Lehigh Football Nation

It's been an awfully busy week in the world of football. College football media days rage on, including that of the Patriot League, which is less than a week away. The NFL Lockout came to a sudden end , unleashing a frenzy of moves that are dizzying, like DE Jason Babin rejoining the Eagles and RB Reggie Bush going to where Saints running backs go to retire, the Miami Dolphins . And the Patriot League released its 25th anniversary team on Monday , which has stimulated quite a bit of discussion on the fact that a Payton Award winner didn't make the team and the fact that not a single Georgetown player made the list either . Midst the chaos came an announcement that you probably missed. It came from "that school in Easton", and it was no small deal.  It involved the reassignment of Lafayette athletic director Bruce McCutcheon to a "new leadership role" in the athletics department involving athletic fundraising. It's a "reassignment...

(Photo Credit: Denise Sanchez/The Morning Call) Lehigh Athletic Director Joe Sterrett admitted this week, after the NFL lockout was finally lifted after a tense 136 days, that folks around the Lehigh athletic department were "living on a string" the past few weeks. With the NFL lockout very much still on a couple of weeks ago, Sterrett made the decision to go ahead and prepare for Eagles Training Camp this summer - just as they had for the last 15 years on South Mountain. It's that preparation - and the "relationships" with folks like Eagles head coach Andy Reid - which ultimately caused the Eagles to bring Eagles Training Camp to Bethlehem for the 16th straight year, even as other NFL teams announced they were modifying or cutting back on their training camps. (more)

This Monday, the Patriot League announced their 25th anniversary team , and there were some surprises - mostly on the positive side for Lehigh, who netted six spots on the all-time team. Below the flip, see who made it from Lehigh, and see what I think were the shocking omissions from the list. (more)

Earlier this week, I made the easy picks on my hypothetical ballot for the 25th anniversary all-Patriot League team - the defense . Now, for the challenging part. Today, I weigh in on my picks for the offense - and there's bound to be some crying and gnashing of teeth. But one selection on my version of the 25th anniversary team is bound to be completely uncontroversial. That's the selection of the legendary two-sport star for Holy Cross, RB/CB Gordie Lockbaum . (more)

For fun, I thought I'd pull together my hypothetical ballot for the 25 year all-Patriot Team, in preparation for the Patriot League's release of the team next week on July 25th. Part One, which I'm releasing today, is going to be the defense (and, for good measure, I'm going to include the 25th anniversary all-star punter, too). The intent of the ballot is to be a true "team."  That means that the ballot should consist of four defensive linemen, for linebackers, and four defensive backs. (more)

No matter how you look at it, it was a rough year for the Princeton Tigers in 2010. In head coach Bob Surace 's first season at the helm of the Tigers, the senior-laden team collapsed to a 1-9 record, and got swept in Ivy League play for the first time since 1973. It wasn't all his fault - his NFL-caliber linebacker got injured in the 35-22 defeat to Lehigh , and a slew of different injuries afflicted Princeton during the course of the year - but by any measure, it was an incredibly rough rookie campaign for the former assistant coach on the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals. The Tigers, though, will be more dangerous in 2011 than last season's record might suggest.  That's because that NFL-caliber linebacker, senior LB Stephen Cody , took a medical redshirt year and will get one more crack at beating Lehigh. All of a sudden, this game doesn't look like such a cakewalk. (more)

(Photo Credit: Tyler McDermott/The New Hampshire) There's a lot of football games on the schedule in 2011, but the one that seems to loom the largest - aside from that contest Lehigh plays at the end of November, of course - is the home opener. It's not just because New Hampshire plays in the CAA, the football conference that is getting a reputation as "the SEC of FCS". It's not just because it will almost certainly be a matchup between Top 25 teams - the first such contest at Murray Goodman since 2004. And it's not just because the Wildcats humbled Lehigh in Durham last year, 31-10 . It's because last year's game was one of the last appearances of the "old" Lehigh team than the "new" one that closed out the year in 2010. Of all the games on the schedule in 2011, none feels like "redemption" - except this one. (more)