Lehigh Football Nation

It's a special "Bye Week" version of the Water Cooler this week. It remains to be seen if anyone even reads this today since there's no Lehigh game, but there will be a lot of Patriot League and I-AA action this week, so it should be another exciting Saturday as we patiently await Lehigh/Harvard in eight days. Where's Chuck Going This Weekend? Ralph Wallace from I-AA.org is flying out east, and he's going to be attending the Hampton/Morgan State game with me at 4:00PM, and then we will be hightailing it out of there so we can catch (at least) the second half of the Lafayette/Princeton game. With Matt Dougherty of the Sports Network also heading over to Princeton, it's quite possible that the game in Princeton, NJ will be the "best covered coverage of a matchup of unranked I-AA teams in history", as Matt said this past week on I-AA Waves . Ralph and I will be taking pictures at this game, and I will also be keeping a "I-AA Diary" on the ...

I want to give credit where credit is due: I think it is superfan ngineer who said that he wished that this loss didn't come during a bye week. The loss hurts all the more with an extra week to think about it. Not only the team; it hurts the fans as well. (Just looking over my inbox makes THAT point pretty plain.) But before you're ready to give up on this season, I want to say a couple more things. Lehigh is a young team, with a brand-new coaching staff and a lot of talent on both sides of the ball. Too often we've looked at teams like Princeton and thought that we're going to dispatch them simply because we're playing at home; we're nationally-ranked; or simply because we're Lehigh and they're Princeton. Those days are over. Lehigh can win and lose every week to anybody. We're a young team that is pretty raw, especially on offense. Not only on the field, but in the coaching staff as well. This is a group that is trying to find its way with the pla...

I put a lot of thought into this Sunday's word. "Hubris"? Was it hubris that had us losing this game? "Ivy"? Was it the Ivy just simply putting the smack down on us? "Granite"? Was it our guys, whenever we needed a big running play, they looked like they simply ran into a block of granite? After watching the replay, to me the word that sticks out is "fitness". Why? I can't say if the players went out there expecting to beat an Ivy team before the game was even played, so "hubris" gets thrown out. Similarly, the "Ivies" put a real good hurting on the whole Patriot League this week (heck, even Colgate was down 7-6 at half to.... Dartmouth.) It *could* be league-wide hubris. But that's not why we lost. "Granite" comes closer. On 2nd-and-goal from the 3, we hand off to senior RB Marques Thompson and he gets stuffed by Princeton LB Doori Song. 3rd-and-6, and then we see another incompletion. 4th d...

I didn't watch this game yet. It's likely I'll be watching it at some point tomorrow - all I have seen is the box score as of this point. I was at the 37-7 drubbing for Fordham by Columbia instead. But that won't stop me from making a few observations. 1) Now, Bucknell (very surprisingly) is beating Cornell right now 20-3, but the Ivies spanked us this week. At best the Patriot League will be 2-5 against the Ivies. Guess what that means? The Patriot League, as a whole, is simply not a great league this year. Look at the facts. Two wins against lower-tier Ivy teams. One A-10 victory by Lehigh against Villanova who is now sitting at 0-3. The PL will have (at best) six out of conference wins. One against 0-3 Villanova, three NEC wins, and (at best) two weak Ivy wins. We are going to be a one-bid conference come playoff time, and that team will probably be playing Thanksgiving weekend at New Hampshire. 2) I was trying to say that Princeton is a good team. Unfortu...

I'm undecided as to whether to keep this "Water Cooler" graphic to your left. Maybe it's because I've worked for too many large companies in my time, but there's something about it that reminds me of "harassment training". ("Is Bill is making unwanted advances towards Candy by asking her to see his coffee cup collection in his cubicle tonight?") Anyway, if you're seeing this graphic it must mean that it's "Friday Water Cooler" time, where we make one last go-around the picks of the week, last-minute news about Lehigh/Princeton, my plans, and maybe even a joke about Kanye West. Kanye, Where Are Ye? The answer to that is: Touring with the Stones. That's right, the Rolling Stones . (Brought to you by Cialis and Lipitor.) Hard to understand the motivation behind this. Trying to get break into that "white 50-and-over" market? Granted, the Stones somehow (inexplicably) still sell out concerts, so it is a moneymaker...

Has it really been two weeks since the season has started? In ways, it feels like two whole seasons have past us. With the rollercoaster ride of emotions the past two weeks, we now see our beloved Hawks return home to enter into the part of their schedule where we challenge the best teams the Ivy League has to offer. This week, it's the Princeton Tigers playing in their opener. I won't be at this game or blogging about it since I'm going to be covering the Fordham/Columbia game for I-AA.org that day. I thought it appropriate with the 5th anniversary of 9/11 that I finally go see what the "Liberty Cup" is all about. (On a related note, my piece on 9/11 and I-AA was just published on I-AA.org, that goes into the history of the Liberty Cup and how 9/11 affected some of the schools in the area.) Rest assured, though, I'm going to watch the replay of the game online and weigh in Saturday night with my thoughts. (Ah, the magic of the internet.) Lehigh brings a ton o...

We're going to permit ourselves one little look back on the "week that was" before devoting ourselves 100% to the upcoming game at home versus Princeton. Namely, a quick look at the press roundup, a distribution of game balls (trust me, there will be plenty), and maybe a word about Atlantic 10 TV coverage. Reality TV Even though I'm a Mountain Hawk fan (and unashamed to admit it), when I do my pieces here and on I-AA.org I believe I go to pains to give respect to the opposing teams in regards to their ability. If Albany makes good plays, I'll say it. If Lafayette has good players, I'll say it. I *will* call announcers out when I see that Lehigh doesn't get the respect. And I felt like CN8's TV coverage of Lehigh didn't really give it to the Hawks until about 3:00 left in the game with a 31-28 lead. Only semi-joking yesterday I mentioned the following (paraphrased) typical exchange on CN8: Announcer #1: Oh my GAWD, Lehigh looks like they're goin...