Lehigh Football Nation

It's been a crazy week so far in the Lehigh Valley, with the freak October snowstorm that made its way through the area, and the resulting power outages on campus that continue to this moment. But that hasn't stopped the local press from churning out a host of different articles about the big Patriot League clash between Lehigh and Colgate this weekend. Even the relatively silent media around Utica took notice - with an actual written postgame story, and an actual quote from a Colgate player who played in the game . Who said gumshoe reporting is dying north of Binghamton and east of Buffalo?

(Photo Credit: Bob Cornell/Colgate Athletics) Before the season even started, Colgate senior RB Nate Eachus had to have looked at this home game at Andy Kerr stadium and thought it would be his best opportunity to put on a show. The preseason Patriot League favorite for the Payton award didn't say anything about - he's too humble for that - but you have to believe he knew that the national TV coverage on CBS Sports Network, and Colgate's traditional place in the Patriot League hunt, gave him a chance to show off his skills on a national level. He did have a pretty good day in his final game against Lehigh, with a gutty performance befitting the Hazelton, PA native. But it ended up paling in comparison to the guy doing the same job on the other sideline.

It wasn't supposed to be like this for the Raiders. Before the 2011 football season got started, it was easy to circle October 29th on the calendar and say, "This will be a big game on the Patriot League schedule." And CBS College Sports, too, agreed, making it one of their two nationally televised games on the year. Somewhere along the way, though, the Raider season jumped off the tracks. And now, with two conference losses and their chances at the Patriot League title basically having evaporated, Colgate is now playing to get back to .500, protect a perfect 3-0 record in "their house," Andy Kerr Stadium, and finish out the year strong. There would be no better way for the Raiders to do that than to upend a Top Ten team - and a pretty good rival, at that - in Hamilton this weekend.

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)

(Photo Credit: Colgate Athletics) Over the years, Lehigh/Colgate games have earned their reputation as being big games in the Patriot League race. Start with the history of the Patriot League. Lehigh and Colgate own or share fourteen Patriot League championships in football. They own six of the seven postseason wins in the FCS playoffs of the Patriot League. (Fordham has the other.) Many years, this game looms as important as to determining the champion of the Patriot League - and for precious bids to the FCS playoffs. And as a result, fans have flocked to this game in the past. In 2004, the Lehigh/Colgate clash was a battle of Top 20 teams, and was played in front of 13.929 fans. But this "Hate the 'Gate" rivalry - as coined by one-time Lehigh LB Matt Mohler - hasn't been the same in the past three years. The Mountain Hawks haven't been nationally ranked now for quite some time, while Colgate has often been in the FCS Top 25. Furthermore, Lehigh h...

(Photo Credit: Jimmy Young/The Richmond Collegian) The signs were there earlier in the week for anyone who was following Richmond football. Come Wednesday before their likely do-or-die game at UMass, Spider head coach Latrell Scott still hadn't selected a starting QB. Highly-regarded transfer QB Aaron Corp was out for the year after injuring his knee against New Hampshire the previous weekend. His backup, QB John Laub , had a wrist injury, and the third string, sophomore QB Nick Hicks , suffered a concussion against the Wildcats and could not make the trip to Amherst. "It's tough to prepare for the unknown," Scott said of the challenge faced by the Minutemen. "[But] it's not by design on our part." Anyone head coach who could compete dealt with a hand like that deserves a lot of credit. A head coach who wins against a top team in the nation with a hand like that deserves something else - continued survival for a postseason spot. (more)

Going into this weekend, there was one team that the casual sports fan might associate with the words "Big Red Machine": the Cincinnati Reds, who were anything but a well-oiled operation after feebly, among a host of errors and strikeouts, falling to the Phillies in three games. More immediately to the Patriot League, though, is a Big Red Machine that is currently running on all cylinders. After two straight annihilations, of Georgetown two weeks ago and of Princeton last weekend, Colgate emphatically sent notice that they are The. Machine. To. Beat. This. Year. (more)

Sometimes is seems like not much changes from year to year up in Hamilton, New York with the Colgate Raiders. And that's probably just how Raider fans - and head coach Dick Biddle , who is entering his fifteenth season coaching the team playing in the frozen tundra of upstate New York - like it. There's no drama this season in Hamilton, really compared to the rest of the Patriot League. Elsewhere, there are quarterback battles in training camp, staff changes, head coaching changes and plenty of news to keep the newspapers and internet buzzing. Colgate? They're wondering which players they can reload with while their senior signalcaller - and leading running back - return to shoulder the Raider load in 2010. There's no drama in Raidertown.  (more)