Five Burning Questions For Lehigh Heading Into Preseason Camp

There's a pretty good chance that senior WR Troy Pelletier, who made the Patriot League's preseason all-Conference team and is on the Walter Payton Award watch list to start the year, will be the starter in the season opener vs. Villanova.

It's also not a headline that junior RB Dominick Bragalone, also on the Patriot League's preseason all-Conference team, is likely to -shocker! - be a starter on September 2nd.

But that doesn't mean that there still aren't plenty of questions as the Mountain Hawks enter into their fall training camp for fans to think about.

Who steps in at LB? Probably the biggest question mark for the Mountain Hawks comes in at linebacker, where Lehigh sees the graduation of three seniors, LB Colton Caslow, LB Pierce Ripanti, and LB Evan Harvey in that unit. Coach Coen had good words about the play of sophomore LB Keith Woetzel in spring, and there's some names in this unit that have seen some action, but which names will emerge on the the two-deep against Villanova as the starters?
What will we see from senior DB Quentin Jones, and how will that affect the two-deep in the secondary? After suffering a scary injury last season vs. Yale, Quentin appears to be itching to get back into the game this season. If he steps into the role now that CB Brandon Leaks has graduated, the Mountain Hawks might boast a deep secondary with a lot of experience. But is he back all the way, and if he still needs time to recover, who else might fill that role?
Will senior DE Tyler Cavenas step into a star role? Following Tyler the past three years has been a lot of fun as he's developed his pass rush and evolved into a solid player along Lehigh's defensive line, and it's exciting to see what he might be able to do in the upcoming season. Even though Lehigh's front is deep and has a lot of experience, can he take the next step in his game and become an every-game dominant player?
Who will step up as slot receiver? In Lehigh's three-receiver set, there are two spots that are penciled in to start the season: that of senior WR Troy Pelletier and senior WR Gatlin Casey. But the slot last season had two valuable seniors, WR Trevor Soccaras and WR Derek Knott, play a pivotal role in the offense as well, both of whom require new athletes to step up. After the spring, some candidates emerged, but who will be atop the depth chart?
Who steps up in terms of leadership on offense and defense? Lehigh had four team captains last year: two who return this season, senior OL Zach Duffy and senior OL Brandon Short, and two other guys that were the heart and soul of this Lehigh team the last four years, QB Nick Shafnisky and LB Colton Caslow. Duffy and Short will unquestionably be leaders on this team in 2017, but assuming there will be two more captains, who might those leaders end up being?

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results. In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago . Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth. Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled. Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season. The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season. The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League. In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play. Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ . I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care. Every face was glum. They didn't even seem sad. More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini . The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero. (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people? Here they are, in alphabetical order.

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