Lehigh Football Nation

There's a pretty good chance that senior WR Troy Pelletier , who made the Patriot League's preseason all-Conference team and is on the Walter Payton Award watch list to start the year, will be the starter in the season opener vs. Villanova. It's also not a headline that junior RB Dominick Bragalone , also on the Patriot League's preseason all-Conference team, is likely to -shocker! - be a starter on September 2nd. But that doesn't mean that there still aren't plenty of questions as the Mountain Hawks enter into their fall training camp for fans to think about.

Let's take a look at all the training camps around the Patriot League and see what's up. Last week, I talked about the first week of Lehigh's training camp and you can read about that here .

It's hot, it's muggy and it's sticky, but all that's doing for Patriot League football fans is getting them in the mood for football season. The Mountain Hawks, who are finishing up their second week of practice and their first scrimmage with full contact . "Our kids really competed well," head coach Andy Coen said. "It was good to see sophomore RB Nick Thevanayagam play really well for us. Really, the thought process was to get Dom a series and get him out and get Nick and sophomore RB Micco Brisker involved. (Micco) did a nice job. Caught the ball out of the backfield. I think he's going to be somebody that's going to be a different guy this year than he was last year." The news wasn't all good, however, as it was revealed via Twitter that senior LB Colton Caslow was battling an injury. One noticeable absence: Senior LB Colton Caslow is injured. Andy Coen hoping to have him back in "three weeks or so....

(Photo Credit: The Expess-Times) If there is one word that must sum up senior QB Michael Colvin , it must be "patience." "My goal this year is to be the starting quarterback,"he said to Michael LoRe of the Express-Times two Augusts ago. "If I don’t and we decide to do Wildcat stuff, I’ll do my best to help the team. But my goal is to be the starter and it has been and will be this year, next year and the year after that." After a terrible leg injury midway through his freshman season, and two years playing part-time Wildcat formation specialist behind Payton Award finalist QB Chris Lum , Mike finally reached his goal. To be "the man" at QB for the Mountain Hawks.

Last year's Picture Day was big news around Lehigh Nation . Not only did it feature brand-new uniforms courtesy of Under Armor, but it also featured hilarious one-on-one interviews featuring CB Jarard "Main Man" Cribbs and members of the team. This year continues the tradition, with senior LB Devin Greene playing the part of host on Lehigh's "Behind the Scenes" segment on Lehigh's official report on preseason camp . Greene seemed to have less adrenaline, and more cool, than Jarard - but he still seemed to show a looseness about the team.  It's a trait that worked extremely well for the 2010 Mountain Hawks - and a trait that everyone hopes will be the key to success this year as well. (more)

Finally feeling better, I was able to take advantage of the (relatively) cooler weather to play a game outdoors with my son: "Ouch." For those of you who don't have a child in soccer, it's a game where your child tries to kick the soccer ball (or football) and hit you, the parent, with it. "Ouch" is an appropriate "Sunday's Word" today for Lehigh fans as well. It's the end of preseason camp - matter of fact, all the players are showing up for their first day of classes today - and I'm sure everyone who practiced the past two weeks might be forgiven if they thought they were in Bogota rather than Bethlehem: heat index 90+, humidity damn near 100%. The heat, the humidity - and the contact from camp adds up to one thing: "Ouch!" Preseason camp is always a time of optimism, and for Lehigh this year's offseason has been the most optimistic in some years. While a 5-6 record - loaded with frustrating losses - normally wouldn...

Lehigh's summer practice is coming to a close this weekend, as the Mountain Hawks finish with a full scrimmage at Murray Goodman stadium tomorrow which coincides with Lehigh's hosted "Media Day". The latest report from the Lehigh website gives the scoop : After practice Coen offered his thoughts on several Mountain Hawks that have left an impression during the 2009 camp. He started by pointing out a pair of players from the freshmen class, one from each side of the ball. “ Freshman TE Jamel Haggins without a doubt on offense has been impressive,” Coen commented. “He’s big and physical, he’s catching everything thrown at him; he’s done a great job at tight end for us.” Coen continued, “On defense freshman CB Bryan Andrews continues to do a nice job. He’s a very good athlete with solid ball skills; he had a nice interception and runback the other day during our scrimmage. He’s still learning the position but he’s making a serious push for playing time.” Asked t...

Like you, I waited and waited for an answer to the question "Who will be Lehigh's starting quarterback?" And much like the frustrated press rabble on Friday night... tonight I'm left with no answer, according to word from the Easton Express-Times : "No, not yet. We'll sit down and watch the tape (today) and early next week, I'll let the kids know," Coen said. "I can put you guys on my text message list like Sen. (Barack) Obama." The third-year Lehigh head coach did say the two frontrunners for the position are junior Chris Bokosky and sophomore J.B. Clark. Isn't that like saying the frontrunners for the vice-presidential pick were Joe Biden, Evan Bayh and Hillary Clinton? Junior QB Chris Bokosky chimed in too: Bokosky, who threw for 469 yards and two touchdowns last season, said the competition is fun and friendly among the four quarterbacks. "We're a close group. We're competitors," he said. "It really brought o...

No word from Lehigh camp if coach Coen has Trisha Yearwood in his iPod, but he was recently seen sporting a cowboy hat in LehighSports.com's report on preseason practice . More important than his choice of headwear, however, was the content of the release and who he singled out for praise. One player he singled out has been an LFN fave for some time: junior DT B.J. Benning . “He’s big, he’s physical, and he keeps improving every day we’re out here,” Coen said. “BJ put on some extra weight and muscle in the off-season, but he’s every bit athletic as he was last season.” The other big news? How about the emergence of a couple of underclassman challenging at wideout and tight end? “ Sophomore WR Craig Zurn has really come on strong during camp,” Coen said. “He had a strong spring and he’s been able to carry that through. He was definitely in the mix at the start of camp, but he’s worked his way up the lineup even more.” Coen added, “He’s tough, he’s gritty, he’s a hard-nosed fo...

This weekend saw a lot of interesting updates on how preseason practice is going for the Mountain Hawks. A tantalizing picture of the 2008 Lehigh football team is now taking shape. The Morning Call's Keith Groller started things off on Sunday with an extensive official report on progress at practice and tons of juicy tidbits as well in his blog entry . As if that weren't enough, the official Lehigh site also filed an update after Sunday's practice as well. From this buffet of different information, only tasty speculation can ensue. Let's get right to the good stuff, and what it seems to be what's on every Lehigh fan's mind: the QB situation. Who's ahead in the race? Is a decision being made? With Threatt gone, Coen has a chance to start over, and build an offense around a quarterback he can mold. The competition for Threatt's old job is the most intriguing aspect of Lehigh's preseason camp. Junior Chris Bokosky, who played when Threatt went ...

Lehigh just released an interesting report on their official website regarding Lehigh's progress during preseason practice, and I can say this: it didn't look like that when I showed up at practice the other day. After getting permission to see practice from the athletics department this past Sunday I was in the area for Eagles practice and stopped to also see the Brown & White later that afternoon. The practice was already pulled into Rausch field house at that time since it had hailed just about an hour earlier in the Valley. I took great pains to stay out of the way, and see exactly what was up. Since it was a split squad match (and I only saw the one of them), no real conclusions can be drawn. I did see sophomore RB Jaren Walker sporting his new #8 jersey as Lehigh go through some physical drills in "shells" (to the uninitiated, in helmets and about half the number of pads as normal). The only real "news' I can offer from the practice was the pre...

Although technically it started yesterday with the freshmen reporting, today is the official kickoff of Lehigh's preseason camp . It really does feel like football season now, with under 30 days until the opener against Drake. (The milder weather sure helps, too.) Tomorrow, Lehigh will start with split squad practices for the first few days, followed by the first "two-a-days" in full pads starting next week up through August 24th (one day before classes begin). This year, they will have a tiny bit of overlap with Eagles camp - the Big Birds break camp on August 12th, while full two-a-days start a couple of days later for the 'Hawks. Last year, optimism abounded with coach Coen and the Lehigh troops when camp started. There were some things to work on - notably, "O" and "D"-line depth - but Lehigh had an exciting incoming class, a preseason Player of the Year on offense returning (QB Sedale Threatt), and it looked like there were going to be som...

If it's summer, that means the latest college football magazines have come out with their rankings of FCS schools. The Any Given Saturday community and Lindy's College Football have unveiled theirs yesterday - and it's as if the Patriot League barely existed. Now, I'm not going to be a homer and say I expected Lehigh (who was 5-6 last year) to be ranked in the Top 25 or anything. But the omission of Fordham, the winner of the Patriot League last year from Lindy's entire Top 25 was disheartening, not to mention front-runners Colgate (boasting the nation's leading rusher last year in rising senior RB Jordan Scott ) and Holy Cross (who will have rising senior QB Dominic Randolph returning next year, who almost put up a point-a-minute on Lehigh in a 59-10 shellacking last year). The Any Given Saturday poll had the Patriot League little better, with Fordham at #23 (and, for good measure, Yale at #24). Both were ranked behind SIX CAA teams: James Madison (#2), Ric...

This Saturday, Lehigh hosted their annual media day to celebrate the close of summer practice. As for me, I'm spending this sticky Sunday night going over the amazing array of different content that has been generated by this day (which includes this picture to my left). Let's start with the report on the Lehigh official website , followed closely by reports from the Allentown Morning Call about senior C John Reese , Lehigh's many local connections , and Express-Times piece on the many injuries in camp , and you can't forget Keith Groller's latest blog posting involving senior QB Sedale Threatt . (Did I also forget the loads of new podcasts on Lehigh's iTunes store , including two videos?) The mash-up at the end of this posting should shed a nice, digested light on all this content. Probably the most important piece of information to come out of this barrage of news is that junior RB Matt McGowan 's ACL injury appears to be "less serious than origin...

The biggest news out of this weekend was not the issuance of my new T-shirt line for the Lehigh/Villanova game , the new poll for Murray Goodman's 20th Anniversary (scroll down on the left-hand side) here on the blog, or the impending issuance of the College Sporting News football preview issue. Without a doubt, the big story was concerning the injuries after the first week of practice - some minor dings, but at least one big one that shakes up the depth chart. Placed innocuously in Keith Groller's latest blog posting on the Morning Call , he drops this bombshell: Most notable were injuries that sidelined both tailbacks Matt McGowan and Josh Pastore. McGowan's injury was more serious, a torn hamstring. It's expected to keep him out of the Sept. 8 opener against Villanova and could hamper him for weeks beyond that. The former Hazleton star was set for a breakout season and this injury is not a good way to get things started. So starting tailbacks #1 and #2 were held out ...

Three really quick hits: first of all (and I hope this is a regular thing) Lehighsports.com posted today a report on their first preseason practice . “I’m very pleased with the excitement of our guys and the effort they have put forth up to this point,” second year head coach Andy Coen said afterwards. “With so much information given to the freshmen at once, I think they have picked it up well. I’m excited about this freshmen class and what lies ahead for them.” Yeah, I know, it's not a lot of meat. But throw a starving man a bone... it gets you thinking. "He's excited about the freshman class.. who could be pushing for starting nods? Who's going to be that backup left guard? How many hours until 1PM on September 8th?" It's probably the superfan in me more than anything else. Still, I realy hope they will keep this up. Second of all, a word on polls. It looks like the winner of the T-Shirt poll was "Westbrook Can't Help You Now", which I have to...

Most of the time, we think of the fall as a "time of renewal". For Lehigh, as we finally kick off preseason camp for the Mountain Hawks it looks like (to go along with less-than-seasonal cool weather) this year, it's coming a month early. Start with the news we've been waiting for since late November: the Philadelphia Eagles are graciously breaking camp at Lehigh and 2007 Mountain Hawks have finally started spring practice . Look for an analysis a little later this week about positional battles, but you'll see from the mash-up of the press reports that coach Coen couldn't be more excited about getting started again for the 2007 season. Also of note: coach Coen said the following: “We have lots of jobs open as we enter into it and I think that will make for a great deal of competition.” This could mean it will be an interesting preseason to see what happens. We may even see some freshmen move into important roles - we'll see. The other "renewal...