Lehigh Football Nation

The Unofficial Bucknell Commit List for the Class of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:37:00 +0000

If it's late January, that can only mean one thing for Lehigh football fans: the steady stream of commitments coming from high school seniors. In past years, I have posted one humongous posting of all the Patriot League teams whom I've confirmed are headed to Patriot League schools. This year, though, I've decided to break out my posted commitments by school. Below the flip, get a sneak peek of Bucknell's class of 2016 - and come back to this page often, as I'm going to be updating it frequently over the next few weeks. OL/DL Ed Carrington (Lawrence HS, Lawrence, NJ) WJFL All-Star Team (Defense) NJ.com: Choices Narrowed As Signing Day Approaches QB Brian Connolly (Ossining HS, Ossining, NY) Daily Ossining: Ossining's Connolly Chooses Bucknell QB Ryan Henning (North...

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The Unofficial Lafayette Commit List for the Class of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:16:00 +0000

If it's late January, that can only mean one thing for Lehigh football fans: the steady stream of commitments coming from high school seniors. In past years, I have posted one humongous posting of all the Patriot League teams whom I've confirmed are headed to Patriot League schools. This year, though, I've decided to break out my posted commitments by school. Below the flip, get a sneak peek of Lafayette's class of 2016 - and come back to this page often, as I'm going to be updating it frequently over the next few weeks. LB/RB Chris Brockman (Foster HS/Valley Forge Military Academy, Richmond, TX) Commitment on ScoutingPA.com LB Mark Dodd (Linsly School, Wheeling, WV) Undefeated 10-0 Linsly Team 2011 OVAthletics: Linsly's Mark Dodd to Play at Lafayette QB Andrew Dzurik...

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The Unofficial Fordham Commit List for the Class of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:49:00 +0000

If it's late January, that can only mean one thing for Lehigh football fans: the steady stream of commitments coming from high school seniors. In past years, I have posted one humongous posting of all the Patriot League teams whom I've confirmed are headed to Patriot League schools. This year, though, I've decided to break out my posted commitments by school. Below the flip, get a sneak peek of Fordham's class of 2016 - and come back to this page often, as I'm going to be updating it frequently over the next few weeks. LB/RB Dave Barletta (New Providence High School, New Providence, NJ) Newark Star-Ledger All Group 1 and All Union-County New Providence Patch: Barletta Give Fordham Verbal Agreement DB JeQuillan Bowers (Sylvania Southview HS, Toledo, OH) Confirmation from...

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The Unofficial Holy Cross Commit List for the Class of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:42:00 +0000

If it's late January, that can only mean one thing for Lehigh football fans: the steady stream of commitments coming from high school seniors. In past years, I have posted one humongous posting of all the Patriot League teams whom I've confirmed are headed to Patriot League schools. This year, though, I've decided to break out my posted commitments by school. Below the flip, get a sneak peek of Holy Cross' class of 2016 - and come back to this page often, as I'm going to be updating it frequently over the next few weeks. FB/LB Kenny Acquah (Mount St. Michael Academy, New York, NY) NY Post 1st Team All-City Offense (FB) NY Post 2nd Team All-City Defense (LB) NY Post: Mount's Acquah to Join Brother at the College of the Holy Cross K/P Connor Fitzgerald (Bloomington North...

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The Unofficial Colgate Commit List for the Class of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:50:00 +0000

If it's late January, that can only mean one thing for Lehigh football fans: the steady stream of commitments coming from high school seniors. In past years, I have posted one humongous posting of all the Patriot League teams whom I've confirmed are headed to Patriot League schools. This year, though, I've decided to break out my posted commitments by school. Below the flip, get a sneak peek of Colgate's class of 2016 - and come back to this page often, as I'm going to be updating it frequently over the next few weeks. QB Chase Bender (Cardinal Gibbons HS, Fort Lauderdale, FL) Rivals commitment P/K Duncan Brennan (Bishop Moore HS, Orlando, FL) Orlando Sentinel: Brennan Headed to Colgate LB Cameron Buttermore (American Heritage HS, Plantation, FL) Miami-Herald First...

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The Unofficial Lehigh Commit List for the Class of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:33:00 +0000

(Photo Credit: Stephen Miller, The Varsity Blog at the Morning Call) If it's late January, that can only mean one thing for Lehigh football fans: the steady stream of commitments coming from high school seniors. In past years, I have posted one humongous posting of all the Patriot League teams whom I've confirmed are headed to Patriot League schools. This year, though, I've decided to break out my posted commitments by school. Below the flip, get a sneak peek of Lehigh's class of 2016 - and come back to this page often, as I'm going to be updating it frequently over the next few weeks. RB Dan Brown (Central Bucks South HS, Doylestown, PA) Pennsylvania Sports Writers Class AAAA All-State team Twitter Commitment PhillyBurbs: CB South's Brown Named All State “This is...

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Dave Cecchini and the Yale Coaching Search

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:10:00 +0000

On any Division I football program that goes from 4-7 to back-to-back league titles in the span of two years, you have to expect that other Division I football teams will be looking your coaching staff, dangling opportunities for bigger things. Such was the case this year with much-beloved Lehigh offensive coordinator Dave Cecchini. When Yale head football coach Tom Williams resigned as head coach after it came to light that he exaggerated claims on his biography, while there was no "official" word that Cecchini was in the running for Yale's head coaching position, it wasn't surprising that rumor mills had his name list for consideration for the top job, among other worthy finalists. What happened next, though, was surprising - and heart-stopping for Lehigh fans. For those that were...

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Lum Finishes Second in Payton Voting

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:50:00 +0000

(Photo Credit: Donna Fisher/The Morning Call) At the end of the football season, you had to think he had an excellent chance at the Payton award. Senior QB Chris Lum, who had the most touchdown passes and most single-season passing yards of any Lehigh quarterback - and the Mountain Hawks have had some great ones - was the most dominant quarterback statistically of all the signal-callers who made it to the FCS playoffs. But to the voters in the Sports Network's Walter Payton award, it was not enough. Instead, the award went to QB Bo Levi Mitchell, who had comparable statistics to Lum, but only commanded his Eagles to a 6-5 record. I'm incredibly disappointed by the Payton voters. Not so much from the fact that Lum lost, but that the margin of victory was so resounding. Mitchell won...

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Catching up with QB Chris Lum Before Frisco

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:39:00 +0000

It's a few days before what could be a spectacular finale to senior QB Chris Lum's Lehigh football career. This weekend, he's headed to Frisco, TX, where he will discover if he'll be Lehigh's first-ever winner of the Walter Payton award. The Payton Award, offered by the Sports Network to the most valuable player in Division I Football Championship Subdivision, has been called the "Heisman Trophy" of FCS. So what was the first thing he mentioned to me when I contacted him? His grades from the past semester. "I'm currently on winter break and my last exam of the semester was Dec. 20," was the first thing Chris told me by email. "I just found out I earned a 3.92 GPA this past fall semester." Of all the record-breaking football-related statistics he could have mentioned - 4,378...

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Final Ivy and Patriot Thoughts on the Year

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:38:00 +0000

As a Lehigh fan, it was a season to remember - one of the all-time great ones. Assuming there's no shenanigans, the Mountain Hawks will be enjoying their first Lambert Trophy since 2001, and there's still a great possibility that senior QB Chris Lum's record-breaking season may result in the first-ever Lehigh football player to ever receive the Walter Payton award, the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy at the FCS level. But before this awesome season comes to a close, two interesting articles came out over this holiday season that are worth reporting before we wax philosophic about the season that was and before we start to announce prospective Lehigh recruits. The first comes from the Patriot League office, talking about the presidential meeting in Annapolis on December 12th and...

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Lehigh's Recruiting Christmas List

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:40:00 +0000

First of all, let me be the first to wish all my readers a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and joyous Holiday season. And if you're a Lehigh fan, you're probably also wondering what new Mountain Hawk recruits might be needed to continue Lehigh's dominance over "that school in Easton" and also continue their run of Patriot League championships and playoff appearances. Below the flip, see what recruiting needs would make my Lehigh Valley Christmas even happier. (Santa, are you listening?) 1. Looking over Lehigh's roster, a whopping six linebackers are seniors: senior LB Mike Groome, senior LB Colin Newton, senior LB Fred Mihal, senior LB Tanner Rivas, senior LB Devin Greene, and senior LB Shane Ryan. All six made major contributions and started games for the...

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The 2011 FCS Head Coaching Carousel, And What it Means to Lehigh

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:42:00 +0000

While Lehigh was making their run in the FCS playoffs this year, there were a host of interesting head coaching moves that directly involved three of Lehigh's opponents in 2011. From the Mountain Hawk perspective, the most interesting such move was that of sort-of Patriot League member Fordham, who was relieved of his head coaching duties at the conclusion of a dismal 1-10 season where the Rams lost by double digits in their last eight games. The Rams' hiring of head coach Joe Moorhead from the staff at UConn is but one of the interesting FCS offseason coaching moves. The Ram, Fordham's student paper, has the best summary of Joe Moorhead's hiring, talking about his time as a star quarterback on the Rams and his continuing pride in the program: "Just over 15 years ago, following our...

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Football Season Over, but Accolades Keep Pouring In

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:31:00 +0000

While Lehigh fans are (understandably) still a bit disappointed that the season is over, the winter just got a little warmer realizing that the Associated Press and Sports Network released their all-American teams this week, and four different Mountain Hawks were honored. To go along with the all-Patriot League team that was released at the end of the regular season and the AFCA All-America team, it's worth going over the many Lehigh plaudits for the 2011 season. The winner of the biggest national award, the Walter Payton award, is still not determined, and senior QB Chris Lum is one of three finalists for FCS' equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. As a result, the Sports Network this year has made their first team and second team quarterback awards contingent on the voting for the...

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Sunday's Word: Thunderstruck

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:24:00 +0000

Lehigh's great playoff ride has come to an end in the ThuderDome, where a loud, partisan North Dakota State crowd listened to an AC/DC song with the title of this "Sunday Word", "Thunderstruck", and struck down Lehigh's offense, shutting out the Mountain Hawks 24-0. It was a disappointing ending to an otherwise wonderful, historic season for Lehigh - one that will go in the record books as one of the best ever. Yet it's impossible to look at this game at some level and wonder, "What if?" What if senior QB Chris Lum's favorite receiver were not suspended in an unprecedented move by Montana athletic director Jim O'Day, representing the NCAA's FCS subcommittee? In other words, what might have happened had junior WR Ryan Spadola not been "thunderstruck" by O'Day and the...

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Lehigh 0, North Dakota State 24, Final

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 02:29:00 +0000

In the end, not having junior WR Ryan Spadola didn't matter. In front of more than 18,000 loud North Dakota State fans, and a fearsome Bison defense, the Mountain Hawks couldn't overcome the injuries, the noise, and their own miscues in the 24-0 defeat in the FCS Quarterfinals. It would be the furthest Lehigh had made it in the FCS playoffs since 2001, when they travelled to Furman and were defeated 34-17 by the Paladins. When Lehigh looks back on this game, they will rue a multitude of missed opportunities, especially in the first half. Senior QB Chris Lum moved the ball well on two early drives in the first half, getting inside the Bison 30 on two separate occasions. Senior RB Matt Fitz, filling in for the injured junior RB Zach Barket, ground out some great first down runs...

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Lehigh "Hurting" from Suspension, But It Could Be a "Galvanizing Event"

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

(Photo Credit: Michael Vosburg/The Forum via the Morning Call) Head coach Andy Coen made no bones about it to Keith Groller of the Morning Call yesterday. He said the team is "really close, and is still hurting" from the first-ever-of-its-kind suspension of junior WR Ryan Spadola for an offensive tweet. Spadola, who didn't even get on the plane to Fargo yesterday, is missed by all. "I think it can be a galvanizing event for our team," Coen said, however, "I haven't really talked a lot about it with them. I may before kickoff. I just told them we are a family and sometimes issues pop up within a family and you learn from them and grow from them and you get stronger." For senior WR De'Vaughn Gordon, who will be starting in Spadola's place, he told Michael LoRe of the...

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Breaking Down North Dakota State, FCS Quarterfinals, 12/9/2011

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:14:00 +0000

The gap between the regular season and the Towson game was very long - a two week gap that seemed like an eternity. The gap in between last weekend's 40-38 win against Towson and this weekend's FCS quarterfinal game against North Dakota State was shorter in terms of time - but, for obvious reasons, has seemed even longer than the two-week layover from the last game. Almost forgot in this extraordinary week is the fact that there's an actual football game to be played in Fargo - a game against the most complete football team that Lehigh will have faced up until this point. Below the flip, see my breakdown of the Bison, keys to the game, and Fearless Prediction. Breaking Down the Bison Offense Going into last week's game against James Madison, the storyline with North Dakota State...

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Game Preview: FCS Quarterfinals, Lehigh at North Dakota State

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 05:21:00 +0000

(Photo Credit: Dave Wallis/The Forum) Let's say you're a Lehigh player right now. Today, you learned that your star receiver, junior WR Ryan Spadola, was suspended by the NCAA by making an offensive tweet. To call it a distraction would be the understatement of the year. No Lehigh team has ever gone through this. Heck, no team has ever gone through this. No player has been suspended by the NCAA for tweeting something. So the question is to you: how do you respond? It would be easy to just give up and blame the loss on the suspension and the pandemonium of the week, right? Just six days after taking the bus up from Towson, tomorrow morning you make the flight to Fargo, North Dakota, to prepare for the loud, intimidating venue they call the FargoDome. Cross-country...

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Breaking: Spadola Suspended By NCAA

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:08:00 +0000

On Saturday, it was a head-scratching lead-in on head coach Andy Coen's press conference on Lehigh's historic 40-38 win over Towson in the playoffs. The consensus from the folks I talked to coming out of the room was: why would you lead the press conference with that question? It seemed like much ado over nothing - though none of us, it must be said, read the tweet in question, either. Five days later, it broke that the NCAA would be suspending junior WR Ryan Spadola, and he would not play in Lehigh's FCS quarterfinal game against North Dakota State. Minutes ago, this came from the NCAA Website: “The football committee was very disappointed with the unsportsmanlike action taken by the student-athlete,” said Jim O’Day, chair of the Division I Football Championship...

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Bring On The Bison

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:22:00 +0000

You get the feeling that the Big Guy up there knew this would happen - just like last year. In 2010, Lehigh did something out of the ordinary on their regular season schedule, playing their opener at Drake University in Iowa. And when the Mountain Hawks had a road playoff game after qualifying for their first FCS Playoff game since 2004, they were sent out to Iowa again to take on the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. In 2011, it wasn't Lehigh that played out at the FargoDome in North Dakota - that would have been Lafayette, who played their season opener further west then the Leopards had ever played. It means that Lehigh's trip this week out to the FargoDome won't be something completely unfamiliar to them. They've all played in a dome before. They know...

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Rounding Up the Press on Lehigh vs. Towson

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:04:00 +0000

(Photo Credit: Karl Merton Ferron/The Baltimore Sun via the Morning Call) As Towson entered the field before their playoff game versus Lehigh, and unidentified player came through the large, inflatable tiger head holding a championship belt, not unlike one a prizefighter might wear. As someone who writes about Lehigh football, it provided an irresistible storyline for the playoff game, with echoes of Ali vs. Frazier. The Thrila in Manila. A prizefight. It makes naming this game the "Towson Thrilla" from here on forward just that much easier. What did the the Lehigh players think about the move after the game? "We had no knowledge of it until we saw them run out with it," junior WR Ryan "The Answer" Spadola said to me later. "It was bad on their part because it just...

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Sunday's Word: Big Time (Lehigh vs. Towson)

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:30:00 +0000

(Photo Credit: Karl Merton Ferren, the Baltimore Sun courtesy of the Morning Call) So-called "big-time" collegiate athletics has had an awfully rough year. When the entire QB Cam Netwon affair - you remember, the father of Auburn's star quarterback getting caught offering his son's services for a six-figure sum of money - feels like it happens a decade ago, you know the overall feeling of college football in those Bowl Subdivision ranks has to be one of nausea rather than school pride. Between the horrors at Penn State, which are unfolding in slow motion in front of the entire world, and the latest conference realignment madness, where money has made a Boise State to the Big East scenario plausible, "big-time" college football, and perhaps even all of "big-time" college athletics,...

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Lehigh 40, Towson 38, Final

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 04:02:00 +0000

It was billed as a shootout between two of the top offenses of FCS. And it was, indeed, a shootout between the the powerful running game of Towson, and the powerful passing game of Lehigh. It was billed as a game for supremacy in the East. It was, indeed, a showcase between the champions of the Patriot League and the champions of the Colonial Athletic Association, or CAA, for Beast of the East. But with all that was billed and all that was hyped the last two weeks regarding this game, played in front of a sellout, standing-room crowd of 11,196 at Johnny Unitas Stadium, nobody could have anticipated that the outcome of the game, the game-winning play, would come on Lehigh junior DE Tom Bianchi sacking Towson QB Grant Enders in the end zone. Befitting a game that faced the No. 1 and...

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Breaking Down Towson, FCS Playoffs Second Round, 12/3/2011

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:33:00 +0000

(Photo Credit: The Baltimore Sun) My brain says the bye week is a good thing for a football team. Injuries get an opportunity to heal, there are more hours in the week to break down game film, and the student-athletes get a few days to sit back, relax, and contemplate what they've accomplished this year. (It also gives another week for senior LB Mike Groome's playoff beard to grow out, to allow "Mike's beard to be big enough for everyone", as senior LB Colin Newton told me this week.) But it also means that the wait for this weekend, with a full holiday weekend in between Lehigh's last regular season game and this week's "elimination game", has seemed endless. But the wait is nearly over. Below the flip, see Towson broken down, as well as my "Keys to the Game" - and, of course,...

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Game Preview: FCS Playoffs Second Round, Lehigh at Towson

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck B '92) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:12:00 +0000

(Photo Credit: Doug Kapustin, The Baltimore Sun) If past performance were indicative of how things are going to go this Saturday, Lehigh would have nothing to worry about. In eleven meetings with the Tigers, Lehigh has gone 10-1 against Towson, and lit them up for more than 40 points in five of those meetings. But nobody at Lehigh has any illusions that this Towson team will resemble those Tiger teams from the 1990s and 2000s. The Tigers' story is an easy one to admire: from a 1-10 season to a 9-2 record in the SEC of FCS, Towson is easy to like, too recently a member of the FCS "haves" to be hated by anyone. But even though they're a feel-good story, there's a reason these Tigers are CAA champions. They are loaded with talent. Towson's turnaround has come at...

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