Lehigh Football Nation

Normally an event at Murray Goodman Stadium in August would involve Lehigh's football team, either involving pictures for the upcoming season, or perhaps a scrimmage. Not this Wednesday, however. The announcement was largely expected in soccer circles, but yesterday's announcement confirmed that  the ownership team of the Philadelphia Union, they of Major League Soccer, were going to be launching a USL franchise in the Lehigh Valley, to be playing games at none other than Murray Goodman Stadium . It's a great thing for the Lehigh Valley, and a fantastic opportunity for Lehigh Atletics, too.

The spectators at tonight's scrimmage couldn't have missed the emotion coming from the sidelines. Sure, it was a practice, not a game situation, but as Lehigh was practicing its red zone defense, the sidelines - darkened somewhat by the lights, which had gone out briefly as the sun set in the Lehigh Valley - was loud. The defense was behind each other, as a unit, rallying their Brown shirts to deny the offense a chance to punch the ball in the zone. It was more than a passionate tweak at the day's competition, the White-shirted offense.  It seemed like it signified that they were ready to take on all comers. The defense stopped the offense in the Red Zone once again, and it felt good - for both the defense and the fans gathered on a beautiful summer evening, a cool breeze blowing through the Whitehead practice fields.

The past two years have been ones of Ram nightmares for Lehigh fans. Even though it seemed like QB Michael Nebrich was never 100% healthy as a Fordham Ram, he always seemed like he was plenty nimble enough to step up in the pocket and drop forty or fifty points on Lehigh's defense. But now, it's a new year.  Nebrich has graduated, as well as an eye-popping thirty-two other Fordham football seniors, many of whom had key responsibilities on both offense and defense. Head coach Joe Moorhead knows his 2015 Fordham Rams will look different.  But exactly how different? And will the Rams be able to simply reload and win a second straight title and qualify for a third straight FCS playoff appearance? If the preseason polls are any indication, Fordham was picked to win it all for the second consecutive year.

It may not have seemed like much, a bit of news quietly released during the news dumping ground of Friday afternoon by ESPN Stats and Info. "Upgrades sharpen ESPN's college FPI model," the release was titled , a piece which explained some changes that were being made to ESPN's "Football Power Index". One of those changes involve how FCS wins and losses were represented in their model. And it's actually a bigger deal than you think.

These ain't your mothers' Bison anymore. For years football games against Bucknell didn't register on the radar screens of all Lehigh fans, thanks to a fifteen-game winning streak against the Bison. They do now, though. After that long winning streak, it may, perhaps, have been forgivable for Mountain Hawk fans to think Bucknell's homecoming win at Christy Mathewson Stadium two years ago might have been a bit of a fluke. Any thoughts of a fluke were put to bed after last year's double-digit spanking at the hands of the Bison, though. At a school known around the league as a hoops-first, football-somewhere-down-the-priority-list type of place, Bucknell was a hair away from being in the drivers' seat for the Patriot League championship, taking eventual league champs Fordham to overtime before falling in extra time. Head coach Joe Susan 's goal this year is to have Bucknell take their new culture of winning and take it to the final, logical step: ...

Like many Division I football programs, Lehigh started their preparations for the upcoming Patriot Football season last Thursday . If you had to list the desires of the football team going into the preseason, chief among them is eradicating the memory of last season, whether it was the 3-8 record or especially the final game of last year . But what I think really gets the Lehigh players going, and in fact what gets most players going at FCS schools, is that they get a shot at something truly special. For Lehigh players, it means they can get a shot at taking down a nationally-ranked team, James Madison, in their own house, a shot at returning a Patriot League Championship trophy to Grace Hall, a shot at turning things around against Lafayette, and a shot at winning a national championship against the best schools of their subdivision. It's a time of optimism for all FCS schools, but it's the shot that truly makes it special. And if there's one thing I fear more...

It was a very notable fact that there were no long faces at Lehigh's table at Patriot League Media Day. That's not to say everyone was satisfied. It is true that the Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll, the lowest they had ever been picked as far as anyone could remember. It is also true that, when the subject of the defeat at the hands of Lafayette in the 150th meeting of the Rivalry came up, visible discomfort crossed the faces of junior QB Nick Shafnisky , junior LB Colton Caslow , and head football coach Andy Coen , as you would expect. But the results of the preseason polls and the outcome of the last game of last season could not dampen the enthusiasm emanating from Lehigh's table today. "Last year, we were picked second, and this year, we're picked fifth," Shafnisky said with his characteristic fast-paced energy .  "and... we'll see how we turn out this year.  I can't wait to see." "We...