Lehigh Football Nation

This year's FCS playoffs, the first since the field was expanded to 20 teams, has made for a season of growing pains.  Not necessarily bad ones, but pains nonetheless. With a 16 team bracket, it made for an easy beginning and end to the FCS regular season.  It always ended the weekend before Christmas, the all-America teams were done - and the national champions were crowned, as all of the world of FCS partied on the eve of the new year. But with an extra round of playoffs, it was the semifinals that would end the week before Christmas - and three long, long weeks before knowing for certain the identity of the national champions. And the team that defeated Lehigh in the playoffs the week after the playoffs may very well be the team that is this year's champion. (more)

(Photo Credit: Matt Breitel/The Brown & White) It still is hard to comprehend that the football season is finally, truly, over. In case you're like me, you'll want to go over the final game recaps of Lehigh's fall in the second round of the playoffs. It was a year to remember on a whole lot of fronts. Lehigh's first Ivy league sweep since 2005. The Patriot League's first win in the FCS playoffs since 2003. The Mountain Hawks' first outright Patriot League title since 2001 - and their first playoff victory since that time, too. To top it off, the three teams they lost to - Villanova, New Hampshire, and Delaware of the CAA - are all still alive in the playoffs today, implying that they are three of the top eight (or nine) FCS programs in the nation. But today is a day to recap Lehigh's season-ending loss to Delaware this past Saturday, and below the flip are the recaps of the Mountain Hawks' final game in 2010. (more)

(Photo Credit: William Bretzger/ The Wilmington News-Journal ) Before the season started, I was hugely skeptical about Delaware QB Pat Devlin . I didn't even have him listed as a top three quarterback in my preseason FCS all-America team. I felt that he had some good statistics last year - playing on a losing football team - but I thought there were better quarterbacks around FCS. Say, Appalachian State QB DeAndre Presley , who is the current signalcaller for the Mountaineers' spread-option attack, or Stephen F. Austin QB Jeremy Moses , who ran the Lumberjacks' pinball, pass-happy offense. But I became quite the believer in the frigid Delaware press box this Saturday. "Devlin" is an appropriate season-ending "Word" for Lehigh for two reasons - reasons that you'll have to see below the flip. (more)

(Photo Credit: Mark Campbell/Delaware Athletics) So the first team to 21 points indeed was the team that ended up winning, as I predicted. And Delaware - to their immense credit - put up 40 points on Lehigh's defense. (So much for my bold prediction that the Blue Hens wouldn't put up 40 on the Mountain Hawks.) But heading down the tunnel off the field after the Lehigh football season came to a cold end in the FCS playoffs in Newark, Delaware, there were no hung helmets from the Lehigh players. Some disappointment, sure. But no tears. No humiliation, as a different type of swarm came around the Lehigh players - a group of Lehigh fans, who silently gave their support for a season that exceeded all fans' expectations. Lehigh came out of the gates with some momentum and kept the game close early on - but Blue Hen QB Pat Devlin , who looked an awful lot like a first rounder in the NFL draft this afternoon, kept making play after play to shred Lehigh's defense. (...

(Photo Credit: William Bretzger/The Delaware News-Journal ) Yesterday, I broke down the " Blue Route Rivalry " in terms of the players' views on the game, and the long and storied rivalry that has been Lehigh and Delaware through the years. But it's not going to be Tubby Raymond or John Whitehead on the sidelines this weekend - it's K.C. Keeler and Andy Coen on the sidelines for the Hens and Hawks this time, and the dynamic count not be more different.  Rather than smack, it's all about mutual respect and the "challenge" of playing Delaware. In this Part 2 of the playoff preview, I'll start with an extended breakdown of the Blue Hens, and then end with my (patent pending) fearless prediction of the game this weekend. (more)