Lehigh Football Nation

If you believe sites like NFL Draft Scout , senior OL Will Rackley  - Lehigh's massive tackle out of Riverdale, Georgia - could be picked in QB John Skelton territory in the NFL draft. It is early - incredibly early - but he's projected as going in the fifth round  as a guard , and he's listed as the ninth-best in the nation, behind massive talents like Villanova senior OL Ben Ijalana and Florida State senior OL Rodney Hudson . Going into his fourth year of starting on the offensive line, the strong, massive talent has garnered plenty of recognition on countless all-America teams. Individually, he's been spectacular even if, as a unit, the offensive lines of which he's been a part have not been dominating in the Patriot League. In his senior year, Rackley - now  Lehigh's offensive team captain - will have one last opportunity to not only improve his game for the NFL scouts, but to make the entire Mountain Hawk "O" Line unit a controlling force ...

Senior LB Al Pierce has a reputation as being a young man of few words. After  snagging the game-winning interception in the 27-21 win over "that school in Easton" last November, he deflected the glory off himself towards Lehigh defensive coordinator Dick Kotulski - despite multiple efforts by the media (and myself) to have him talk more about the defining moment of the 2009 season. During Patriot League media day, I interviewed him and senior OL Will Rackley .  After one question which Rackley answered particularly well, I turned to him and asked Pierce about his thoughts.  He said, "He said it all!", not needing to add to an already perfect answer, in his mind. If there's a theme to this Lehigh defense - of which Pierce is the captain - it seems like it's going to be "speak softly - and work and hit real hard". That's a sentence that seems to describe Pierce perfectly. (more)

I remember head coach Andy Coen 's first Patriot League media day at the Green Pond Country Club .  Oddly enough, in many ways it was very similar to last week's turn at the annual media event. Then as now, he thinks of the beginning of August as "like Christmastime", when he starts to see what sort of a football team he's going to have in the fall. Coaches are expected to be excited about their teams going into August.  Last week - just as he did in 2006 - coach Coen was, as expected, looking forward to fall practice. But he did add something that he didn't say in previous years - that he had a "great group coming back" that "would be hard at work building on what was accomplished in spring ball." In 2006, Coen inherited a program was, in many ways, really former head coach Pete Lembo 's team. Now that the tiny football class of 2010 has graduated, this program is now filled with experienced players that all have Andy Coen...

Patriot League Media Day is supposed to be all about the players and coaches, and the excitement of the upcoming football season. But with the subject of football scholarships sucking out the air in the room to some degree - and the absence of last year's offensive superstars like QB Dominic Randolph - caused some of the emphasis to be, wrongly, diverted from the coaches and student-athletes. Lost in the issues of Craig Haley's controversial report on media day and my observations of the scholarship proceedings was what the media was supposed to be there for: the upcoming 2010 fall season. And this year has no shortage of interesting storylines and compelling personal stories. To net it all out you need to just start with the preseason picks as to who is going to be in contention. In Part Two of the roundup of Patriot League Media Day, we focus on Fordham, Bucknell and Georgetown. (more)

Patriot League Media Day is supposed to be all about the players and coaches, and the excitement of the upcoming football season. But with the subject of football scholarships sucking out the air in the room to some degree - and the absence of last year's offensive superstars like QB Dominic Randolph - caused some of the emphasis to be, wrongly, diverted from the coaches and student-athletes. Lost in the issues of Craig Haley's controversial report on media day and my observations of the scholarship proceedings was what the media was supposed to be there for: the upcoming 2010 fall season. And this year has no shortage of interesting storylines and compelling personal stories. To net it all out you need to just start with the preseason picks as to who is going to be in contention.  In Part One of the roundup of Patriot League Media Day, we focus on Lafayette, Colgate and Holy Cross.   (more)

Media Day for the Patriot League was - somewhat surprisingly - a packed affair this year at the Green Pond Country Club. Thirty media members - including a large contingent of radio and local TV media - were on hand to cover their local Patriot League teams. It's promising to be another very interesting year in the Patriot League - it seems like every year it's a wide-open race, and this year is no exception - but this year's media day was as much about what was being talked about when the microphones were off as well as on. Hanging heavily in the room was the "S" word - scholarships. (more)

So here I was, less than 24 hours before Patriot League Media Day tomorrow, and I was thinking about a topic to write about today. Then a message board post made it a foregone conclusion; something about "little brass cannons", The "Middle Three", and "The Rivalry". Oh yeah, and a possible trophy for "The Rivalry" as well. Being a fan of noisy, harmless firearms deployed at football games - and always a sucker for anything involving the most-played Rivalry in all of college football - I pounced on the challenge with gusto. It's time to do a little digging - where can the "Little Brass Cannon" be today? (more)