Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Matt Smith/The Express-Times ) These days, some form of sports entertainment is always going on. The Super Bowl.  The men's and women's NCAA tournaments in basketball.  Baseball's opening day.  Even arena ball's season has kicked off with the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks. It doesn't excuse my missing the start of spring practice for Lehigh football - you know, what this blog is supposedly about - but it is, in large part, one of the big reasons. Now deep into six practices, Lehigh's spring is well under way towards creating the team which Mountain Hawk fans will be cheering for in the fall.  It's about shaking off the rust from the offseason so far, developing the gameplans, starting lineups, and teamwork necessary for an eleven game season (and, hopefully, beyond). Based on the huge (and somewhat unexpected) success of last year, you might think that, at some level, the players might come into spring practice with a bit of the edge off...

The power of the Final Four run by the Rams cannot be underestimated for that school, and the Colonial Athletic Association, the conference which is the home of the Rams in all sports. As I've argued previously , at a bare minimum it has to make a wider pool of schools at least mull over the idea of moving their schools to the CAA. But what's extremely interesting to think about is the affect that the Rams' run might have on them sponsoring a football team. What's known is the CAA and Virginia Commonwealth will benefit in a variety of ways by their run - either through NCAA financial shares, based on NCAA Tournament wins, or through increased "exposure" and the donor money that (sometimes) comes through a title run. With the money and "exposure" - and some old-fashioned jealousy - I think the groundwork is in place for Ram football to start CAA play sooner rather than later.   (more)

(Photo Credit: AP Photo/Chris Steppig/NCAA Photos, Pool/The Kansas City Star) In all honesty, I blame myself for making my wife disillusioned with the Butler Bulldogs. All week I had been talking "Butler"-this, "Butler"-that around my house.  Crooning about the small school that could, the private school with decent academics that graduates its athletes.  I even went with the "Rocky" references, of all things, comparing UConn's introductions to Appollo Cree's parade into the Spectrum.  Forget the fact I spent a lot of years in Connecticut.  I wanted Butler to win, bad, and so did my wife. With about eight minutes to play, the love of my life could stand no more.  "They're throwing the game!", she said as F Matt Howard missed his umpteenth point-blank shot.  "How can you miss that many shots?  They're losing on purpose!" I lasted only a little longer than she did in the 53-41 defeat, but Butler's disappointi...

(Photo Credit: Denise Sanchez/The Morning Call) In 2009, the excitement in Lehigh winter sports was the Lehigh women's basketball team's Patriot League championship, and trip to nearby Piscataway, New Jersey to compete in the NCAA Tournament against Auburn. In 2010, the excitement was shared with both the women's and men's basketball championships.  Both teams were rewarded with NCAA Tournament games against Big XII teams: Iowa State for the women, Kansas for the men. In 2011, it's all about wrestling. Battling history and the wrestler that delivered his only loss of the year, heavyweight Zach Rey did what hadn't been done with the Lehigh wrestling program since 2004 - deliver a national title at the Comcast Center in nearby Philadelphia, PA. (more)

(Photo Credit: Bruce Winter/The Express-Times ) Lehigh held its first-ever Pro Day at Lehigh this Thursday, and the not-exactly-well-kept secret around campus had senior OL Will Rackley , senior DB Jarard Cribbs and senior DB John Kennedy work out for a wide variety of NFL scouts. A full complement of local press was there to capture the day, where the star of the show, Rackley, did an individual workout to complement the partial workout he performed at the NFL Combine in February. (more)

(Photo Credit: AP/Washington Examiner) When you trumpet on the first page of your blog or newspaper that you have a great pick for a first-round upset, you are truly putting yourself out there.  It is a high-risk, high-reward thing to do.  If you're right, you look like a genius.  If you're wrong, you're supposed to stick to football, kid, and thanks for playing. Yesterday, I really put myself out there , saying (in no particular order) that I 1) had Bucknell beating UConn in all of my brackets, and 2) gave ten reasons as to why it was a rational pick to take the Bison to beat the Huskies. Trust me, it felt and sounded good at the time. But as often happens with the best of us, I was humbled in a massive way by this NCAA Tournament. G Kemba Walker decided to dish the ball instead of shooting it, and the end result was an 81-52 rout that actually was less competitive than the final score indicated. It was one of those games that was over at halftime. Why didn...

Nineteen brackets, four contests, and one fantasy team later, I am finally done with my men's NCAA tournament picks.  (I still have to pick my Women's NCAA tournament brackets  tomorrow.) In every single one of them I have Bucknell beating UConn. Crazy?  Maybe; after all, I spend an inordinate amount of my spare time following Patriot League sports, and while my loathing for all things orange and blue knows no bounds when the Bison Burgers take on Lehigh, once the NCAA tournament happens... madness. I think there are at least ten good reasons as to why Bucknell will win over the Huskies today.  Read them - and then judge for yourself if I'm crazy. (more)