ) but the leading rusher in Patriot League history ( RB Jordan Scott ), that's saying something. (more)

If disrespect were money, Fordham fans would be millionaires right now, thanks to a nation of UConn fans. Admittedly, the Rams, under head coach Tom Masella , could have in 2011 their toughest pigskin schedule since Vince Lombardi suited up for the boys of Rose Hill back in the 1930s. And Fordham won't be playing only one team this year that has the potential to qualify for a BCS bowl.  Thanks to the fact that the Rams carry 63 scholarships - a combination of the need-based variety that Patriot League schools may offer, plus merit-based scholarships that more resemble the ones in the rest of FCS - they'll be playing both UConn to open the season and Army later in the year. In Patriot League circles, the question remains: will football scholarships make Fordham into a football program that is unrecognizable to other members of the Patriot League?  But in FBS circles, the Rams evoke more ridicule than respect. (more)

(Photo Credit: The Daily Item ) By any measure, it was a rough year for the Bucknell Bison and head coach Joe Susan in 2010. A 1-10 record, with the only victory a freaky 24-21 win at Georgetown, was certainly not the dream of the young Bison team that stepped onto the football field on Saturdays in the fall. But the mood is still, in general, upbeat in Lewisburg about the Bison's hopes in turning things around.  While 9-2 and a deep run in the playoffs might seem to be a bit unrealistic at this point, there's still a lot of bullishness that the Bison can re-find their winning ways in 2011 - and maybe, just maybe, beat a Top 25 team in Year Two of the Susan era. (more)

If there is one coach on Lehigh's schedule that understands the importance of historical rivalries, it's Yale's Tom Williams . Two years in a row, Williams saw his team suffer excruciating losses to their huge rival, Harvard, in heartbreaking fashion. This year, the Bulldogs will be looking to finally get over the hump to not only beat the Crimson for the first time in coach Williams' tenure, but also to win an outright Ivy League title for the first time since 1980. And in Year Three of the Williams era, they might actually have the team to do it. (more)

I have a confession to make: there is something I really like about Liberty University. As a guy who writes about college football an awful lot, I end up drawing on my own college experiences on South Mountain frequently. And compared to hard-working, hard-partying, casual Lehigh, Liberty is just incredibly different. It makes for good writing. And when the Flames come to Lehigh in September, fans of both dissimilar teams are hoping that they and the Mountain Hawks share one thing, and one thing only: a ranking in the FCS Top 25. (more)

No matter how you look at it, it was a rough year for the Princeton Tigers in 2010. In head coach Bob Surace 's first season at the helm of the Tigers, the senior-laden team collapsed to a 1-9 record, and got swept in Ivy League play for the first time since 1973. It wasn't all his fault - his NFL-caliber linebacker got injured in the 35-22 defeat to Lehigh , and a slew of different injuries afflicted Princeton during the course of the year - but by any measure, it was an incredibly rough rookie campaign for the former assistant coach on the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals. The Tigers, though, will be more dangerous in 2011 than last season's record might suggest.  That's because that NFL-caliber linebacker, senior LB Stephen Cody , took a medical redshirt year and will get one more crack at beating Lehigh. All of a sudden, this game doesn't look like such a cakewalk. (more)

(Photo Credit: Tyler McDermott/The New Hampshire) There's a lot of football games on the schedule in 2011, but the one that seems to loom the largest - aside from that contest Lehigh plays at the end of November, of course - is the home opener. It's not just because New Hampshire plays in the CAA, the football conference that is getting a reputation as "the SEC of FCS". It's not just because it will almost certainly be a matchup between Top 25 teams - the first such contest at Murray Goodman since 2004. And it's not just because the Wildcats humbled Lehigh in Durham last year, 31-10 . It's because last year's game was one of the last appearances of the "old" Lehigh team than the "new" one that closed out the year in 2010. Of all the games on the schedule in 2011, none feels like "redemption" - except this one. (more)

When most people think of West Long Branch, New Jersey, you don't necessarily think of Monmouth University. You're more likely to think of reality shows. You might think about the Jersey Shore - and, if not Snooki , perhaps Monmouth alum  Anthony Beltempo , the creator of the mega-hit TV series on MTV . You might even think of fellow Monmouth alums Stephenie LaGrossa or Katie Gallagher , who were runners-up on Survivor: Palau  among other Survivor shows - and further cementing Monmouth University with the unenviable title of Reality Show U. There's another legacy in West Long Branch, however, that's of much more concern to Lehigh football fans. That legacy is Monmouth's growing football program - that lately has been producing a lot more than reality-show entertainment. Their reality show is played on Sundays, and it gets a heck of a lot more viewers than any show on MTV. (more)