Lehigh Football Nation

  BETHLEHEM, PA - It's amazing to contemplate that only two players on Lehigh's spring roster, both fifth-year seniors, experienced anything resembling a regular, fifteen practice, spring season. LB Nate Norris had played in 2017 as a freshman in head coach Andy Coen's final Championship season, mostly on special teams.  He took part in spring activities in 2018 and 2019, only a few months after head coach Tom Gilmore took over the program.   He was joined by rising sophomore TE Alex Snyder, who started a couple of games as a true freshman in Andy Coen's final season. And then nothing resembling a typical college football schedule was able to occur for the next three years. "It really is incredible that none of our players [except Nate and Alex] have gone through Spring Ball until now," head coach Tom Gilmore told me this week. "The pandemic hit everyone at the same time, but we were in a very unique stage with our program at that point.  Having just go...

  It's the spring, and what that means is that the weather (hopefully) is getting better, the flowers are blooming, and - most importantly - we're in the middle of spring football season. Soon I am planning on posting an update on what has gone on in FCS football since the end of last season (spoiler alert: it is a lot!), but first I wanted to take an initial look at Lehigh's fall 2022 football schedule, and what sort of fun we can expect. But before I do that, I wanted to highlight something that my Twitter pal Omar Rashon-Borja wrote about his beloved Holy Cross Crusaders.     In this piece , he talks about a special game Holy Cross played last year at Polar Park, the minor league home of the Worcester Red Sox (or the "WooSox" as they are commonly known up there).  The game was branded the EBW Classic, featured an important Holy Cross vs. Colgate league matchup, and attracted 9.508 fans to attend ( which was about 2,000 more than their average at Fitton Field ...

  Early last Friday morning, Lehigh football began their spring practice as the sun came up.  In so doing, the Mountain Hawks started their long journey and preparation for the fall 2022 football season. When we last left Lehigh football, they were enjoying a three-game winning streak to end the 2021 season with an extremely satisfying 17-10 win over Lafayette, which was Tom Gilmore's first win over the Leopards as Lehigh's head coach. Since then, winter workouts have allowed the players to build up to the spring session and will allow Gilmore and his staff to build on their November success. Spring practice #️⃣1️⃣ : ✅ Got out there early and worked through the 🌫️. Full gallery: https://t.co/eSHkKTCjOT #GoLehigh | #beGREAT pic.twitter.com/Oa2MmV46HY — Lehigh Football (@LehighFootball) March 25, 2022 "So far, I really like the energy and enthusiasm the players are bringing to the field each day," head coach Tom Gilmore told me.  "There is a genuine appreciati...

This weekend Lehigh's Brown/White Spring game will be happening at 11:00 AM at Murray Goodman Stadium.  Admission is free and it will be Lehigh Nation's first view of what the 2019 Lehigh Mountain Hawk football team will look like. This spring season has been unusual by Lehigh standards where there have generally been public releases as to how people are doing in regards to moving up and down the depth chart.  With the hiring of new head coach Tom Gilmore , this spring seems to be more about establishing "Gilmore fundamentals" as well as assessing the overall situation. “The most important thing we are hoping to accomplish in spring ball is to establish good fundamentals in all phases of the game while establishing great work habits,” he told me this week .  “We will install a modest amount of the schemes and try to build confidence in the base portions of the offense, defense and special teams.”

(Photo Credits: Lehigh Athletics) Just like that, the 2018 Spring Session comes to a close this week, giving us a taste of what is to come in the late summer and fall. Here are my quick observations about what I saw at Murray Goodman on Saturday.

The Lehigh coaching staff took a page from Ole Miss' spring game in their annual Brown/White scrimmage at Murray Goodman stadium. The scoring system Ole Miss used was to spot their defense a 23-0 lead, and the scrimmage's goal was to  have the offense drive on the defense just like a regular football game. It is the hope of every Lehigh football fan in every game in the upcoming 2018 season that the offense scores more than 23 points a game.  Last year, the Lehigh offense averaged for than 35 points per contest. But the Brown defense this Saturday was up to the challenge of containing the White offense. Twelve times, the offense lined up with a potential drive to score points, and nine of those times, the defense forced the offense to punt or stuffed a 4th down conversion. It's true that the offense scored three touchdowns, one from rising senior QB Brad Mayes , one from junior QB Tyler Monaco , and one from sophomore QB Addison Shoup.    It is also true...

(Photo Credit: Brown and White) Lehigh had one of the best offenses statistically in all of the FCS last year, excelling offensively in pretty much every facet. Look at the statistics page for FCS last year . Rising senior QB Brad Mayes , 4th in passing yardage.  Rising senior RB Dominick Bragalone, 1st in rushing yardage with 1,388. Both Mayes and Brags return next year, and huge things will be expected of them for certain. But the spring is about finding out who's stepping up to the plate to keep the train rolling. There's little doubt that, barring injury, Mayes and Bragalone will be lining up in that first offensive possession vs. St. Francis (PA) at Murray Goodman this September.  But the 2017 offense is so much more than those two guys - the Mountain Hawks will need to replace the best receiving tandem ever to suit up at Lehigh, and will also need to replace the fiery leadership on the offensive line that, at times, seemed to will this team to their Patrio...

According to the FCS record books for 2017, there are 123 Division I schools listed in the team statistical Rankings.  Out of 123 teams, Lehigh was ranked 119th in total team defense, allowing 477.7 yards per game. And the defensive numbers don't get much better the more you look. Rushing defense, 117th.  Passing yards allowed, 89th.  Team sacks, 118th.  Red zone defense, 103rd.  Total sacks in 12 games: 10, or 0.8 per game.  Total interceptions in 12 games: 4, or 0.25 per game.  Total takeaways: 13, or a little over 1 per game. Though the final defensive numbers from 2017 are unable to be sugar-coated, nobody involved with Lehigh's defense is running away from the facts this spring.  In fact, they feel they are better than this. "When you hear so much about your defense not being good," defensive coordinator Craig Sutyak said this week , "you start to believe it, and I think our kids started to believe it too the last couple of year...

Lehigh's spring session is in full swing, and there's no question who the opening-day starter will be at quarterback, barring injury - that would be rising senior QB Brad Mayes . Mayes had a great season last year, helping the Mountain Hawk offense to tremendous production again, picking up exactly where Montreal Alouette QB Nick Shafnisky left off after the 2016 season. That doesn't mean Mayes is sitting back sipping an iced tea while his teammates are busting their humps this spring, however.  He's been busy. "This off season was a lot of fun for me,"  he told me. "I got to take on more of a leadership role which allowed me to make great strides in the weight room. We had an outstanding leadership council as well make some great strides in equipment and gear, nutrition, and alumni partnership. Although those may seem like little things when it comes to the game of football, stuff like looking like a team and matching on Saturdays really go a lo...

Lehigh's spring football practice segment officially starts tomorrow, ending an agonizingly long period of football inactivity from the end of the 2017 football season. Tomorrow, the beginnings of the 2018 football team will take shape - a team that waves goodbye to WR Troy Pelletier and WR Gatlin Casey , but welcomes back rising senior QB Brad Mayes and some changes on the defensive side of the ball. What sort of questions will be answered by by the end of this spring segment?  Here are five of my questions.

Some spring games are loaded with drama as to who might be rising into starting positions. On Lehigh's offense, which boasts a backup quarterback-turned-starter that threw for 1,000 yards last year, a 1,000 yard rusher, and two of the Top 10 receivers in all of FCS, drama for starting positions was, shall we way, lacking. Instead, the scrimmage became a show as to what Lehigh fans might be able to hope to see in Setpember, a reminder of all the good things that may be in store. In that sense, even though they started out slow, junior QB Brad Mayes, junior RB Dominick Bragalone, senior WR Troy Pelletier and senior WR Gatlin Casey showed that they indeed still knew how to play some football. They all came to play, and in the process gave Lehigh fans a taste of an offense that has the potential to be special yet again.

Many will look at the spring game final results and stats and see that the offense "won" this Saturday's Brown/White game, 48-34. They'll see a stat sheet they might expect from a Mountain Hawk team: 121 yards passing from junior QB Brad Mayes , touchdown receptions from senior WR Troy Pelletier and senior WR Gatlin Casey , as well as a touchdown run by junior RB Dominick Bragalone . But that doesn't tell the full story of the game, played on a wet Saturday morning under mostly overcast skies. In the early portion of the scrimmage, the Brown defense racked up sacks, tipped passes and shut out the White offense for nearly an hour before Mayes would finally find Casey in the end zone. If there was any question how the new four-man defensive front might work out for the Mountain Hawks, they were answered today with a solid performance early.

It was good to see some football in Murray Goodman stadium today. Battling raindrops under an overcast, spring sky, Lehigh's offense (the White team) won the "official" game, 48-34 over the Lehigh defense (the Brown team), using a modified scoring system. But the spring practice was defined by the early statement of the defense, with a big interception by junior CB Donavon Harris and a slew of tipped balls by the Mountain Hawks' experienced defensive front. Eventually, though, the offense would settle down, and junior QB Brad Mayes and his backup, senior QB Matt Timochenko , would start to make hay and put touchdowns on the scoreboard. Junior WR Cam Richardson , who won the Jim Gum scholarship award before the game, made much of his opportunity working alongside senior WR Gatlin Casey and senior WR Troy Pelletier with the first-string offense.  The Northwestern Lehigh product caught 4 balls for 60 yards, and was a frequent target of Mayes and Timochenko....

(Photo Credit: The Morning Call) Going to practice this Wednesday, I wondered how things were going with the Mountain Hawks this spring. You never really know what to expect until you go, and on a surprisingly chilly evening, I arrived up at Lehigh's practice fields. A lot of times at practice you hear jeremiads from the coaching staff on "spirited competition" and competing for positions.  But you don't always see it on the practice field. On Wednesday, though, it was there.  I saw it. Maybe it's a product of a lot of players knowing where they fit on the team, and that's certainly what is my impression in regards to the Lehigh offense. When you have returning all-Patriot League players at running back, wide receiver, and the offensive line, that's one level of comfort.  When you have a returning quarterback that started three games, including an FCS playoff game, and led an 63-35 win over Yale with 524 yards passing, that's yet anothe...

Probably the biggest news from the first few days of spring practice is a few changes on the depth chart that may not seem that important at first, but could pay off later this fall. It's the switch of rising senior Marc Raye-Redmond to the offensive side of the ball, and rising junior Nick Thevaganayam to the defense. Raye-Redmond last season played mostly on special teams, and was listed as a defensive back.  In his role on special teams, Marc excelled, not only notching 12 tackles but also getting 184 return yards alongside rising senior WR Gatlin Casey on kickoffs.  Against Princeton last year, he had two returns for 49 yards. Thevaganayam also mostly appeared on special teams, rushing the ball a couple of times, but was buried on the depth chart behind junior RB Dominick Bragalone, junior RB Micco Brisker and senior RB Nana Amankwah-Ayeh .

( Photo Credit: Gaby Morera/The Brown and White ) There's a lot of excitement in Lehigh Nation about the upcoming spring football season as the Mountain Hawks look to defend their Patriot League Championship. Some things will be very familiar: watching  RB Dominick Bragalone running the football,  WR Gatlin Casey  and  WR Troy Pelletier  catching them, and  C Brandon Short  anchoring the offensive line.  Even Lehigh's quarterback, QB Brad Mayes , will be a very familiar face, considering that he's already spent a lot of time on the field the last two years. But elsewhere, there's a lot of newness - as is common for many FCS programs this time of year. The departure of offensive coordinator Drew Folmar (Elon), special teams coach Ryan Dougherty (Oklahoma) and running backs coach Jamel Mutunga (Princeton) has meant some promotions and new faces on the coaching staff. So this Spring, in defense of their Patriot League Championship,...

(Photo Credit: Gaby Morera/B&W Staff Photographer) Before we close the book on spring ball, I wanted to pass on my thoughts and observations about the spring session and the prospects for the 2016 season. But before I do, I also need to share one of the great traditions of the Lehigh spring game - the announcement of the recipient of the Jim Gum scholarship. Presented by the non-profit Jim Gum Foiundation , the scholarship award is presented in the name of Jim Gum, a three-year starter for Lehigh in the 1980s and Penn Argyl standout.  He died due to complications from ALS in 2006. Senior RB Kenny Crawford was the recipient of this year's award in what is always a heartwarming yet humbling ceremony on the field.

This Saturday, Lehigh football fans will finally get a chance to get a free sneak peek at the 2016 Mountain Hawks at Murray Goodman stadium. Scheduled to start at 11:00AM, it will be a bit of a different spring game than usual, due to the fact that it will be a no-tackling practice , unlike the one I happened to catch that was partial tackling. "We never had a full practice that was all tackling," head coach Andy Coen told Lehighsports.com.  "I picked about three practices where he had at times, full contact. We never put ourselves in a situation where we were doing too much. I do believe if you want to get good at these things, you have to practice them. We've been using a lot of the techniques that the Seattle Seahawks have utilized over the last couple of years, and those techniques have been very productive for us.  We're getting a lot better with our technique and are coaches are doing a great job of staying on top of our kids regarding technique....

Coach Andy Coen at football practice (Morning Call) Lehigh's spring session has been underway for several weeks now - the period of time where Patriot League championships are won. It's a spring season where, frankly, there's not that much drama, especially on offense. There's no drama at quarterback, where senior QB Nick Shafnisky is firmly ensconced as the starter, and proven sophomore QB Brad Mayes right there next to him on the depth chart. It's very clear that sophomore RB Dominic Bragalone will be a big part of next year's offense, health willing, as well as junior WR Troy Pelletier and a many players from last year's offense that led the Patriot League in total offensive yardage. So what is the big story halfway through the spring? Whether there will be enough healthy bodies to have a spring game.

Brown/White Game 2015 (LehighSports.Com) We didn't see much of the starting quarterback for 2015 on Saturday. Junior QB Nick Shafnisky came in for one play - a hold on an extra point attempt, booted by the punter, senior P/PK Austin Devine . We didn't see much of the kicking game - Devine, who didn't kick conversions last year, is likely in August to revert to full-time punting duties, with an incoming freshman having a golden opportunity to win the starting kicking job. We saw a little bit of offensive line play - but it's hard to judge how well this unit will represent the same group in the fall, only because the unit was racked by injury. So what did we learn, exactly, from Saturday's Brown and White game?  The answer is: more than you might imagine.