Athlon: 5 key questions for 2017 Patriot League teams

[Gangtackle11]

Not my conference, but we play some so here you go:

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/five-key-questions-patriot-league-2017-fcs-season

[DFW HOYA]

Craig Haley: "Until Georgetown starts to offer [scholarships], there is little chance of the Hoyas escaping the bottom half of the league."

Sounds better than "no chance whatsoever", but with the same effect.

[cx500d]

Craig Haley: "Until Georgetown starts to offer [scholarships], there is little chance of the Hoyas escaping the bottom half of the league."

Sounds better than "no chance whatsoever", but with the same effect.

Nice!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5jNnDMfxA

[RichH2]

Regardless of preseason favorites, PL has too many open questions.
Main issue for Lehigh is not road games. It will be the D. Improved somewhat by PL sched( weaker teams? perhaps) but needs to be markedly better this year. Mayes is a superbly talented QB and an accurate passer but he is still a soph. Experienced thankfully, but still a soph starting now to replace Nick. Not an easy task.
Fordham O is almost as impressive with a senior QB. Their issue is a D. New DC may help there.
Gate boils down to a QB.
Cross has a superb QB and some excellent WRs but showed little else last year. Bucknell and Pards look to have competitive Ds but both need to find a QB.
Which teams best answer these questions will be in the hunt .

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Regardless of preseason favorites, PL has too many open questions.
Main issue for Lehigh is not road games. It will be the D. Improved somewhat by PL sched( weaker teams? perhaps) but needs to be markedly better this year. Mayes is a superbly talented QB and an accurate passer but he is still a soph. Experienced thankfully, but still a soph starting now to replace Nick. Not an easy task.
Fordham O is almost as impressive with a senior QB. Their issue is a D. New DC may help there.
Gate boils down to a QB.
Cross has a superb QB and some excellent WRs but showed little else last year. Bucknell and Pards look to have competitive Ds but both need to find a QB.
Which teams best answer these questions will be in the hunt .

I agree. The schedule will not determine Lehigh's fate in the league race, the defense will. They catch a break in playing Colgate early in the year and Bucknell is hardly a daunting place to play. Hell, I think Lehigh's lost there once in 20+ years? They'll be more brown and white than orange and blue in the stands. Fordham is the game. That is a tough place to play imo because of the unique setup. I anticipate a sold old out JCF for that one.

I really have high hopes for Lehigh and Fordham this year. Both have the potential to make a splash on the national level with big time early season OOC games. If Lehigh's defense improves to legitimately good they'll be a Top 10 team and I say that with a straight face. Fordham will be right there as well. I just hope if both teams have big time years the athletic departments pony up and reward them with a home playoff game.

[ASU33]

Craig Haley: "Until Georgetown starts to offer [scholarships], there is little chance of the Hoyas escaping the bottom half of the league."

Sounds better than "no chance whatsoever", but with the same effect.

What's the hold up with that?

[van]

What's the hold up with that?

will

[cx500d]

will

What does Will Power have to do with this?

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRuDTzjcm65uOPmuqysLfhm_j95EEMOq 96G96dxVIfN1dJVZtGh

[UNHWildcat18]

Which team do you think will have the best D in the PL? I think that's going to the be the main factor of how far the qualifier goes in the playoffs this year.

[RichH2]

Which team do you think will have the best D in the PL? I think that's going to the be the main factor of how far the qualifier goes in the playoffs this year.
An open question right now. No team returns a unit free of holes. My guess is Bucknell may have the edge here. Cross Lehigh and Gate have the potential. Gate and Pards already have solid units on paper but both need to find QBs

[PAllen]

Which team do you think will have the best D in the PL? I think that's going to the be the main factor of how far the qualifier goes in the playoffs this year.

Not Lehigh. Probably Bucknell, they usually have a very good defense but they can never seem to get an offense to match. Otherwise, it's usually a very offensively dominated league.

[Fordham]

Agreed with those that say Bucknell. I think Fordham has as good a shot at turning it around as anyone given our new staff. We've always had talent on that side of the ball but just never had a staff who put it to good use. Jury out until we see how it goes though