Archive For The “Kevin Anderson” Category
We break down the Fordham game – and we give our fearless prediction below the flip.
A key element to this week’s game is the status of Fordham QB Kevin Anderson and RB Chase Edmonds. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Fordham is a different team with or without one or both of them.
Edmonds was held out in the second half of a blowout loss to Colgate, only eight yards short of the Patriot League all-time rushing record, while Anderson left the Lafayette game with an ankle injury, and hasn’t returned since.
Some speculation exists on the Fordham board that Anderson was suspended for the Georgetown game last week. If it is true that Anderson was suspended, and not hurt, the interesting part of that aspect is that there is historic precedent.
“Eagle-eyed followers of Lehigh Football Nation may have noticed last week that Fordham did not suit up their regular starter, QB Kevin Anderson, versus Georgetown,” I wrote in last year’s preview of the Fordham game. “The official story is that the Boca Raton, Florida native sat out the game due to a “violation of team rules”. No further explanation was given, but judging by the game notes, Anderson is still listed at No. 1 on the depth chart, and every public indication is that it was a one-game suspension. So barring any eleventh-hour revelations, Anderson is almost certain to be the starter this weekend.”
If the official story is that Anderson was suspended for a “violation of team rules” – which, by a incredible coincidence, happened in two consecutive years in the exact weekend of the Georgetown game – it means two things. First, it means that Georgetown is the luckiest team in the Patriot League to miss Kevin Anderson twice. Second, it means that Kevin Anderson is starting on Saturday.
I don’t know if Kevin Anderson and Chase Edmonds will absolutely start on Saturday. But I’m going to write this preview as if they are, because, frankly, I’m convinced they’re starting. Sometimes, things are exactly how they look.
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Fordham at Lehigh Game Breakdown And Fearless Prediction: Remember getting Chase-d Out of the Bronx?
We break down the Fordham game – and we give our fearless prediction below the flip.
Remember when Fordham RB Chase Edmonds set a Patriot League rushing record against the Mountain Hawks? I do – it happened just last year, just the sort of Halloween “treat” I’d rather live without.
“Edmonds came out of the locker room like a man on fire, and played like it,” I wrote. “Two 14 yard runs set up Fordham’s go-ahead score, and he would rush for 100 yards in the 3rd quarter, ripping off a 60 yard touchdown run to give Fordham a 38-21 lead and capping off three straight touchdowns for the Rams.”
Another less-publicized reason for Lehigh losing in the Bronx last season? Unforced errors.
“Unfortunately, we’re still our own worst enemy,” head coach Andy Coen said afterwards. “Whether its penalties or turnovers, you can’t beat a good team with those. They’re trying to learn that lesson. If you’re going to keep turning the ball over more than everybody else, it’s hard to win games.”
I’m guessing that the Lehigh football players are aware of these two events from last season.
“With the exception of the first five minutes,” The Brown and White said, “Lehigh played indifferent football. At times the Brown and White showed flashes of form, but for the most part they lacked the dash and drive which characterizes the opening minutes of the game. The aerial attack which gained so much ground last week was poor, and it was not until the latter part of the third quarter that Lehigh completer her first successful forward pass.”
This quote, taken from the 1923 student newspaper detailing the first-ever official football meeting between Lehigh and Fordham, won’t be something that’s repeated in the student newspaer in their recap this weekend. In fact, the fifteen points scored in that 1923 game, a 9-6 Lehigh win, might very well be outdistanced in the first five minutes of the game this weekend., and it’s a guarantee that Fordham and Lehigh will be completing their first passes well before the 3rd quarter.
It would be stunning to see a 9-6 final in this game this weekend in large part because all signs point to a game which will be a full buffet for fans of offense.
If Lehigh and Fordham meet their season averages for total offensive yards, there’s a chance that both teams’ offenses combined might exceed 1,000 yards, while Fordham averages 32.3 points per game, and Lehigh 40.3. Even if this game didn’t loom enormously in the Patriot League title chase – which, of course it does – this would be a terrific game to watch in terms of offense.
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We continue the series “Know Your 2016 Opponents” a mere 16 days away from the opening of the 2016 football season.
This might be a good time, for your reading pleasure, to remind you that these are modified with some more awesome Lehigh information from the originals over at The College Sports Journal.
It’s also a good time to remind you that I already have written a bunch of these:
Bucknell
Georgetown
Holy Cross
Lafayette
Princeton
Yale
To come: Penn, Colgate, Villanova, and, of course Monmouth, the season opener on September 3rd. And also, this preview of Fordham. Below the flip.
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Say Doc Brown had shown up at your house October 21st, 2015, and told you something about the upcoming Lehigh/Fordham game.
Suppose he lets slip that senior QB Nick Shafnisky would go out with an injury before halftime, and that Fordham RB Chase Edmonds would set a Patriot League record for rushing yards in a game while getting over 400 all-purpose yards.
Would you have gone to the game?
Would you have bothered to be one of the 5,000 fans in attendance who watched the No. 11-ranked Rams face off against a game Mountain Hawk squad?
The truth is, even though the loss was certainly frustrating and a teeth-gnashing reminder of what could have been, with two minutes to play in the game freshman PK Ed Mish lined up at the 27 yard line with a chance to make it a one-score game.
At what was effectively the “two-minute warning” in the game, Lehigh had battled all the way back from Shaf’s injury, their own penalties and mistakes, and put the Mountain Hawks in a position to steal the game away.
We break down the Fordham game – and we give our fearless prediction below the flip.
Fans, coaches and players alike are keenly aware of the importance of this weekend’s game.
“If you look at our win against Bucknell and our win against Penn, which are our two best wins of the year, those were our two best weeks of practice,” senior TE Chris Ruhl told The Brown and White this week. “It was our most intense week of practice. It was our most focused week of practice, so head coach Andy Coen has been pushing for us to set the standard with that.”
Also in this week’s game notes for Lehigh, which I forgot about for yesterday, sees a big return on the two-deep as well in junior LB Colton Caslow.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do and we’re still working hard on getting better every single time we step on the field,” senior LB Noah Robb said this week. “We’ve made a lot of progress, even from two weeks ago. We’re getting there.”
Lehigh fans hope they “get there” this Saturday.
“It’s really crazy, honestly,” Robb continued. “To think I only have a couple months left, of football, I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself when it’s over… Off the field, Lehigh is a great place to go. I’ve had opportunities to network. I’ve received a great education and couldn’t ask for a better place to spend the best four years of my life. But I don’t want to leave Lehigh without a [championship] ring.”
