Archive For The “Spring Football” Category
Probably the biggest news from the first few days of spring practice is a few changes on the depth chart that may not seem that important at first, but could pay off later this fall.
It’s the switch of rising senior Marc Raye-Redmond to the offensive side of the ball, and rising junior Nick Thevaganayam to the defense.
Raye-Redmond last season played mostly on special teams, and was listed as a defensive back. In his role on special teams, Marc excelled, not only notching 12 tackles but also getting 184 return yards alongside rising senior WR Gatlin Casey on kickoffs. Against Princeton last year, he had two returns for 49 yards.
Thevaganayam also mostly appeared on special teams, rushing the ball a couple of times, but was buried on the depth chart behind junior RB Dominick Bragalone, junior RB Micco Brisker and senior RB Nana Amankwah-Ayeh.
(Photo Credit: Gaby Morera/The Brown and White)
There’s a lot of excitement in Lehigh Nation about the upcoming spring football season as the Mountain Hawks look to defend their Patriot League Championship.
Some things will be very familiar: watching RB Dominick Bragalone running the football, WR Gatlin Casey and WR Troy Pelletier catching them, and C Brandon Short anchoring the offensive line. Even Lehigh’s quarterback, QB Brad Mayes, will be a very familiar face, considering that he’s already spent a lot of time on the field the last two years.
But elsewhere, there’s a lot of newness – as is common for many FCS programs this time of year.
The departure of offensive coordinator Drew Folmar (Elon), special teams coach Ryan Dougherty (Oklahoma) and running backs coach Jamel Mutunga (Princeton) has meant some promotions and new faces on the coaching staff.
So this Spring, in defense of their Patriot League Championship, what’s in store? Start off with some staff promotions from within that should mean some continuity from last season to this season.
Read more »
|
| (Photo Credit: Gaby Morera/B&W Staff Photographer) |
Before we close the book on spring ball, I wanted to pass on my thoughts and observations about the spring session and the prospects for the 2016 season.
But before I do, I also need to share one of the great traditions of the Lehigh spring game – the announcement of the recipient of the Jim Gum scholarship.
Presented by the non-profit Jim Gum Foiundation, the scholarship award is presented in the name of Jim Gum, a three-year starter for Lehigh in the 1980s and Penn Argyl standout. He died due to complications from ALS in 2006.
Senior RB Kenny Crawford was the recipient of this year’s award in what is always a heartwarming yet humbling ceremony on the field.
Read more »
This Saturday, Lehigh football fans will finally get a chance to get a free sneak peek at the 2016 Mountain Hawks at Murray Goodman stadium.
Scheduled to start at 11:00AM, it will be a bit of a different spring game than usual, due to the fact that it will be a no-tackling practice, unlike the one I happened to catch that was partial tackling.
“We never had a full practice that was all tackling,” head coach Andy Coen told Lehighsports.com. “I picked about three practices where he had at times, full contact. We never put ourselves in a situation where we were doing too much. I do believe if you want to get good at these things, you have to practice them. We’ve been using a lot of the techniques that the Seattle Seahawks have utilized over the last couple of years, and those techniques have been very productive for us. We’re getting a lot better with our technique and are coaches are doing a great job of staying on top of our kids regarding technique.”
So considering that this spring game will be a little bit different than other ones we’re used to, what can we expect to learn? Plenty, fortunately.
Read more »
| Coach Andy Coen at football practice (Morning Call) |
Lehigh’s spring session has been underway for several weeks now – the period of time where Patriot League championships are won.
It’s a spring season where, frankly, there’s not that much drama, especially on offense.
There’s no drama at quarterback, where senior QB Nick Shafnisky is firmly ensconced as the starter, and proven sophomore QB Brad Mayes right there next to him on the depth chart.
It’s very clear that sophomore RB Dominic Bragalone will be a big part of next year’s offense, health willing, as well as junior WR Troy Pelletier and a many players from last year’s offense that led the Patriot League in total offensive yardage.
So what is the big story halfway through the spring?
Whether there will be enough healthy bodies to have a spring game.
Read more »
|
| Brown/White Game 2015 (LehighSports.Com) |
We didn’t see much of the starting quarterback for 2015 on Saturday.
Junior QB Nick Shafnisky came in for one play – a hold on an extra point attempt, booted by the punter, senior P/PK Austin Devine.
We didn’t see much of the kicking game – Devine, who didn’t kick conversions last year, is likely in August to revert to full-time punting duties, with an incoming freshman having a golden opportunity to win the starting kicking job.
We saw a little bit of offensive line play – but it’s hard to judge how well this unit will represent the same group in the fall, only because the unit was racked by injury.
So what did we learn, exactly, from Saturday’s Brown and White game? The answer is: more than you might imagine.
The game among the members of the press at the Brown/White game on a gorgeous Sunday morning was counting players.
Everyone knew that the Mountain Hawks had a depleted roster over the spring, made even more depleted with injuries to junior QB Nick Shafnisky, whose arm was shut down, and entire units, with the offensive line and defensive backfield only having enough athletes to barely fill out a single team of 1’s.
In the end, the size of the roster was the smallest anyone in the press box could recall in a Lehigh spring game – a shade under 50 athletes in pads.
Despite the challenges, though, the teams experienced a very productive scrimmage at Murray Goodman stadium, mixing live 11-on-11 full contact drives and 7-on-7 drills.
Read more »
| RB Cody Haupt in last year’s Brown/White game (Morning Call) |
Lehigh will hold its annual Brown-White spring football game tomorrow at Murray Goodman Stadium, to be broadcast on the Patriot League Network starting at 10:00 AM and featuring the commentary of Matt Kerr and Mike Yadush.
Below the flip are five things to watch in regards to Saturday’s scrimmage and drills.
Read more »
|
| Coach Coen talking to team (Morning Call) |
With a depleted spring roster, there were some doubts that Lehigh would be able to have a full-blown spring game.
Late this week, though, it was confirmed that the Brown and White game was still on.
It will take place at 10:00AM at Murray Goodman stadium, and will be streamed on the Patriot League Network with Matt Kerr and Mike Yadush providing commentary.
(It will also feature stream-of-consciousness tweeting from this guy.)
“Andy Coen is scheduling an abbreviated session for Saturday’s 10 a.m. intrasquad scrimmage,” Keith Groller of The Morning Call reported today, “with just 40 to 45 live plays plus various drills as his team wants to preserve its limited roster entering the final week of the spring session.”
Still, the abbreviated scrimmage will allow a look, however brief, of the three quarterbacks that will enter the 2015 season’s depth chart.
| Senior SS Randall Lawson (Morning Call) |
Lehigh’s defensive numbers in 2014, as I mentioned before, leave a lot to be desired.
And when you look at the secondary, it’s the same story.
Out of 121 FCS teams, Lehigh ranked 110th in pass defense, and if you watched the unit last year, you also saw too many big plays allowed by the defense, too.
The silver lining, though, is that Lehigh only graduates two players in the secondary, DB Jason Suggs and DB Jamil Robinson, so the returning starters all have a years’ experience under their belt in defensive coordinator Joe Bottiglieri‘s defensive system.
This spring has also posed some challenges for the Lehigh staff, as there are a lot of secondary players on the shelf with injuries, making it a challenge for the remaining players.
