Lehigh Football Nation

I have some things to do before the 148th this weekend in Easton - namely, two weeks of players of the week (since I forgot for Holy Cross in my zeal to cover the Colgate game) and some links wrapping up last week's game. Something that has muted the party  this week has been the heartbreaking story of Lafayette QB Zach Zweizig , whose father, 56, tragically died from complications of a stroke earlier this week. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.  I love "The Rivalry", I really do.  But some things transcend it.

(Photo Credit: Kevin Mingora/Morning Call ) It may have been pacing break, but the Columbia/Lehigh game wasn't lacking photo and video evidence that it occurred. I don't know if it was the overcast weather, the colder, more fall-like  temperatures, the pink or what, but the shots of the game from Kevin Mingora of the Morning Call look absolutely stunning, as do the shots from the Brown & White photographers that were at the game. I'd encourage you to go over there and check out the Morning Call's eleven-page gallery , which is filled with great shots. The shot above, too, comes from that collection.  And there is a album of pictures from the Brown & White as well as a video recap of the game as well from Alec Murphy . They make my whopping two pictures on the Facebook Page seem pretty dim in comparison.  Then again, I didn't get to field level this game!

Below the flip, find my choices for Players of the Week, and a list of the recaps of the game from around the internet.

(Photo Credit: Karl Merton Ferron / The Baltimore Sun ) As Towson entered the field before their playoff game versus Lehigh, and unidentified player came through the large, inflatable tiger head holding a championship belt, not unlike one a prizefighter might wear. As someone who writes about Lehigh football, it provided an irresistible storyline for the playoff game, with echoes of Ali vs. Frazier.  The Thrila in Manila.  A prizefight. It makes naming this game the "Towson Thrilla" from here on forward just that much easier. What did the the Lehigh players think about the move after the game? "We had no knowledge of it until we saw them run out with it," junior WR Ryan "The Answer" Spadola said to me later.  "It was bad on their part because it just got us more fired up." As we go over the mountain of great press about this phenomenal game, I'd like to round up the highlights of those articles, as well as empty out my own note...

(Photo Credit: Stephen Flood/The Express-Times) Picture-perfect weather.  An announced crowd of over 9,000 fans - and almost certainly more than 10,000 fans in the seats (if you count students, who get free admission). Most importantly, though, a gutty win for the guys in Brown and White. And a win that folks are still talking about in the Lehigh Valley - setting up a winner-take-all showdown next weekend against Georgetown for the Patriot League championship and autobid.  (Yes.  Georgetown!) A bunch of different articles highlight the win - and start to set up next week's game, too.

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: Sarah Strackhouse/The Brown & White via the Express-Times) When times are good for the Rams, Fordham usually gets some decent coverage in what is considered the "media capital of the world". But when they lose to go to 1-5, even if it is to the No. 8-ranked team in the country, you're hard pressed to find any mention of the Rams in the New York Post , Daily News , or New York Times . The good news, though, is there's still a lot of press for the Mountain Hawks' accomplishment this weekend.

(Photo Credit: Liz Rohde/The Daily Item, via the Morning Call) Senior QB Chris Lum and senior DE Ben Flizack didn't just run away with a 30-6 victory on Saturday - they also ran away with Patriot League Players of the Week awards, too .  For Lum, it was his fourth time being honored by the League, while it was the first time for FLizack. Lum's command performance (30-for-37, 368 yards passing, 30 yards rushing, 4 TDs, 1 interception) earned him a co-Offensive Player of the Week award from the Sports Network as well, making him the only player to be honored twice by the organization. Their awards capped off a bunch of happy recaps - and a bit of gnashing of teeth from Lehigh fans and media folks that were stuck on I-80 on their way to Lewisburg - of their fifth win of the season.

(Photo Credit: Leah Kulp/Brown & White Photo Staff via Express-Times) Head coach Andy Coen posed with the Yank Townsend trophy, given to the winner of the Lehigh/Yale clash, after the win this weekend. It was the first time that Lehigh had been allowed to keep the trophy in Bethlehem, since it was the first time that Lehigh had beaten Yale since 2005, the first year that the trophy was offered. In fact, the good news has kept pouring in  for the Mountain Hawks since winning the trophy, as the team recently rejoined the Top Ten in the Sports Network and Coaches' Polls, and senior QB Chris Lum was also formally added to the Walter Payton Award watchlist, which is essentially the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy in FCS football. Meanwhile, Yale head coach Tom Williams brought some... Febreze... into Yale's team meeting on Monday.  To see why, check out the Press Roundup below the flip.   (more)

(Photo Credit: Brian Freed/The Express-Times ) It was a Lehigh football game with quite the gold standard of media coverage. On TV, there were two full-time staffs covering the game: the regular Service Electric 2 broadcast from Mike Zambelli and Mike Yadush, and the Flames Sports Network TV broadcast featuring Mike Tilley and Ray Jones . On radio, Matt Kerr and Tom Fallon covered the game for ESPN AM 1230 and 1320 locally, while Alan York handled the play-by-play dutires for the Flames Radio Network. And in print, a multitude of media outlets also covered Lehigh's stirring 27-24 victory over a fellow nationally-ranked opponent as well, including two photo galleries.   (more)

(Photo Credit: Ben Rosales/The Daily Princetonian) This week's gut-check vitory at Princeton resulted in 0 what else? - another Patriot League Player of the Week award for senior QB Chris Lum ,with his 384 yard, 4 TD, zero interception performance in Lehigh's 34-22 victory . While the Morning Call folks might have found the award ho-hum , there was plenty of press surrounding this hard-fought game this weekend.  (more)

It was an amazing display of football this Saturday at Murray Goodman stadium, and while there were plenty of great pictures from the game, one of the best came from the muscle grab by sophomore RB Keith Sherman as taken by one of you, the Nation. The weekly wrap features a writeup from the Sports Network , a whole host of articles from the local publications, and some extra wrap-up from an active media up in New Hampshire.  Oh yeah, and senior QB Chris Lum won Patriot League Player of the Week honors for the second straight week with his 6 TD, 401 yard passing performance. Did you know that Lum now has more passing touchdowns than any quarterback in the country right now - FCS or FBS?  Now, you do. (more)

(Photo Credit: Peter Ackerman/The Daily Record) Below the flip, see the press roundup of Lehigh's victory over Monmouth - and a peek at what's been happening with Lehigh's next opponent, New Hampshire.  (more)

With a staff report from the Express-Times and a re-mixed report from the official school recaps on the Morning Call , my blog recap of the game was once again the only independent recap this week. The Brown & White did not file any story either and as far as I know, and no New York media outlet had a recap of the game either. Granted, it was a rainy matchup between two sub-.500 teams, but it still strikes me when I'm really the only person out there doing an independent recap from a Lehigh perspective. Happily, Keith Groller of the Morning Call still weighed in on Monday. Lehighsports.com: Campbell's career day, Lehigh D leads to road win “It wasn’t the prettiest game I’ve ever been a part of, that’s for sure, but it feels a lot better than the last two weeks,” Lehigh head coach Andy Coen said afterwards. “The kids did a great job all day. We had our moments where we weren’t taking care of the ball or committing silly penalties but the defense rose up when it neede...

(Photo courtesy Denise Sanchez, the Morning Call) Here are the press links for this weekend's heroic effort versus Holy Cross, but before I get to that I just wanted to reiterate how great it was to see Murray Goodman come to life this weekend. Have I become a sudden fan of moral victories? No; but I still feel like this effort was a step in the right direction. There were lessons in this game for the underclassmen, and I'm hoping those lessons will pay dividends next year. Morning Call: Late TD Allows Holy Cross to Escape Lehigh As he tried to come to grips with another agonizingly close loss for his Lehigh football team, coach Andy Coen scanned the stat sheet late Saturday afternoon in a tiny media room at Goodman Stadium and noted the similarities of the final numbers. Both Lehigh and Holy Cross had run the same number of plays (70), had the same number of penalties (9) and had nearly the same total yards (375-372 Lehigh). The difference wasn't on the sheet, but rathe...

(Photo courtesy Colgate Athletics) There was precious little coverage in the papers this weekend on the game, especially in the upstate New York area where all we have is the AP mentions that a game was played in Hamilton and that the 7-1 Raiders still are very much in the hunt for a spot in the playoffs and maybe the Patriot League autobid. The local papers also mostly ran modified versions of the official Lehigh recap, though to their credit the Morning Call did do a follow-up piece today as well. Even the student-run Brown and White didn't mention the game at Colgate this weekend, which leaves my recap as the only independent record of the game this Saturday . Lehigh Athletics: Lehigh Can't Hold Early Lead, Falls to Colgate 27-20 "I thought the kids fought hard, they competed right to the end there. But we need to win one of these close games,” Mountain Hawks head coach Andy Coen said after the game. “I thought junior QB J.B. Clark did a nice job running the offens...

(Photo Credit: The Sunbury Daily Item) As we watch freshman RB Zach Barket grind out some yards against the Bucknell defense, it's time to look over some of the press that comes out of this weekend. While there isn't a photo gallery of the game from the Morning Call this week, the Sunbury Daily Item did have a couple good pictures in their writeup . Allentown Morning Call: Lehigh Wins Big over Bucknell ''It felt great and hats off to the offensive line first,'' junior QB J.B. Clark said after completing 24 of 37 passes. ''They gave me five or six seconds to throw the ball and the receivers made some great catches. We came out confident.'' ''That was big [for freshman QB Michael Colvin ] to score on the first series,'' Clark said. ''It set the tone for the game, and hopefully, the rest of the season.'' ''I got my opportunity and I think I took full advantage of it,'' Barket said. ''But thi...

(Photo courtesy Denise Sanchez, The Morning Call) Looking around the press writeups (and the Morning Call's photo gallery of the game ,) we see the press praise Lehigh's heroic defense who has now gone nine straight shutout quarters. One interesting thing that I didn't realize watching the coverage of the game was that junior DB John Kennedy actually caused a fumble on the last play of the game when Yale was trying to run out the clock. It didn't win the game - but it did show exactly what type of player the "Prez" is. Morning Call: Hawks Fall to Yale 7-0 ''I can't say enough about the defense and how they came up with stops time and time again,'' Coen said. ''Right to the end when they caused a fumble on a kneel-down, our defense played their hearts out.'' ''We need to be excited about every game from here on out because they're all championship games,'' said junior CB Jarard Cribbs . ''We need...

(Photo courtesy Kevin Mingora, The Morning Call ) Unsurprisingly, the press this week was not kind to the Mountain Hawks in the write-ups of their 28-14 loss to Harvard . The Morning Call has a photo gallery up from the game, of which this picture to my left featuring freshman QB Michael Colvin is a part. (There have been others this year from the Morning Call as well, but today was the first day I felt enterprising enough to post them.) Look soon for my photos to be posted to the Lehigh Football Nation Facebook page as well. If fans would like me to post them to Webshots as well I will do so, though I have been too bummed to post any so far this year. They're currently on my computer at home, waiting for me to get some time to upload them. Lehigh Athletics: Mountain Hawks Drop 28-14 Decision to Harvard "Obviously we're not happy to be 0-4," Mountain Hawks head coach Andy Coen said afterwards. "I thought sophomore QB Chris Lum did some nice things out the...

Rounding up the press on the game, Lehigh members focused on my "Sunday's Word" as it being a "learning experience" - but Keith Groller of the Morning Call also brings up the elephant in the room as well: scholarships. [Programming note: I'm going to set up the voting for LFN's Player of the Week on the Facebook page. I'll keep the voting open until Thursday since I didn't get it up yesterday.] First, though, the recaps: Lehigh Athletics Release: No. 3 Wildcats prove too much for Lehigh, 38-17 "I thought we made improvements over last week but certainly not enough to win against the number-three team in the country," Lehigh head coach Andy Coen said afterwards in the press conference. "But we did clean things up in certain areas and now we have to keep moving forward. We have our bye week coming up which will allow some of our banged up guys to get healthy and we'll go back, watch the tape and continue to improve." Morni...