Lehigh Football Nation

Who the heck are these guys? Well, the short answer is that they're members of the Wofford Terriers out of the Southern Conference, and a more complete answer is that Wofford could be the best team you've never heard of right now. On College Sporting News I mention three of these member on my All-Anonymous team , which includes the son of Lafayette head coach Frank Tavani (senior SS Dan Tavani). The idea was to point out some players that didn't make the pre-season all-American teams but could very well be names you hear about by the end of 2007. You may recognize some Patriot League names on this team as well: senior T Jesse Padilla from the Leopards, and senior FB Josh DeStefano from Bucknell. Oh yeah, there's also a kid you may recognize whose last name rhymes with... Treat? Feat? Also appearing on College Sporting News is a quick post on this year's Summer of Woe . It attempts to deal with many of the problems that have faced FCS schools this past offsea...

Think you'd get this at Ohio State? In a busy week for Lehigh athletics, yesterday marked a first: a season ticket pickup event where holders could chat with coach Coen, assistant coaches, and the captains of the 2007 squad: senior QB Sedale Threatt, senior DB Ernest Moore, senior C John Reese , and senior DB Brannan Thomas . It took place at the Lehigh Athletics Hall of Fame (at Taylor Gymnasium in the middle of campus) and sounded like a fun event - I'd love for stuff like this to be an annual thing which emphasizes the personal and familial nature of Lehigh football. What better way to get folks excited than to talk to the players and coaches? (You can still buy season tickets if you click here .) In other big news, our men's basketball coach Billy Taylor was hired away by Ball State this week, leaving the Lehigh basketball program in (what seemed to me) some disarray. The Morning Call report made it sound like Lehigh was somewhat caught flat-footed by the departure, w...

During the football season I frequently do a mash-up of the press releases regarding Lehigh's games and give my own commentary. At this time of year in the Lehigh Valley, though, sometimes the coverage gets lost in the spectacle of Musikfest and the day-to-day goings on at Eagles Training Camp at Lehigh . (Both of which are free admission, by the way - my wife, son and I went to both on Sunday and had a fantastic time.) As I wait for the full text of Sedale's media day speech to become available somewhere, I offer a mash-up of the media day events and the big league news that came out of there. One of the issues I have was that too many local papers didn't even have a proper write up of the event. (The Utica Observer-Dispatch has to take the cake for the smallest-ever press release on the event - and that's more than New York City, Washington, DC, the Worcester Telegram-Gazette, and Daily Item, Bucknell's local paper, had!) It's a real shame - and they ac...

On Wednesday, as a part of my new job as preview columnist of the College Sporting News , I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Patriot League Media Day and interview players, coaches, and the commissioner of the Patriot League, Ms. Carolyn Schlie Femovich. My full report on the goings-on at Media Day were detailed on College Sporting News, including this exclusive interview with the commissioner about all the topics surrounding the future of the league. In attendance from Lehigh were head coach Andy Coen, senior QB Sedale Threatt and senior FS Ernest Moore . I took time to sit down with Ernest and talk to him a little about the upcoming season. CB: Last time I saw you play was in the spring, when you delivered that big hit... Fans in the stands heard that loud crushing sound of pads! EM: I wouldn't say it was a monster hit, but I appreciate you saying that. I try to do what I can do. CB: As captain, you're the true leader of this defense now. What have you done in t...

Patriot League media today was today. For the uninitiated, it's a day for the media to hear the story of the upcoming football season as told by the players, coaches, and league brass. I'm planning to write a fuller recap tomorrow, but I wanted to weigh in with some "quick hit" observations first. * Lafayette was the surprise #1 pick in the Patriot League Preseason Poll, with Lehigh only one vote behind. This may not necessarily be a bad thing, considering that the preseason poll winner hasn't ended up winning the league since Lehigh did it in... 2001 . * However, it wasn't the only surprise in the poll. Nationally-ranked in some polls, Holy Cross was picked to finish 4th behind Colgate (who was 4-7 last year). Colgate and Holy Cross were only separated by two votes as well, which shows something real interesting: the teams themselves don't seem to have a real clear vision as to who's going to take this thing. Parity among the top four - some wou...

Patriot League Media day, which I will be attending on Wednesday, is oh-so-close to being here. I think I finally realized this on Friday, when it dawned on me that I hadn't released my annual review of the offseason for all the teams of the Patriot League. (Yes, carney2 on the Any Given Saturday board offered his review about five months before I did, but maybe I'm not as bright as that ol' curmudgeon is.) I can think of no better way to usher in Media Day - and, by extension, the 2007 season - by posting my offseason review. Basically, it's your guide to what's been happening up to this point in the Patriot League. BUCKNELL Coaching Changes: Defensive coordinator Jared Backus jumped to Temple to become their defensive line coach, while Andrew Cohen returned to the Bison to take over instead (coming from Columbia where he helped propel the Lions’ defense lead the way to a 5-5 mark). Two more assistants also left – WR coach Devin Fitzsimmons (now at Kansas ...

Only one thing could possibly cause me to delay the release of my 30-year anniversary team: it was the need to promote something important. (So important, I might add, that I'm kicking myself that I didn't report on this earlier.) This Saturday (as reported in the Morning Call and on Keith Groller's Morning Call blog ) will be the annual flag football ALS fundraiser at Northwestern Lehigh. In years past it has been to help out Brett Snyder ('00) after being diagnosed with ALS (or Lou Gerhig's disease) two years ago. But this year, all proceeds are going to Brett's new foundation Tackle ALS . His foundation "''educates and encourages others to spread awareness about this disease that affects all ages, and to support research aimed at early diagnosis and detection of ALS.'' The event this Saturday, July 28th (rain date is Sunday, July 29th) is at the Northwestern Lehigh football field (off of Route 309). From Interstate 78, take Route 10...