Archive For The “Tyler Cavenas” Category
There is one real adage when it comes to defensive football: if you sit around and wait for something bad to happen, it probably will.
This season, the Lehigh Mountain Hawk defense knows it can’t afford to hang back and let bad things happen.
The 2015 Lehigh defense was a unit that saw flashes of strong play – just not enough of them.
And in 2016, this unit knows that the statistics from last year indicate a unit that needs to get better.
Most of all the identity of this defense needs to be formed.
In most places, we know the athletes. We know they have flashes of great play. The question that needs to be answered: what will its identity be?
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It’s hot, it’s muggy and it’s sticky, but all that’s doing for Patriot League football fans is getting them in the mood for football season.
The Mountain Hawks, who are finishing up their second week of practice and their first scrimmage with full contact.
“Our kids really competed well,” head coach Andy Coen said. “It was good to see sophomore RB Nick Thevanayagam play really well for us. Really, the thought process was to get Dom a series and get him out and get Nick and sophomore RB Micco Brisker involved. (Micco) did a nice job. Caught the ball out of the backfield. I think he’s going to be somebody that’s going to be a different guy this year than he was last year.”
The news wasn’t all good, however, as it was revealed via Twitter that senior LB Colton Caslow was battling an injury.
One noticeable absence: Senior LB Colton Caslow is injured. Andy Coen hoping to have him back in “three weeks or so.”— Greg Joyce (@GJoyce9) August 17, 2016
It’s almost here – the 2016 football season.
On August 8th, the Lehigh football team finished their offseason testing and officially started in with the incoming freshman class.
Head coach Andy Coen was very impressed with the 20 new faces of the incoming class.
“It’s always a huge for the freshmen coming from high school to college but I think that group of kids did a really good job,” he told LehighSports.com. “I was really impressed that we didn’t have as many mental mistakes, especially the young guys,” he continued. “That’s always good to see. The guys are keeping their faces in the playbook, learning and trying to get better.”
So what will Lehigh Nation be looking at during the 2015 preseason?
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| (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.
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You might have thought that Lehigh’s Brown defense, fresh off a strong performance in the spring game, might have let themselves let up a little once it was deemed that the morning practice was complete.
Instead, in front of a swarm of fans who watched Saturday’s scrimmage on a picture-perfect April day at Murray Goodman stadium, the defense were doing running drills.
As junior DE Tyler Cavenas explained, this was no accident.
“That’s our new thing now,” an out-of-breath Cavenas told the assembled media. “If we’re not running to the ball after every single play, it counts as a lack of effort and we need to run after practice.”
The surprise of the running drills aside, the defensive effort that resulted in eight sacks while only yielding one late touchdown, could have been the most striking aspect of the Brown and White game on Saturday,
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All the Rivalry games are memorable in their own way for everyone in attendance, from the seniors playing in their last game to the kids playing on the grass embankment.
The there will be four plays that will be remembered the most, the four plays that defined this game for Lehigh and really demonstrated how tough this team was in 2015, and how tough they might be in 2016.
Most importantly, though, was the fact that Lehigh finally was able to chuck aside any doubts about winning a big game.
Wins against Lafayette are always important for the many Lehigh fans in the near-16,000 people who attend these games. But winning this particular game was doubly important for this Lehigh squad that seemed to almost desperately need the win in order to demonstrate to the fans in the Valley who they are, who they were, and where they’re headed.
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It was still very much a game after the first quarter.
After James Madison took their opening drive and drove 72 yards in 8 plays to go up 7-0, Lehigh responded with a perfectly-executed pass from junior QB Nick Shafnisky to freshman RB Dominic Bragalone over the middle, where the speedy running back from South Williamsport, PA showed a burst of speed, outracing the entire James Madison secondary to tie the game at seven.
They absorbed the Dukes’ first wave of offense, and showed a sign that they might be able to get into a shootout with James Madison.
But in short order, the Dukes offense, pelting the Lehigh defense in waves, proved to be overwhelming.
Buoyed by 334 yards passing by QB Vad Lee, 286 yards rushing by a bevy of backs and a big special teams play converted into a touchdown, the Dukes scored 31 unanswered points in about a 14 minute span in the second quarter to overwhelm the Mountain Hawks.
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It was still very much a game after the first quarter.
After James Madison took their opening drive and drove 72 yards in 8 plays to go up 7-0, Lehigh responded with a perfectly-executed pass from junior QB Nick Shafnisky to freshman RB Dominic Bragalone over the middle, where the speedy running back from South Williamsport, PA showed a burst of speed, outracing the entire James Madison secondary to tie the game at seven.
They absorbed the Dukes’ first wave of offense, and showed a sign that they might be able to get into a shootout with James Madison.
But in short order, the Dukes offense, pelting the Lehigh defense in waves, proved to be overwhelming.
Buoyed by 334 yards passing by QB Vad Lee, 286 yards rushing by a bevy of backs and a big special teams play converted into a touchdown, the Dukes scored 31 unanswered points in about a 14 minute span in the second quarter to overwhelm the Mountain Hawks.
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The spectators at tonight’s scrimmage couldn’t have missed the emotion coming from the sidelines.
Sure, it was a practice, not a game situation, but as Lehigh was practicing its red zone defense, the sidelines – darkened somewhat by the lights, which had gone out briefly as the sun set in the Lehigh Valley – was loud.
The defense was behind each other, as a unit, rallying their Brown shirts to deny the offense a chance to punch the ball in the zone.
It was more than a passionate tweak at the day’s competition, the White-shirted offense. It seemed like it signified that they were ready to take on all comers.
The defense stopped the offense in the Red Zone once again, and it felt good – for both the defense and the fans gathered on a beautiful summer evening, a cool breeze blowing through the Whitehead practice fields.
| Lehigh NG Tyler Cavenas |
The 2014 numbers don’t get any better when you look at them five months later.
Team Sacks: 104th.
Team Tackles for Loss: 118th.
Rushing Defense: 100th.
In order to have any chance of improving those poor numbers from 2014, one of the biggest areas for improvement will have to be in Lehigh’s defensive front seven, a fact that head coach Andy Coen is all too aware of.
“When we put pressure on the quarterback it was because we were blitzing,” he said in Lehigh’s spring preview. “We need to be able to get a rush to the quarterback and create more of a mechanism to get after that guy. We have to get back to being more aggressive in that respect.”
It stands to reason that Lehigh’s defensive line will be the start of that aggressive defense. And fortunately, the Mountain Hawks have some young talent that started to emerge last year that could be poised to firm up this part of the defense in 2015.
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