Archive For The “Fordham” Category
The Patriot League could very well be in a huge bind assuming the Ivy League goes forward with their college football restart plans.
According to Mark Blaudschun of TMG Sports, the Ivy League is considering two plans for their 2020 college football season – neither of which allow for any out of conference games.
13 out-of-conference games involving Patriot League teams would be on the chopping block, and when you add to it the Patriot League presidents’ guidance to not fly to games, every single member of the Patriot League is affected. If you add to that the fact that the opening of the college football season is going to at best start in late September (yes, you read that correctly), the Patriot League would count as one of the most deeply affected by Covid-19-influenced delays and decisions in the entire college football landscape.
It is a bind to be sure – but not one that should see the Patriot League cancel the 2020 football season.
If we start with the assumption that the season will start late at best, and we assume that the TMG Sports report is accurate (and nobody has come forward to deny the basic thrust of the report), it should be possible to craft a nine-week Patriot League football season with seven league games and two out-of-conference games. There are a lot of moving parts, and the Patriot League would need some partners. But it should be possible.
What a win!Really, it still feels pretty darned good a few days later – a 30-27 overtime win over Fordham that was a tremendous matchup between two very evenly-matched teams. It was a win that resulted in a bunch of Patriot League Players of the Week …
What a win!Really, it still feels pretty darned good a few days later – a 30-27 overtime win over Fordham that was a tremendous matchup between two very evenly-matched teams. It was a win that resulted in a bunch of Patriot League Players of the Week …
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One thing has remained remarkably consistent for the last six years – Fordham has had Lehigh’s number.
It hasn’t mattered that Fordham has had Joe Moorhead, Andrew Breiner, or Joe Conlin, or whether Lehigh was gunning for a Patriot League title, or not – during that time, Fordham has done only one thing consistently, and that’s beat Lehigh.
Granted, during many of those years, Fordham has some all-time teams, with UConn transfer QB Michael Nebrich, current Arizona Cardinal RB Chase Edmonds, and a cast of terrific Patriot League players too numerous to mention. But then again, during Lehigh’s last Patriot League title year of 2017, fourth-string RB D’Angelo Palladino ran for almost 300 yards on the Mountain Hawk defense for a 45-35 win, something the Lehigh seniors remember all too painfully well.
In a year of lowlights, last year’s 43-14 loss to Fordham for head coach Joe Conlin’s first win as Fordham head coach really stood out to me as a particularly bad loss where the Mountain Hawks seemed to completely bottom out. I don’t often say games are over at the coin flip, but I knew Lehigh was done the second they came back from midfield.
There were some truly epic losses last season – 66-7 to Princeton stands out, of course – but you could argue that expectations against Princeton, Villanova and even Colgate were very low. The Fordham game, however, was winnable. It was a game between winless teams, and I predicted Lehigh would win. “Lehigh has too much talent not to win this game,” I said in a moment of being stupendously wrong.
Of the five losses in the last six games in the series, the first few were a result of a battle between teams with equal talent, but in the last two losses, there was a serious enthusiasm deficit, and it showed. Both Fordham and Lehigh struggled the last two years, but having attended both games, the Rams simply wanted it more.
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One thing has remained remarkably consistent for the last six years – Fordham has had Lehigh’s number.
It hasn’t mattered that Fordham has had Joe Moorhead, Andrew Breiner, or Joe Conlin, or whether Lehigh was gunning for a Patriot League title, or not – during that time, Fordham has done only one thing consistently, and that’s beat Lehigh.
Granted, during many of those years, Fordham has some all-time teams, with UConn transfer QB Michael Nebrich, current Arizona Cardinal RB Chase Edmonds, and a cast of terrific Patriot League players too numerous to mention. But then again, during Lehigh’s last Patriot League title year of 2017, fourth-string RB D’Angelo Palladino ran for almost 300 yards on the Mountain Hawk defense for a 45-35 win, something the Lehigh seniors remember all too painfully well.
In a year of lowlights, last year’s 43-14 loss to Fordham for head coach Joe Conlin’s first win as Fordham head coach really stood out to me as a particularly bad loss where the Mountain Hawks seemed to completely bottom out. I don’t often say games are over at the coin flip, but I knew Lehigh was done the second they came back from midfield.
There were some truly epic losses last season – 66-7 to Princeton stands out, of course – but you could argue that expectations against Princeton, Villanova and even Colgate were very low. The Fordham game, however, was winnable. It was a game between winless teams, and I predicted Lehigh would win. “Lehigh has too much talent not to win this game,” I said in a moment of being stupendously wrong.
Of the five losses in the last six games in the series, the first few were a result of a battle between teams with equal talent, but in the last two losses, there was a serious enthusiasm deficit, and it showed. Both Fordham and Lehigh struggled the last two years, but having attended both games, the Rams simply wanted it more.
Welcome back to the Lehigh Tailgate Report, a free public service from your pals over at Lehigh Football Nation.The idea of the Lehigh Tailgate Report is to provide a fun report on what to expect at the game, or not at the game, for this week’s upcomin…
Welcome back to the Lehigh Tailgate Report, a free public service from your pals over at Lehigh Football Nation.The idea of the Lehigh Tailgate Report is to provide a fun report on what to expect at the game, or not at the game, for this week’s upcomin…
It would be easy to hate right now. It would be tempting to write a screed about unhappy I am about how this season is going so far, to make a report card filled with C’s and D’s. It would be tempting to write something in all caps on my displeasure about the outcome of the last three games.
Because I am not happy.
I am not happy with the energy level brought by the team. I am not happy with three huge 60+ yard pass plays that resulted in three Fordham touchdowns. I am not happy with Fordham, who averaged 1.0 yard per carry, routinely get nine-yard plunges for gains. I am not happy with a single offensive touchdown while the final score is in doubt. I’m not happy with unconverted 3rd downs. And I’m not happy, on a 3rd and 27, calling for a toss right to RB Dominick Bragalone.
Instead of hashing all that is wrong and needs to be fixed, however, I’m going to share with you what I think Lehigh is, and where Lehigh football fits into that. I hope that in here, somewhere, may be some sort of answer to all of these problems.
It’s time to go full nerd and do a full-blown breakdown of the Fordham Rams.
The first point of information about the 0-5 Rams you need to know is that they are young, and rebuilding.
Joe Conlin is their first-year head coach, and you had better believe that he and his team would love nothing better than to get Conlin’s first head coaching victory against Lehigh, a team that Fordham has beaten in four of the last five meetings between these two programs.
But the 2018 Rams are vastly different than the team that suited up QB Kevin Anderson and current Arizona Cardinal RB Chase Edmonds on their roster. Anderson, who was a transfer from an FBS school (Marshall), had loads of experience and additionally used a redshirt year at Marshall, and Edmonds, as any reader of this blog would know, stepped in immediately as a freshman on Rose Hill and it was abundantly clear he was a generational talent running the ball.
For Fordham, this team is adopting a new philosophy under a new coaching tree. Gone is the Joe Moorhead/Andrew Breiner tree, having finally settled down at Mississippi State. In is Conlin, a long-time Yale assistant coach who has made stops at a ton of different great, powerful FCS college football programs, including both New Hampshire and Havard as well as the Bulldogs.
So growing pains. certainly, were to be expected, especially with a schedule that included an FBS team (UNC-Charlotte), an FCS Playoff team (Stony Brook) and a historically good CAA team (Richmond).
The rubber hits the road this weekend at Murray Goodman Stadium as the Mountain Hawks return home to start Patriot League play, and the stretch of games that will determine the course of the season.
Lehigh (1-4, 0-0 PL) takes on Fordham (0-5, 0-1 PL) in what is a do-or-die game for the Rams in many ways. A loss will put them at 0-6, guaranteeing Fordham first-year head coach Joe Conlin a losing season and will most likely also knock them out of a realistic chance at the Patriot League title.
If you can’t make it to the game, you can catch the contest on TV in the Lehigh Valley on Service Electric 2, with Steve Degler, Mike Yadush and Kristi Fulkerson on the call. The same broadcast is also available online via Patriot League TV.
You can also catch the game on FOX AM 1230 and 1320, with Matt Kerr, Tom Fallon, Matt Markus and Jim Guzzo on the call, with the most excellent Lehigh pregame show starting at 11:30 AM. You can get it through your regular radio, listen to the broadcast streamed through TuneIn, or just simply going to the LVFoxSports.com webpage and listening that way.
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