Lehigh Football Nation

Everything about the 2015 season screamed "rebuilding," even if the Lehigh faithful never really could bring themselves to completely believe it. Lehigh was coming from a frustrating 2014 where the Mountain Hawks came close to beating James Madison at home, but couldn't finish the game, making Lehigh slide to an uncharacteristic 3-8 record. There was the departure in the offseason of RB Chris Leigh , the one player that scored a touchdown for the Mountain Hawks in the 150th meeting between Lafayette and Lehigh in Yankee Stadium, and RB Brandon Yosha , the transfer running back that battled injury and chop blocks leading to his retirement from football as well. With pretty much any other team and any other fan base, expectations for the year would have been low.  But at Lehigh, expectations are sky-high, for better or for worse, all the time.  Perhaps it's the historic success of the program; perhaps it's the fans, who are spoiled by all the Patriot League...

Senior SS Randall Lawson (Morning Call) Lehigh's defensive numbers in 2014, as I mentioned before, leave a lot to be desired. And when you look at the secondary, it's the same story. Out of 121 FCS teams, Lehigh ranked 110th in pass defense, and if you watched the unit last year, you also saw too many big plays allowed by the defense, too. The silver lining, though, is that Lehigh only graduates two players in the secondary, DB Jason Suggs and DB Jamil Robinson , so the returning starters all have a years' experience under their belt in defensive coordinator Joe Bottiglieri 's defensive system. This spring has also posed some challenges for the Lehigh staff, as there are a lot of secondary players on the shelf with injuries, making it a challenge for the remaining players.

You'd think with a headline like "Past and Present Lehigh Football Players Go Prematurely Bald" that the next sentence I'd be writing would be an ad for "Hair Club For Men". Instead, though, I'm going to be writing about how a bunch of Lehigh football players going prematurely bald is a great, inspirational thing. This past Sunday, "Team Jack" went to nearby Phillipsburg, New Jersey, to get their heads shaved in solidarity with their favorite teammate and biggest fan, ten year old  Jack Knudson , and also raise more than $2,000 for the St. Baldrick's foundation for pediatric cancer research. (You can still donate to "Team Jack" by clicking on this link and clicking the " Donate " button.)

In my first edition about Lehigh's spring  football season, I take a look at one of the parts of the team that I'll be watching closely when the Brown vs. White game gets played on April 19th: the secondary. While one might naturally start one's focus on Lehigh's spring season on the offense, and the reps that rising sophomore QB Nick Shafnisky will be taking, I'd argue that it's equally as important to focus on the battles happening in the Mountain Hawk secondary. For the first time in a long time, it's not a foregone conclusion as to whom will be starting come September.

(Photo Credit: Stephen Flood / The Express-Times ) We're to 28 days, as Lehigh's first preseason spring practice got started last night. At no. 28, we find  sophomore CB Olivier Rigaud  as our highlighted Lehigh football athlete in today's countdown.