Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Football › Fire Coen › Reply To: Fire Coen
Firing Coen is ludicrous. Yes we got our hats handed to us, but you don’t know why the decision was made to stay with McHale. Shaf, when he was in also misfired a few to wide open receivers. My understanding is that since we were behind, and more reliant on the pass and the no-huddle, McHale was better prepared to handle the uptempo required. If Shafnisky was not ready to handle a hurry-up “two minute” drill there is no sense throwing him into deep water if he has trouble swimming. We didn’t see them in practice. Coen’s record here is enviable. If you said preseason we’d go 8-3, most people would have taken it. Yes, I too am pissed we lost to the Leotards, but it was the first time in six years! Moreover, as bad as we played, and there was plenty to go around except for Divers, we were still in the game with 8 minutes to go! The horrendous ‘shot put’ by Parrish to a wide open Shafnisky was the final nail. All the bounces went LC’s way-two fumbles by them and they score!? We fumble and they score. One TD that was a horrendous ‘no-call’ on offensive pass interference. They all conflated into a cluster-fluck that hopefully only happens every so often. People have to remember that this is not a major BCS school where football matters to thousands of people. How many are on this Forum? We need to be realistic about annual expectations when we’re limited to who we can recruit. We’re in a shallow pool that is spread wide with major competition. I expect Shafnisky to be the starter next year and the offense will be efficient. The key to getting the PL trophy back will be defense and Coen has to make some tough decisions there. Lehigh’s run over the past 15 years has been fueled mostly by stellar defense that started when Higgins changed to the philosophy of putting your best athletes on defense. Small started the “Air Lehigh” but when you look at the records, he was barely over .500 in his tenure. Coen is a classy guy, runs a clean program, and has his priorities straight. Besides that he’s built a pretty good record.
