Lehigh Football Nation

It's starting to become a habit. For the second straight year, Lehigh hosted a Pro Day for three athletes, QB Chris Lum, WR Jake Drwal , and TE Troy McKenna , as well as some other athletes from the area as well. While it wasn't the same as last year, where Will Rackley had a slew of NFL scouts travel to Bethlehem to see his numbers, the trio did bring a very solid performance on a beautiful day in front of a crowd of well-wishers and fans.

When you're a 6'4, 280 lb offensive tackle in college, the three letters "NFL" don't usually enter your thought process. Unless, of course, you're senior OT Troy McKenna . When many players at all levels of football were hanging up their cleats for good after the season, Lehigh's FCS All-American tackle never stopped working to pursue a dream - making it to the NFL. As a tight end. The dream of making an NFL training camp continues for three former Lehigh football players tomorrow with a Pro Day at the University: McKenna, QB Chris Lum , and WR Jake Drwal .

While Lehigh fans are (understandably) still a bit disappointed that the season is over, the winter just got a little warmer realizing that the Associated Press and Sports Network released their all-American teams this week, and four different Mountain Hawks were honored. To go along with the all-Patriot League team that was released at the end of the regular season and the AFCA All-America team , it's worth going over the many Lehigh plaudits for the 2011 season.

(Photo Credit: Matt Smith/The Express-Times ) These days, some form of sports entertainment is always going on. The Super Bowl.  The men's and women's NCAA tournaments in basketball.  Baseball's opening day.  Even arena ball's season has kicked off with the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks. It doesn't excuse my missing the start of spring practice for Lehigh football - you know, what this blog is supposedly about - but it is, in large part, one of the big reasons. Now deep into six practices, Lehigh's spring is well under way towards creating the team which Mountain Hawk fans will be cheering for in the fall.  It's about shaking off the rust from the offseason so far, developing the gameplans, starting lineups, and teamwork necessary for an eleven game season (and, hopefully, beyond). Based on the huge (and somewhat unexpected) success of last year, you might think that, at some level, the players might come into spring practice with a bit of the edge off...

After this week's big win over Colgate, the LFN Players of the Week awards go to: Offense: Senior OL Will "Got Your Back" Rackley, senior OL R.J. McNamara, junior OL Jim Liebler, senior OL Ricky Clerge, junior OL Troy McKenna (474 yards of total offense, 0 sacks allowed) Defense: Junior LB Mike Groome (12 tackles, 1 1/2 tackles for loss) and senior LB Al Pierce (5 tackles, 1 pass breakup, a crushing hit to set up the interception return for TD) Special Teams: Junior LB Tanner Rivas (Blocked FG attempt, 10 tackles, 1 tackle for loss) Underclassman: Sophomore QB Michael Colvin (41 yards rushing, 2 TDs) Congratulations to the winners!

The fantastic work on offense in Lehigh's 35-16 win over Bucknell deserves plenty of "Player of the Week" nominees. Eight, in fact. Offensive Hawks of the Week: Junior OL William Rackley , sophomore OL Troy McKenna , sophomore OL Jim Liebler , junior OL Ricky Clerge , and senior OL Frank Giacalone (0 sacks, 461 yards of offense) and junior QB J.B. Clark (24 for 37 passing, 327 yardsm 2 TDs, 1 INT). Defensive Hawk of the Week: Junior DB/RS Jon "Prez" Kennedy (65 return yards on 2 kickoff returns, 3 tackles, 1 INT) Special Teams Hawk of the Week: Freshman TE Jamel Haggins (grabbing a blocked XP and returning it for the 2-point conversion) Congratulations to all the winners - and here's hoping that the momentum from this win will carry all the way north to Hamilton.. The third ECAC Lambert Poll was released this week, and it's no secret which team remains at No. 1: that's right, the team that also happens to have been the No. 1 team in the land si...