Lehigh Football Nation

Lehigh Football Nation is pretty excited this week following the announcement on Lehighsports.com of the recruiting class of 2009. [Updated with link to Express-Times Article, and additional facts on "Players to Watch"] The 29 student-athletes come from as far away as Westlake High School in Texas and as close to the Lehigh Valley as Liberty High School in Bethlehem. Overall, recruiting seemed to go very well in "our backyard" of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The incoming class has a lot of good pure athletes that could play as offensive or defensive players. Speed (as it should be) seemed to be a major factor in recruiting. This has served Coach Lembo well in years past. Curiously, there were no QBs in this year's recruiting class. It looks like coach Lembo recruited strongly in our need areas. As a result, we recruited and committed many WRs, DBs, TEs, and defensive front seven players. I'm pleased with the list of wideouts especially, but also with the in...

The Lehigh Football banquet was held this past Saturday on Moutaintop campus. Here the awards for excellence in the 2004 Lehigh football season were given to members of the football team. With this banquet, the postseason awards portion of the Lehigh football offseason is now more or less complete. Listed below are all the postseason awards (that I'm aware of) concerning Lehigh's 2004 season. Congratulations one and all! These awards were compiled from: Lehighsports.com: Lehigh Holds Annual Sports Banquet I-AA.org: 2004 Season Review Lehigh Football Nation: Post: Lehigh Players of the Year Football Program Awards Recipient Alexander G. Hahalis (top lineman) Tom Alfsen, Sr. Barry Fetterman (courage, dedication) Karrie Ford, Sr. Rob Sandie, Sr. James P. McConologue (all football) Adam Bergen, Sr. John C. Whitehead “Big LU” (leadership, performance) Kaloma Cardwell, Jr. Scholar-Athlete Jon Guynes, Sr. Archibald Johnson Cup (team MVP) Justin Ter...

Tonight at the Super Bowl, Rabih Abdullah ('98) will be the only the second Engineer to ever suit up for a Super Bowl (Steve Kreider did for the Bengals in 1981). If you're an Eagle fan too, well, you've got a problem on your hands. He's suiting up for the other side. Lehighsports.com reprinted a Morning Call article here . Enjoy... and enjoy the game.

You may have thought I was going to talk about the football banquet tomorrow (where the Class of 2005 will be getting awards for the 2004 season. You may have thought I would be posting about Signing Day 2005, where more than 26 prospective students signed letters to attend Lehigh as the class of 2009. Maybe you even browsed here hoping to read about Rabih Abdullah, who will be the first Lehigh alumnus to play in a Super Bowl. Instead, I'm issuing a viewing alert for the "Happy Days Reunion", where former Lehigh student Donny Most will be appearing. 8PM Thursday on your local ABC station. Mr. Most is kind of a cult figure for me. Colgate alumni can croon about having 60 Minutes' Andy Rooney as an alumnus. Lafayette alumni can brag about the author Stephen Crane of the American classic novel "The Red Badge of Courage", having attended school there (even if it was for barely a semester). Georgetown has a small army of lawmakers, Patrick Ewing, and Allen ...

Bergen Gets Glowing Reports TE Adam Bergen appeared to help himself out in this weekend's East/West Shrine game. I watched part of the game and saw his 1 completion for 24 yards which set up a score on the next play. To me, that wasn't as important as seeing him do a very good job run blocking on an East team that seemed to be able to move at will. It was difficult to judge his pass blocking since no blitzing is allowed in the game, but overall to this unbiased reporter he definitely showed to any naysayers that he belongs on the same field as the guys from Notre Dame and USC this Saturday. But don't take my word for it. Read the following excerpt from I-AA.org: I-AA Players in the 2005 Shrine and Gridiron All-Star Games #87 LEHIGH tight end ADAM BERGEN... 6041 268lbs, 4.76/4.77... Looked very solid physically... Helped himself during the week of practice... Shows good athletic ability... Consistently open... Catches everything thrown to him... Had 1 catch for 24...

See Adam Bergen play 1 more time Tomorrow at 2PM, Lehigh TE Adam Bergen will be playing in the East/West Shrine game. You can catch the game on ESPN, and you don't even have to miss any playoff football to do so. Adam is only 1 of 2 TEs on the East roster, so you should be able to see a fair amount of him in the game. For Adam, it will be an important place to showcase his skills one last time before the NFL Draft. Other I-AA luminaries who will also be looking to help their draft status are: East: QB Ryan Fitzpatrick (Harvard) LB Liam Ezekiel (Northeastern) DB Sidney Haugabrook (Delaware) West: QB Dustin Long (Sam Houston St.) LB Jordan Beck (Cal Poly) Good luch Adam!

Auburn 20, USC 17 Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville was carried off the field as undefeated and uncontested national champions, after defeating a shocked USC squad 20-17 on a last-second FG by K John Vaughn. The Tigers got here by beating Utah 29-27, Louisville 24-0, and Michigan 24-21. USC got here by beating Boise St. 42-34, Iowa 31-0, and Georgia 37-21. (Michigan beat the previously-unbeaten Sooners 37-33 to set up their semifinal match with USC). Billed as a high-scoring affair, the tough Tiger defense set the tone with 5 sacks of QB Matt Leinart, and a couple of interceptions, one of which was returned for a TD by J. Rosegreen. At the time it made the score 17-7 late in the 3rd quarter, but the Trojans came right back with a big drive, alternating big RB Reggie Bush rushes and QB Matt Leinart passes. Ultimately Leinart found WR Dwayne Jarrett in the end zone, cutting the lead to 17-14. After a 3-and-out, the USC offense again drove the length of the field, but the natio...