Lehigh Football Nation

Some explanation is in order here. Undoubtedly you're surfing over here to read about my analysis of Lehigh's basketball and wrestling teams this weekend, and don't worry, I'll get to that. But all week I've been struggling with my NFL allegiances. Let me explain. I grew up in the New York area, but moved overseas for about seven years of my life. As a youngster, my allegiances changed quite a bit - Giants, Jets, Redskins. While living overseas in high school, however, I finally settled on the Saints as my team. Why the Saints? Maybe because in 1986 they were on the rise; maybe because I had a lot of respect for coach Jim Mora and the Philadelphia Stars of the old USFL; maybe because I loved the "Dome Patrol" and their take-no-prisoners 3-4 defense; or maybe simply because my fathers' jazz musician contemporaries liked the team. As a result of this, I picked up on the Saints just in time to enjoy their first-ever winning season and playoff ...

It's not all that long ago that a post like this would be just complete and utter speculation about something I knew nothing about. Who's getting recruited for the Lehigh football class of 2011? How the heck would I know? I could say "I want you!", just like this classic Army recruitment poster, but I wouldn't have anything backing up my feelings. Nowadays, we definitely have more information on possible recruits than ever before, thanks to the "magic of the internet" and the Lehigh message board and websites like scout.com who spend all their time tracking possible college recruits in all sorts of sports. Most of the players on scout.com are commits to the "big boys" like Penn State, Michigan, and, yes, even Boise State. But if you are willing to take the time, you can also get information on recruits that are thinking about Lehigh as a place to continue their education. Longshots? Hard to say. Superstars? It's way too early to s...

While waiting to put together my "Lehigh's recruiting needs in the offseason" blog post, I'm going to continue to break down the Lehigh sports scene for this weekend after a rough week for basketball, but a surprisingly solid performance at the Southern Scuffle in wrestling. Last weekend, Lehigh placed five at the Southern Scuffle to successfully shake off a slow start to finish 11th, just barely beating Pitt and Virginia, while finishing just behind Ohio State and North Carolina. Senior heavyweight Paul Weibel was the star, taking out Joe Fendone of Edinboro before eventually falling to the defending national champion Cole Konrad of Minnesota in the semifinals. He apparently almost got the pin before bowing out - overall, seems to me (who doesn't know a lot about wrestling) a great job. This weekend, it's off to the west coast to compete in a grueling five duals in three days. Cal State-Fullerton, American, Arizona State, Stanford, and UC-Davis are on th...

Gah! Here I am closing out the last workday in 2006, and I flat-out forgot about my talk on the men's basketball, women's basketball, and wrestling for this weekend! It probably won't by my best posting of all-time, but here goes. The men's basketball team, who last week hung tough with Rutgers of the Big East but fell 76-71, travel to Monmouth, NJ tonight to take on the Hawks. Monmouth is 3-8 and has to be a "statement game" for Lehigh going forward. Two very winnable games loom before Lehigh hits the important part - the league schedule. After Monmouth tonight, it's Columbia (a surprising 7-5) who manhandled Lafayette two weeks ago. Despite the records, Monmouth isn't as bad as 3-8 and Columbia's not as good as 7-4, but our battered team needs two wins here to go into the league with a head of steam. The Lady Hawks are hosting Gardner-Webb (3-8) tonight at Stabler, followed by Yale (3-7) on Wednesday. Both winnable games, Yale has won some...

In this holiday time when we're sweeping out 2006 and ushering in 2007, it's a time to look behind, pick Lehigh Football Nation's players of the year, and also to peek ahead a little. 2006 In Review In a season where the Mountain Hawks were picked to finish third in the preseason, you would think Lehigh fans would have been happy with a co-championship in head coach Andy Coen's first year. But in a season with tough losses to the Ivy League and NEC, and Lehigh's third straight loss to Lafayette (and losing a D-I playoff bid in the process), it sure as heck didn't feel like a championship. Yet the fact remains it still was a championship year as coach Coen slowly brought his brand of football to South Mountain, going 5-1 in the league after a 1-4 out-of-conference record. Coming off an offseason which saw the offense and defense have major shifts in phlilosophy, it could have been expected that the Mountain Hawks come out of the gate a little slowly. But after a ...

Thought I was was going to simply shout out a big "Happy Holidays", eh, or talk about the big basketball games yesterday? Although I will spend some time doing both - and I'll also give a thought to some interesting postings for the rest of the year - the first order of business involves a bit of news you may not have heard about. Five days before Christmas, there was a press release from a fledgling network called the America Channel. It stated that they had entered a multi-year agreement to broadcast Patriot League sports starting in the 2007 season. Here are excerpts from the Patriot League press release: The Patriot League has signed a multi-year deal with a new national-sports broadcaster, The America Channel, Patriot League Executive Director Carolyn Schlie Femovich announced Wednesday. The arrangement, which will begin with the 2007-08 academic year, will bring additional exposure to the Patriot League, specifically in the sports of football, women's basketb...

This picture is a fairly accurate assessment of how I felt after last week's Division I Playoff picks. I mean, really, a Montana/Youngstown State final? Beleive me when I say I took my beating(s) like a man and I'm ready to make another pick. Despite Yosef fans' pleas to have me pick the Minutemen, and ZooMass' requests for me to pick Applachian State, I'll be doing what I always do - breaking down the game, and predicting the winner. So it's not Montana and Youngstown in Chattanooga, TN tomorrow, it's Appalachian State and UMass. A matchup of former champions, the Mountaineers are going for a repeat (having won last year's Championship), while the Minutemen are going for their first championship since 1998. For those Lehigh fans that remember, that was the team that defeated one of the best Lehigh teams ever, ending our season on a 4th-and-goal from the 9 in a 22-16 final. It should be a good game. Both teams only have one loss - UMass to non-play...