Lehigh Football Nation

Last year, Lehigh was shut out at home 7-0 against a Yale team that had no business shutting out the Mountain Hawks. This year, once again Lehigh was shut out at home - but this time it was to Villanova - the defending national champs, and arguably the most powerful team in the most powerful FCS conference in America. Not even an unnaturally warm summer day could slow down Villanova WR Matt Szczur and the Villanova offense, which would rack up more than 300 yards rushing on the afternoon. Going into the game, some thought that the Mountain Hawks would be able to hang with the national champs and the team that ought to be the No. 1 team in the country.  They were proven spectacularly wrong by halftime.   (more)

(Photo Credit: andrew7459, Flickr ) So what's better if you're a Lehigh fan? It sure seemed like most Lehigh fans were hoping for Villanova to hold onto the "Mayor's Cup" against FBS Temple last Friday - hoping that the Wildcats would be coming into Murray Goodman stadium brimming with confidence - and perhaps overlooking the home team with the new uniforms. Instead, Lehigh will be receiving a Villanova team that coulda, woulda, shoulda beat a vastly improved Temple team - and could be looking for an FCS team to be a punching bag to reclaim their No. 1 ranking - which was inexplicably stripped from them when they lost after leading the Owls the great majority of the game last weekend. But which is better?  A Wildcat team brimming with confidence after yet another win over Temple?  Or a team that cannot afford to start the year 0-2 and needs to reclaim momentum?   (more)

(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...