Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo courtesy AP/Easton Express-Times) My family and I went early to Eagles Training Camp at the Whitehead practice fields, along with what had to be 2,500 (at least) of our closest friends. As the afternoon wore on, it got very hot on the Mountain but it was plain to see why Eagles fans are looking forward to the NFL regular season already. Even on a hot day these birds seemed like they had a spring in their steps. Routes were crisp as DeSean Jackson, Hank Baskett, Michael Avant and the other wideouts made a dazzling array of deep outs. This was a decided difference from last year, where the offensive mood was more workmanlike and many of the questions involved the receiving corps. Last year, the Eagles seemed to have more questions than answers. This year - as long as RB Brian Westbrook does indeed come back from his surgery on time for the upcoming season - there seem to be more answers than questions. Last year, fans were wondering if it would be McNabb's last year; this...

(Photo courtesy CK0712 Blog ) For those of you in the Bethlehem/Philadelphia area that might have recently emerged from a cryogenic sleep pod, the Eagles have officially returned to Lehigh for their annual preseason training camp . Sunday marked the first day for rookies and selected veterans to report to Lehigh's campus, while it's today when training camp begins in earnest for the rest of the team. Eagle head coach Andy Reid was seen the other day ready to go - or at least, ready to hit the links on the John C. Whitehead practice fields. (Nice shorts.) (And are those really flip-flops, Andy? I've got to believe that Roger Goodell has some sort of rule against an NFL head coach being caught on film in non-regulation footwear. They are Nikes, right? Shouldn't they be taped?) Lehigh has hosted Eagles training camp since 1995, and it's a ten year relationship that has been greatly beneficial to both the Eagles and Lehigh over the years. Both Nick Fierro of the E...

There's a lot going on in the news these days: the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, the potential bankruptcy of CIT, the accidental hazardous chemical spill at Lehigh (with no casualties, thankfully), and - most importantly to a lot of people - Hermione Granger (I mean, actress Emma Watson's) choice to attend Brown University . (One can only hope she follows in fellow Ivy Leaguer Brooke Shields' (Princeton) footsteps.) With all this going on, it would have been real easy to miss two very interesting NCAA news releases released in the dead of summer regarding potentially momentous changes into the way financial aid is accounted, especially in regards to the Patriot League and athletic aid. The first involves an article from the NCAA News regarding Fordham's move to scholarships featuring quotes from the executive director of the Patriot League, Ms. Carolyn Femovich. While official statements have been made before, this interview goes more into detail on what is ha...

Yes, Virginia, Patriot League football is just around the corner. Not only that, Patriot League Media Day is three weeks away -- where we'll learn about the preseason poll, the preseason Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, and more. Through the long summer, we learn about organizations like The Sports Network , Phil Steele's 2009 College Preview and others announcing their national preseason all-American teams. Some FCS conferences (like the Colonial Athletic Association, or CAA) do individual preseason honorees, too, for just their league. But what about the Patriot League? The league itself does not release a preseason all-Patriot League team during Media day, so today I decided: why not stir up the pot a little bit and announce my own preseason all-Patriot League team? Unsurprisingly, leading my list as offensive Preseason Player of the Year would have to be 5th year Holy Cross senior QB Dominic Randolph , who either holds (821 completions, 83 passing touchdowns...

Can it be that Patriot League media day is just around the corner, with Lehigh's season opener just a little over a month and a half away? Just to whet your appetite about the upcoming Lehigh football season comes the announcement that senior LB Matt Cohen was listed as a Phil Steele preseason first team All-American and was the only Patriot Leaguer on the first team (something that will most likely be noticed by Holy Cross senior QB Dominic Randolph , who could have made a great case for inclusion). This goes with his earlier inclusion in the Consensus Draft Services' All-American list as an honorable mention . ( Junior DB Jarard Cribbs also was a CDS preseason all-American, as well as Randolph, Bucknell senior S Akhiel White , Holy Cross senior CB Michael Wright , and senior LB Mark Leggerio from 'that school in Easton'.) Also releasing their preseason all-American team was The Sports Network , where junior OL Will Rackley got third-team honors. (Randolph got ...

Without question one of my guilty pleasures is that I still listen to Smashmouth, whose late 1990s "we're -pushing-40-so-we-better-cash-in-now" music has not aged well. Astro Lounge songs still grace my digital music player - including, yes, All Star. For incoming Lehigh football recruits, after graduation and before summer football camp, it's not all American Pie - it's also a time for high school all-star games, including the much-publicized Lehigh Valley All-Star Classic (taking place tonight at Nazareth's Andrew Leh Stadium at 7 pm). While there are high-school all-star games in other states, the Lehigh Valley and the state of Pennsylvania seem to have what some might say is an unhealthy obsession with all-star football in June. Pennsylvania has three big-time ones, the "Big 33" game versus Ohio, the PSFCA East/West game, and multiple (only slightly) smaller all-star games like the LV All-Star classic tonight. And that doesn't even cou...

It figures that I was getting caught in a freak rainstorm last Saturday afternoon just when the first-ever conference on sports blogging started in New York City. Called with characteristic subtlety " Blogs with Balls 1.0", they managed to capture with state of "sports blogging" in one saying. (But really, did they have to add the 1.0 at the end of it to completely marry the idea to the dotcom bust? It makes it sound like sports blogging is soon going to go the way of the Rubik's Cube.) Like anything, there are outsiders that try to get the whole blogging thing, but just manage to make themselves look bad. Witness GQ's pathetic summation on their own "blog" : Part networking, part discussion, the all-day conference was a live platform for big hitters like ESPN, Real Clear Sports, and Deadspin to share their words of wisdom with newbie bloggers and argue over a few pints of Guinness about the rise of new media and which athletes are ‘roid raging...