Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo courtesy Marcia White, The Easton Express-Times ) The plan was to write a nice summary about Lehigh preseason camp today, but sometimes a news story close to home causes everything to get upended - and the Michael Vick story does just that . Word spread through the preseason broadcast of the first Eagles preseason game last night, and rapidly found its way onto ESPN, the NFL network and everyone's front page today: Michael Vick, the talented QB fresh out of jail for torturing dogs and sponsoring dogfighting , was signed by the Eagles yesterday evening. Despite an early radio campaign to drum up support (I actually heard a radio ad several weeks ago talking about Eagles fans dreaming of Michael Vick as an Eagle), almost to a person fans, commentators and observers think this is a horrible idea. Fans are not "excited" - as the radio ad would have you believe - they're sad. (And, no, not just the Eagle fans who happen to be dogs, like the one pictured.) I have ...

I'm away on summer vacation, but I couldn't resist getting in a few tidbits of information about Lehigh before I left. (I wrote this post earlier.) While I'm enjoying the seaside, junior RB Jaren Walker was volunteering at the Sports Camp at Lehigh . The Johnson-McCormick family tried to blog about the experience without me knowing, but - let's just say I have ways to find out things. This past week Kyle and Owen were in Sports Camp at Lehigh . They had their most fun week yet of the entire summer! They LOVED LOVED LOVED it. They just soaked it all up and could not have been happier with it. Last week, fall practice started. In the official release , coach Coen makes one very interesting note: “ Freshman RB Zach Barket and freshman RB Tony Kablan have a great opportunity in front of them; the running backs always see a lot of action and get a high number of reps during camp so each one of those guys will have a chance to show what he’s capable of.” I haven't ...

Even though I'm on vacation, I did want to post a quick "Sunday Word" on a subject that may not seem to affect Lehigh - but it does. Recently, Delaware state's government rolled the dice about allowing sports gambling in the state. In an effort to plug the massive hole in the state budget, they instituted a plan to take advantage of a federal loophole to re-institute a form of sports gambling that they had dropped in 1976. Whatever the motivations of Delaware governor Jack Markell, he had to know that the NCAA doesn't take kindly to sports gambling - they've largely upheld a ban of sanctioned NCAA postseason events, for example, and none of the big-money events - so he must have known that the NCAA would be likely to bring the hammer down on Delaware schools if sports gambling were legalized. And this Friday, the NCAA delivered what was expected: a ban on NCAA postseason competition for schools in the First State. For those Patriot League fans scoring at ho...

(Photo courtesy Fordham Athletics) Once again I made the trek up to Patriot League media day to scare the living bejeezus out of the football players of all seven Patriot League teams. You can almost see the thought bubbles of the players here, looking at me as if I was twirling nunchucks or something while talking to them. But the questions I asked weren't too bad - or at least I thought so until seeing this picture from the proceedings. (Just kidding, by the way, Fordham senior OL Robby Reis and Fordham senior DL Darzell Wright , who don't need to email and remind me they could very easily crush my head like an olive. Just a joke, Darzell and Robby. Right? ... Right? ... Guys?) You can read my full conference report at College Sporting News , which includes exclusive quotes from the executive director of the Patriot League. In addition to the report I filed there (and the upcoming blog exclusives with junior QB J.B. Clark , senior DT B.J. Benning , and coach Coen) , I ...

For those folks that don't know, every Sunday during the football regular season I write an opinion piece called "Sunday's Word" - the word that best sums up the past week. I decided to kick off my Sunday pieces tonight with the one word that has dominated the Patriot League offseason, and it should come as no surprise to anybody. Patriot League Media day is coming up on Tuesday of this week. In years past, media day has been a way to get excited about the season - to think of what records Holy Cross senior QB Dominic Randolph might be able to shatter, say, or if senior QB John Skelton can bring Fordham back to the top of the League this year, or if senior DT B.J. Benning and the rest of the Mountain Hawks can make a run at this thing this year. But that's not the big topic of conversation this offseason. Instead, it's focused on - you guessed it - "Rams". The 2007 champions that struggled to a 5-6 season in 2008 have made all the headlines wit...

(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...