Archive For October 31, 2014
We break down the Georgetown game – and we give our fearless prediction below the flip.
Whenever I need to get caught up on Georgetown, I always check the Hoya game notes and athletic site, of course, but I also, always, check out DFW Hoya’s site on Georgetown football for his in-depth analysis and breakdown of the Hoyas.
His site was one of the few sites talking about FCS football at all when I started doing this Lehigh Football Nation thing at the very beginning, and his site has always been an inspiration – and I don’t toss that word around lightly – to what I’ve wanted LFN to become. As a fellow website-master, I know how much work it takes to do previews and games, and I appreciate it.
In his preview could be the stat of the season for Lehigh. As a Hoya fan, he looks at this season as Georgetown’s best chance to beat Lehigh since the Hoyas joined the Patriot League. He also said this, which is true:
“The Engineers are a woeful 4-22 in two PL games converting on third down. Lehigh should do somewhat better in this one, but their gains on second down figure to be just as, if not more, important, when short yardage options become more plentiful. Defensively, Lehigh allows 55% of third downs, something Georgetown must take advantage of.”
The Lehigh football team is lucky.
For most football programs and a whole lot of Division I football players, the end of the season is visible. Many seniors see their final games at home, “senior day”, and maybe a road game or two to play their final games as seniors – that is, if the coaching staffs haven’t already started looking forward to the 2015 season and figuring out who is likely to start next season.
But with the Mountain Hawks, who essentially are eliminated from any Patriot League championship consideration with their loss to Fordham last weekend, there is always the week before Thanksgiving.
Because for Lehigh players, there are three championships every year.
The first two, the FCS National Championship and the Patriot League championship, are not in the cards this year.
But the third championship most certainly is.
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As beautiful fall days go, it was hard to beat this Saturday’s homecoming game at Murray Goodman when it came to weather, atmosphere, or color.
Unfortunately for Lehigh, it was also hard to beat the Fordham offense that showed up on homecoming in terms of physicalness, efficiency, and big play ability.
The Mountain Hawks showed a lot of fight on Saturday, playing tough until the end against the No. 12-ranked Rams. But after Fordham surged to a two-score lead early in the game, Lehigh’s efforts to cut the deficit never really made it close, falling 48-27 in a career day for Fordham freshman RB Chase Edmonds.
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This weekend’s Fordham/Lehigh game, if you’re not able to make it to Murray Goodman Stadium… wait, why aren’t you able to head to Murray Goodman Stadium? It’s beautiful weather out there! Homecoming! Go!
Oh, OK, so I finally accept that you can’t attend the game. In that case, if you’re in the Lehigh Valley, you can catch the game in its regular place on Service Electric 2 Sports. with Mike Zambelli, Mike Yadush, and Al DiCarlo on the call, and on the radio on AM 1230/1320 on Lehigh Valley ESPN Radio, featuring Matt Kerr, Matt Markus, Tom Fallon and Lance Haynes.
You can also get a live video stream of the game online on Campus Insiders from the link here. Their broadcast team will be Ray Crawford, Doug Chapman and Rich Cirminiello.
And I will also say that if you follow my Twitter feed (@LFN), I’ll do my best to keep up with the action.
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| WR Brian Wetzel (AP Photo) |
We break down the Fordham game – and we give our fearless prediction below the flip.
Fordham’s incredible squad gives a tantalizing glimpse as to what Patriot League football teams might look like once four seasons of scholarship athletes come into the program.
In their first year of eligibility for the Patriot League title since adopting conventional scholarships in football, Fordham has been drilling opponents, scoring more than 40 points per game in their six wins.
They’re doing so with scholarship athletes, of course – but with scholarship athletes that are seniors, too, including two very, very important transfers from UConn.
Fordham’s strategy has been a slow payoff, but a great one so far, giving the Rams a squad that is among the top offenses in all of FCS.
That’s what Lehigh is up against this weekend.
If the records and numbers determined the outcome, they probably wouldn’t bother playing the football game.
Lehigh, at 1-5, faces off against Fordham, the 12th-ranked team in the nation, who sits atop the Patriot League at 6-1.
Fordham boasts one of the top offenses in the nation – that part’s pretty much known by everyone – but what few people realize is their defense, for the most part, has also been stellar.
Three weeks ago, on Friday night TV against the defending Patriot League champions, Lafayette, you probably heard or saw the four-minute stretch where QB Michael Nebrich helped score three straight touchdowns to put the game, basically, out of reach. What you didn’t maybe stop to think about is that the Rams stopped the Leopards on three quick, straight drives, allowing that offense to bowl over the Lafayette defense.
So don’t play the game, the stats and highlights seem to say. Fordham’s too good. Don’t even bother.
But you can guarantee that this Lehigh team will still line up on Saturday, and they still believe that they can win this game. And this week, after Lehigh’s first win of the season, belief is not hard to come by on this team.
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What do you do when nobody believes in you?
What if people keep telling you your dreams are impossible, that people you know and trust keep telling you over and over again to not even bother with your dreams, that these dreams aren’t realistic, that what you want to do is against the natural order of things?
I feel like though life, people are constantly telling you what you can’t do. Even when people say that you can do something, they don’t really mean it – in their eyes, they feel like you can’t.
Everything good that’s happened to me in my life came from holding my dreams close, not allowing other people to define for me what my dreams are, can, and can not be.
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Lehigh Hoops Nation, as part of the continuing effort to get everyone prepared and ready for the ’14-’15 edition of Lehigh Basketball, was fortunate enough to chat with freshman guard Brandon Alston. This Q&A should help Mountain Hawk fans get to know Brandon. Special thanks to the freshman guard from Virginia for sitting down to…
There have been times this season that Lehigh has been agonizingly close to winning games they have ended up losing.
It’s as if they’ve been stuck with bad karma; that they’ve been oh-so-close to winning, but some bad karmic event keeps them out of the victory column.
Against the Big Red on homecoming this weekend, the Bad Karma seemed to be at Schoellkopf Field for Lehigh once again.
A well-defended pass bounced into the hands of Cornell WR Collin Shaw set up one Big Red touchdown. and a low snap to punter junior P Austin Devine set up another, making a 17-0 Mountain Hawk become a very slim, thin-feeling 17-14 spot for Lehigh.
But then just like that, the Lehigh offense seemed to have finished with its bad karma, with senior RB Rich Sodeke leading the charge to set up one big touchdown, and scoring the final exclamation point on Lehigh’s first win of the season.
It all added up to a satisfying return to winning for the Mountain Hawks.
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This weekend’s Lehigh/Cornell game, if you’re not able to make it to Ithaca, will be available to be viewed online, but it will require a subscription and a fee to do it.
It’s available to on the Ivy League Digital Network, and you can buy it on a school day-pass basis.
I forget the price of Cornell’s day pass, but if you went for the monthly subscription to ILDN back when we played Yale, then you’re good for this weekend’s game at Cornell.
The game is Lehigh’s latest start of the season, at 3:30 PM up in Ithaca.
My plan is to can listen to the game for free on www.espnlv.com (or on the radio at AM 1230 and 1320 of the Lehigh Valley). The reassuring voices of Matt Kerr and Matt Markus will be on the call.
And I will also say that if you follow my Twitter feed (@LFN), I’ll do my best to keep up with the action.
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