Lehigh Football Nation

My last post had a sample photo of a "signing day" ceremony - well, to my left is a real one: welcome, Bryce Martin, to the Lehigh football family! Here's the independently-verified list of recruits as far as I know: DE/DT/OLB Bryce Martin (Bergen Catholic HS, NJ) OL/DT Troy McKenna (Bergen Catholic HS, NJ) WR Preston Soeprasetyo (Carmel HS, NY) OL/DE Cody Connare (Olmstead Falls HS, OH) (link shows video) This is on top of the list of recruits that I have confirmed already (you can learn more about them in this blog posting ): C Vinny Pellegrini (Boca Raton HS, FL) TE Kyle Holmes (Camden Catholic HS, NJ) P/K Alex Smith (Lake Brantley, FL) DB/QB John Littlejohn (Colonial HS, FL) LB Bryce Arruda (Haddonfield HS, NJ) LB Alex Petroff (Chardon HS, OH) WR/RS DeVaughn Gordon (North Plainfield, NJ) ATH Colin Netwon (Lake Brantley, FL) ATH Isadore Carrie (Ben Franklin HS, LA) Unconfirmed: LB Mike Groome (Lenape Valley HS, NJ) 14 independently confirmed, and 1 possible...

Tomorrow many high school football recruits will be going into libraries (just like this one) on "national signing day" to announce their choices for secondary education. The same day, many colleges also announce their entire recruiting class to the world. There are exceptions to this rule, however: the Patriot League and Ivy League. Most Division I schools participate in something called the "Letter of Intent" program. Purely a legal term, it means that the recruit has signed a legally binding document which links him to the school to which he pledged. Many people seem to think that letters of intent are like wedding vows. But LOI's are more like wedding proposals. They are just documents which can be rescinded - they just need to have the OK of both parties involved. Take this case from Northern Arizona : When National Signing Day arrived in February 2003, Paul Como settled. A month after signing with Northern Arizona, he was sure he could have the sa...

I'll keep posting information on recruiting on the thread below, but I want to mention to those of you out there that tomorrow's men's basketball game at Holy Cross (12:00PM) will be broadcast on ESPNU for those of you out there that get that. (I don't, so I'll be listening to the game on AM 1230/1320 in the Lehigh Valley instead.) The men's basketball team (11-9, 4-2) will be playing a desperate Holy Cross team that is 10-9 and 1-5 in the Patriot League. Racked by injury, they are Dangerous with a capital D - not only that, their strong frontcourt matches up well against our strength in sophomore F Zahir Carrington and senior F Bryan White . It should be a great game. Speaking of men's basketball, the Morning Call speculates - could there be a Lehigh vs. Lafayette final in the Patriot League tournament? A bit early for that speculation - but imagine that ticket if it were to happen? Imagine that tension in Kirby or Stabler? It would be a must-atten...

For football, it's definitely the middle of recruiting season, and I'm starting to get some news of "verbal commits" from local papers around the nation. From this list, there are exactly four recruits that have reported that they have verbally committed over the past few weeks, and I thought I'd make as complete a report as I could on each. C Vinny Pellegrini (Boca Raton HS, FL). A huge lineman (6'3 290 lbs), Pellegrini played in the prestigious Outback Senior All-Star game in Florida as one of the best linemen in the state (to give some perspective on this, he played alongside recruits who have committed to FBS schools Wake Forest and Florida Atlantic). TE Kyle Holmes (Camden Catholic HS, NJ). 6'2 and 220 lbs as a senior (pictured), he attended Rutgers' spring game in 2006 and has had interest from the big boys around the area. On Rivals he's listed as an "athletic player" which could give the Mountain Hawks an intriguing target...

Senior WR Pete Donchez highlights this year's academic honor roll in the Patriot League, where a record 122 student-athletes earned a GPA of 3.2 or better and earned a varsity letter. Specifically, Lehigh saw 19 of its student-athletes qualify for the "honor roll" with Donchez being only one of two athletes who scored a perfect 4.0. Other football starters that were on the honor roll including the LFN "Hawk of the Year" in junior LB Tim Diamond (3.32), senior LB Rusty Campion (3.32), senior DT Kyle Adams (3.43), sophomore QB Chris Bokosky (3.66), junior RB Matt McGowan (3.28), senior C John Reese (3.80), senior TE Joe Sutherland (3.54), senior CB Brannan Thomas (3.23), and junior WR Sekou Yansane (3.47). Congratulation's to these standouts, and to all the Mountain Hawks that made the honor roll - proving that indeed these guys get it done in the classroom as well. It's what it's all about. Donchez was injured a lot last year - though ...

As everyone knows, I'm a football guy. Even with the football season seven months away, I still get a lot of football news to sift through - but this weekend, an old-fashioned basketball "Rivalry" takes center stage. Don't get me wrong, I still have a ton of football news to report. I'm watching the "Goodman 20" DVD for an upcoming DVD review for the blog, I'm discovering great articles about current Lehigh football players such as one gem about junior LB Tim Diamond (is he really getting talked about as a possible NFL prospect? ) and on announcement about former Lehigh coach Casey Creehan getting a position with the Montreal Alouettes as a defensive line coach. But with the 8-11 wrestling team traveling to Harvard and Brown this weekend (after their biggest win of the year this year against nationally-ranked Navy this past week ), the hottest ticket in the Valley are one game in Easton and a possible sellout at Stabler Arena. The first one fea...

I've been getting caught up with some nice MLK day "holiday reading" this weekend concerning the history of the fall of American University's president and how it's spurred a fresh look at university spending across the board. Maybe it's simply my focus on football all these years that made me miss the spectacular fall of former American University president Ben Ladner . Mr. Ladner did a lot of good things for AU in his nine-year reign, like increasing the academic profile of the school and multiplying their tiny university endowment by nearly ten, from $29 million to $271 million in 2005. Unfortunately that allowed Mr. Ladner to engage in a high-rolling lifestyle that included jet-setting around Europe, complete with personal drivers and limos, a personal chef making $88,000 a year and making regular five-figure trips to destinations such as the US Virgin Islands, UAE and Nigeria - all paid for by AU and the endowment that he grew. It's pretty remarkab...