Lehigh Football Nation

Another shot of Bergen at camp 

Former Lehigh TE Adam Bergen in Cardinals Camp 

This is some pretty stale news (thanks to the fact that I've been writing a Patriot League Preview piece in the I-AA.org fall preview magazine), but I wanted to announce here that the Mountain Hawk defensive staff has been completed. Most of this is contained in the following press release: Official Release Defensive line coach Gerard Wilcher has been promoted from "secondary coach" to "secondary coach and defensive coordinator". From the press release: “When we hired Gerard as our secondary coach last January, we felt that he possessed the skills to develop into the defensive coordinator's role,” Lembo points out. “Our defensive backfield play exceeded my expectations last year, as we had four all-league performers and gave up very few big plays over the course of the season. Our players respect Coach Wilcher and will be highly motivated to continue to perform at a high level." I agree. CB Neal Boozer-Gallman, CB Andrew Nelson, FS Kaloma Cardwell and ...

I was going to wait for tomorrow to post this, but I got excited about the 2005 season and decided to print my ballot for the Any Given Saturday Top 25. Here it is: 1. James Madison 2. Eastern Washington 3. Furman 4. Northwestern St 5. Western Kentucky 6. Harvard 7. Delaware 8. Georgia Southern 9. Northern Iowa 10. New Hampshire 11. Lafayette 12. Montana 13. Lehigh 14. William & Mary 15. Southern Illinois 16. Cal Poly 17. Montana St 18. Hampton 19. Penn 20. Eastern Kentucky 21. Sam Houston St 22. Alabama St 23. Appalachian St 24. North Dakota St 25. Bucknell There you have it - in its 4 A-10, 3 Patriot League, 2 Ivy League-team glory. I tried to be very fair, including ranking Lafayette in front of Lehigh. OK, I just heard all of Lehigh Football Nation choking in their Monday morning coffee. Look, Lafayette returns basically their entire defense next year, their sophomore QB, and they boast some pretty damn good receivers. And the RB replacing McCourt is also pretty damn good. ...

Recently the NCAA made two new important changes to their rules at the conclusion of their Board of Directors meeting in late April. These changes could have ramifications that could affect who and how Lehigh schedules opponents starting in the 2006 season. The first change is that I-A (but not I-AA) schools are allowed to schedule a 12th regular season game every year at their own discretion. Previously, 12 regular-season games were only allowed during years where there were 14 or more weekends during the NCAA football season (which does happen occasionally- the last time this happened was in 2003). This 12 game regular season "exemption" applied to I-AA as well - in 2002 Lehigh actually played a 12 game schedule. The second change is that the rule that I-A schools could only count 1 victory against a I-AA school every 4 years towards their bowl eligibility was waived. Starting in 2006, each school can count 1 I-AA game a year towards their total. These changes got me think...

As promised, here's an analysis of Spring practice 2005, which concluded 2 weeks ago with the White offensive team beating the Brown defensive team 23-9. Happily, there are no further injuries coming out of the spring, and overall it seemed like a very productive spring season for Lehigh. It looks like all 3 units looked good too. Let's see what were the surprises of spring, what should be a concern, and what battles to view in August. Surprises 1. The emergence of Winfred Porter. You'd think the talk of the spring would be the emergence of junior deep-threat WR Gerran Walker as a go-to receiver. But Lembo praised fellow junior Porter's spring progress even more. It further solidifies the receiving corps as an area of strength in 2005. It looks like we have talent and depth there. 2. K Musiek's excellent spring. 4 FGs under game situations was a breath of relief after some of last year's problems in the kicking game. What I had tabbed as "a positi...

Breaking News: Defensive coordinator Shannon Morrison has left Lehigh to coach linebackers at his alma mater, Marshall University. This means Lehigh will be starting the 2005 season with their 3rd defensive coordinator in 3 years. Tom Gilmore left after the 2003 season to take Holy Cross' head coaching position, bringing secondary coach Issac Collins (now at Delaware) with him. Lehigh may also be looking for a linebackers' coach, as coach Morrison held that position as well. How did this happen? Marshall University appears to have cleaned house regarding their coaches pending their entry into Conference USA in football. To that end, they brought in a new head coach, Mark Snyder. Morrison was one of the sought-after names that Snyder wanted to sign to fill out his staff. Given an opportunity to return to the I-A program where he played as an undergraduate, I'm guessing, was too good an opportunity for coach Morrison to pass up. It will be interesting to see who will fill M...