Archive For The “Jorge Portorreal” Category
This weekend, Lehigh had a tough evening on the Main Line as the Mountain Hawks fell to Villanova 38-10. After jumping to a 3-0 lead, Villanova would go on 17-0 and 21-0 runs in between a Lehigh touchdown to make the evening a happy one for most of the 8,000 fans in attendance.
Unlike last week, this wasn’t one that got away – this was a more comprehensive loss. Here’s five thoughts I had after looking over the game last week.
All season I have done a statistical breakdown of Lehigh’s opponent, position by position. As a change of pace, I’m going to do something different this week with the “Game Breakdown” and do a head-to-head comparison of both teams – doing a stat breakdown of both teams still, but doing more of a “Tale of the Tape” to compare both squads to see who might reign supreme in this huge football game.
Something that sometimes gets lost in The Rivalry is the importance of seniors on both sides. For so many of these seniors, it’s not only their final college football game, it is also their final time wearing a football helmet and a jersey. I’ve found that seniors find it in themselves to play the best games of their careers. So seniors in the starting lineup are of great weight to me.
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All season I have done a statistical breakdown of Lehigh’s opponent, position by position. As a change of pace, I’m going to do something different this week with the “Game Breakdown” and do a head-to-head comparison of both teams – doing a stat breakdown of both teams still, but doing more of a “Tale of the Tape” to compare both squads to see who might reign supreme in this huge football game.
Something that sometimes gets lost in The Rivalry is the importance of seniors on both sides. For so many of these seniors, it’s not only their final college football game, it is also their final time wearing a football helmet and a jersey. I’ve found that seniors find it in themselves to play the best games of their careers. So seniors in the starting lineup are of great weight to me.
Read more »
I’ve never done one of these before after Lehigh’s played an FBS opponent.
That’s because the last FBS opponent Lehigh played was in 2003, when the Mountain Hawks lost to UConn 35-17.
The Lehigh Football Nation blog was in its first year of existence back in 2003, and undoubtedly I wrote about it – but it’s not currently in the archives here at Blogger, because I archived those first two years offline.
What I can tell you about that UConn game was that Lehigh faced off against a future NFL player in QB Dan Orlovsky and that QB Chad Schwenk got hurt late in that game, which made it his final game in a Mountain Hawks uniform and effectively threw the rest of that season in some turmoil.
Fortunately turmoil doesn’t seem to be a part of the report card today.
Lehigh’s spring session is in full swing, and there’s no question who the opening-day starter will be at quarterback, barring injury – that would be rising senior QB Brad Mayes.
Mayes had a great season last year, helping the Mountain Hawk offense to tremendous production again, picking up exactly where Montreal Alouette QB Nick Shafnisky left off after the 2016 season.
That doesn’t mean Mayes is sitting back sipping an iced tea while his teammates are busting their humps this spring, however. He’s been busy.
“This off season was a lot of fun for me,” he told me. “I got to take on more of a leadership role which allowed me to make great strides in the weight room. We had an outstanding leadership council as well make some great strides in equipment and gear, nutrition, and alumni partnership. Although those may seem like little things when it comes to the game of football, stuff like looking like a team and matching on Saturdays really go a long way.”
Lehigh’s spring session is in full swing, and there’s no question who the opening-day starter will be at quarterback, barring injury – that would be rising senior QB Brad Mayes.
Mayes had a great season last year, helping the Mountain Hawk offense to tremendous production again, picking up exactly where Montreal Alouette QB Nick Shafnisky left off after the 2016 season.
That doesn’t mean Mayes is sitting back sipping an iced tea while his teammates are busting their humps this spring, however. He’s been busy.
“This off season was a lot of fun for me,” he told me. “I got to take on more of a leadership role which allowed me to make great strides in the weight room. We had an outstanding leadership council as well make some great strides in equipment and gear, nutrition, and alumni partnership. Although those may seem like little things when it comes to the game of football, stuff like looking like a team and matching on Saturdays really go a long way.”
Lehigh’s spring football practice segment officially starts tomorrow, ending an agonizingly long period of football inactivity from the end of the 2017 football season.
Tomorrow, the beginnings of the 2018 football team will take shape – a team that waves goodbye to WR Troy Pelletier and WR Gatlin Casey, but welcomes back rising senior QB Brad Mayes and some changes on the defensive side of the ball.
What sort of questions will be answered by by the end of this spring segment? Here are five of my questions.
Read more »
Lehigh’s spring football practice segment officially starts tomorrow, ending an agonizingly long period of football inactivity from the end of the 2017 football season.
Tomorrow, the beginnings of the 2018 football team will take shape – a team that waves goodbye to WR Troy Pelletier and WR Gatlin Casey, but welcomes back rising senior QB Brad Mayes and some changes on the defensive side of the ball.
What sort of questions will be answered by by the end of this spring segment? Here are five of my questions.
Read more »
(Photo Credit: Alec Turner c/o Lehigh Athletics)
For those that care about these things, Lehigh entered the first round FCS playoff matchup 21 1/2 point underdogs.
And if we’re being fair, that was probably the right number.
The Seawolves were 9-2, nationally ranked with seven conference wins in the tough CAA and one of their losses coming to a very strong FBS team in South Florida. In contrast, unranked Lehigh came into the game 5-6 and only were here because they upset Colgate 41-38 on the road and won enough Patriot League conference games to win the autobid.
Yet a young Lehigh team was game to put their best foot forward and to have a heroic sendoff for potential NFL prospect senior WR Troy Pelletier, and in that, the game was a rousing success.
With junior QB Brad Mayes expertly picking apart one of the top defenses in FCS, time after time he’d find Troy for reception after reception, each one highlighting his impressive skill set as an audition for the next level.
It wouldn’t be enough to win the game, but it was enough to keep the Mountain Hawks within striking distance until the Seawolves would pull away in the 4th quarter.
It was also enough to establish Troy as the all-time greatest receiver in Patriot League history.
Read more »
(Photo Credit: Alec Turner c/o Lehigh Athletics)
For those that care about these things, Lehigh entered the first round FCS playoff matchup 21 1/2 point underdogs.
And if we’re being fair, that was probably the right number.
The Seawolves were 9-2, nationally ranked with seven conference wins in the tough CAA and one of their losses coming to a very strong FBS team in South Florida. In contrast, unranked Lehigh came into the game 5-6 and only were here because they upset Colgate 41-38 on the road and won enough Patriot League conference games to win the autobid.
Yet a young Lehigh team was game to put their best foot forward and to have a heroic sendoff for potential NFL prospect senior WR Troy Pelletier, and in that, the game was a rousing success.
With junior QB Brad Mayes expertly picking apart one of the top defenses in FCS, time after time he’d find Troy for reception after reception, each one highlighting his impressive skill set as an audition for the next level.
It wouldn’t be enough to win the game, but it was enough to keep the Mountain Hawks within striking distance until the Seawolves would pull away in the 4th quarter.
It was also enough to establish Troy as the all-time greatest receiver in Patriot League history.
Read more »
