Lehigh vs Lafayette #156...maybe?

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

At this point it's like living in bizarro world. Both teams stink, both coaches are clueless and I can't believe this game will be etched into the record book. As someone who grew up with the rivalry it feels beyond hallow if the game is actually played. It's about the week long traditions, it's about the parties, it's about the alums returning to campus, the tailgates; the rivalry goes well beyond the game itself....

-Lafayette won the last meeting 17-16 in 2019

[Sader87]

I've always thought this rivalry was overrated in terms of college football history....it has been played mostly at the college division/D2 level throughout its history....basically it's Williams-Amherst with better PR.

We coulda been in the Big East ya' know..... :)

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

I've always thought this rivalry was overrated in terms of college football history....it has been played mostly at the college division/D2 level throughout its history....basically it's Williams-Amherst with better PR.

We coulda been in the Big East ya' know..... :)

Ugh, just no....xsmhx xthumbsdownxxnonoxxnonono2x

[Sader87]

I kid, but only slightly....the Patriot League's love for the Lehigh-Lafayette football rivalry above all else has held back the league imo.

[Lehigh Engineer]

I kid, but only slightly....the Patriot League's love for the Lehigh-Lafayette football rivalry above all else has held back the league imo.


Of course HC is free to move on anytime to avoid the LC/LU drag on their ever higher march to greatness!

[DFW HOYA]

Sitting on the sidelines here, but...has the Patriot League's handling of the spring been as bad as it looks?

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

The game has been cancelled if I just read correctly.....

[DFW HOYA]

The game has been cancelled if I just read correctly.....

The schools say "postponed"

https://lehighsports.com/news/2021/3/30/football-saturdays-lehigh-lafayette-clash-postponed.aspx

https://goleopards.com/news/2021/3/30/football-rivalry-156-postponed.aspx

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Sitting on the sidelines here, but...has the Patriot League's handling of the spring been as bad as it looks?

It's been a complete disaster! A large part of the blame imo falls on the schools. The league ultimately works for them. We've long known the PL office serves as little more than a mailing address.

What gets me is the league and individual institutions have handled the other sports reasonably well from what I can tell. Football is a completely different animal and needs to be handled as such. For whatever reason the PL can't get football right....

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

The schools say "postponed"

https://lehighsports.com/news/2021/3/30/football-saturdays-lehigh-lafayette-clash-postponed.aspx

https://goleopards.com/news/2021/3/30/football-rivalry-156-postponed.aspx

Hopefully postponed until November 20th....

[ngineer]

I've always thought this rivalry was overrated in terms of college football history....it has been played mostly at the college division/D2 level throughout its history....basically it's Williams-Amherst with better PR.

We coulda been in the Big East ya' know..... :)

WRONG. The game has not been mostly played at the D2 or 'college division'. Both schools were part of the eastern powers from the beginning in the 1880's for the next 60 years. Not sure when the 'college division' was created, but my guess is around 1950. D2 was created in the early 70's and both schools went IAA/FCS when that began in around 1979 to the present. So, at the most, 30 years of the 136 year history of the Rivalry were played in "college division or D2". I am sorry you guys don't have a good rivalry to get your students and alums fired up, but no need to try and piss on someone else's parade because of your jealousy.xpeacex

[ngineer]

Hopefully postponed until November 20th....

I agree. The "season" has been a debacle. Get some scrimmages in to evaluate personnel, and come back ready to go in August...assuming the country can keep its pants on and be a little disciplined.

[DFW HOYA]

I am sorry you guys don't have a good rivalry to get your students and alums fired up, but no need to try and piss on someone else's parade because of your jealousy.

Holy Cross had a rival (Boston College) that outgrew the Crusaders, much like Syracuse outgrew Colgate. To its credit, that level of parity is what keeps the Leh-Laf rivalry active. If Lehigh were to move up to the CAA or Lafayette sharply deemphasize sports, it would put the rivalry in some peril.

As to the other PL schools, there really isn't a rivalry game, and not at Georgetown.

[crusader11]

Sitting on the sidelines here, but...has the Patriot League's handling of the spring been as bad as it looks?

It's absolutely ridiculous that, let's say, a single student manager were to test positive for Corona that would lead to the postponement of a game. All rational thought has been tossed out the window.

[DFW HOYA]

More schedule changes. This is really getting out of hand.

https://patriotleague.org/news/2021/3/31/patriot-league-announces-football-schedule-adjustments-for-next-two-weeks.aspx

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Holy Cross had a rival (Boston College) that outgrew the Crusaders, much like Syracuse outgrew Colgate. To its credit, that level of parity is what keeps the Leh-Laf rivalry active. If Lehigh were to move up to the CAA or Lafayette sharply deemphasize sports, it would put the rivalry in some peril.

As to the other PL schools, there really isn't a rivalry game, and not at Georgetown.

Lehigh also had a significant rivalry with Rutgers that closely paralleled HC vs BC time frame wise. Both fizzled out in the late 70s, early 80s. Bucknell and Temple also have meaningful history. They use to play for the "Old Shoe"....

[ngineer]

Lehigh also had a significant rivalry with Rutgers that closely paralleled HC vs BC time frame wise. Both fizzled out in the late 70s, early 80s. Bucknell and Temple also have meaningful history. They use to play for the "Old Shoe"....

Ironically, the last ten years of the Rutgers/Lehigh series ended with each team going 5-5. Granted Rutgers began to their move to "the big time", but even then they weren't that good for the following 20 years. We could have still played them, but they wouldn't.

[ngineer]

Lehigh also had a significant rivalry with Rutgers that closely paralleled HC vs BC time frame wise. Both fizzled out in the late 70s, early 80s. Bucknell and Temple also have meaningful history. They use to play for the "Old Shoe"....

Also curious as to why HC didn't develop a rivalry with Fordham, both being Jesuit schools and not that far from each other.

[DFW HOYA]

Also curious as to why HC didn't develop a rivalry with Fordham, both being Jesuit schools and not that far from each other.

Fordham was a lot like Georgetown--nationally prominent in the 1940's, dropped football in the 1950's, became a club program in the 1960's, then Division III in the 1970's and 1980's. HC was a firmly established Division I program in the Northeast and Fordham wasn't a fit with HC's level of competition prior to the deemphasis of football and the subsequent joining of the Colonial/Patriot League.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Ironically, the last ten years of the Rutgers/Lehigh series ended with each team going 5-5. Granted Rutgers began to their move to "the big time", but even then they weren't that good for the following 20 years. We could have still played them, but they wouldn't.

Lehigh could/would have been beaten Rutgers multiple times in the late 1990's, early 00s; Rutgers was horrific then. Heck, even Lehigh's '15 and '16 teams would have had a fighting chance as the Scarlet Knights were once again reaching historic levels of "bad" before Schiano returned. He's one of the few coaches that will have a successful 2.0....

Generally speaking, Boston College and Syracuse have been much more formidable over the last 30 years or so. Even when those programs "bottom out" they're usually not "Bottom 10" bad like Rutgers. Boston College can often look terrible for weeks on end but still manage a 7-5 record....

[caribbeanhen]

would I be laughed at if I said the Patriot League is slop right now.... what the heck happened to Lehigh? talent level way down

[ysubigred]

would I be laughed at if I said the Patriot League is slop right now.... what the heck happened to Lehigh? talent level way downI think the whole spring season should be taken with a grain of salt... Even the mighty Golden Buffalo's look vulnerable..

Fall can't get here fast enough [emoji30]




Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[Lehigh'98]

would I be laughed at if I said the Patriot League is slop right now.... what the heck happened to Lehigh? talent level way down

Its a long story that started when we went full scholarships. Throw in some poor decisions and unfortunate circumstances and here we are. Trying to stay positive that things will get better.

[Anthony215]

Its a long story that started when we went full scholarships. Throw in some poor decisions and unfortunate circumstances and here we are. Trying to stay positive that things will get better.

How would full scholarships make the program worse? The Hawks were a great program prior to the scholarship and one would think by offering scholarship they'd be in even better position to snag recruits from regional powerhouse teams like Nova, Delaware by offering a great degree as well as opportunity to play at a prestigious program and compete in the playoffs yearly.

[Lehigh'98]

How would full scholarships make the program worse? The Hawks were a great program prior to the scholarship and one would think by offering scholarship they'd be in even better position to snag recruits from regional powerhouse teams like Nova, Delaware by offering a great degree as well as opportunity to play at a prestigious program and compete in the playoffs yearly.

Not a simple answer. Lehigh and Colgate had become very good at need based recruiting prior to full scholarships and that could be seen with very competitive teams on the field. When scholarships came, the roster size was reduced, which doesn't allow for many misses when it comes to recruiting. The Ivies also responded by ramping up their recruiting and they have no real limits on roster sizes so we are losing many more players to the Ivies than we used to. As for Nova and Delaware, they have the redshirt and no AI to deal with. Some of this could be offset by good coaching, but that hasn't been the case so far at Lehigh anyway.

[Sader87]

Holy Cross has definitely improved with scholarships. It's my belief we nevah had a very good "feel" for need-based recruiting when we dropped scholarships in the early 1990s.

[ngineer]

Not a simple answer. Lehigh and Colgate had become very good at need based recruiting prior to full scholarships and that could be seen with very competitive teams on the field. When scholarships came, the roster size was reduced, which doesn't allow for many misses when it comes to recruiting. The Ivies also responded by ramping up their recruiting and they have no real limits on roster sizes so we are losing many more players to the Ivies than we used to. As for Nova and Delaware, they have the redshirt and no AI to deal with. Some of this could be offset by good coaching, but that hasn't been the case so far at Lehigh anyway.

Pretty good 'thumbnail sketch' of the problem. Many warned when schollies were being debated that the benefits would be outweighed by the detriments. Yes, we've been able to recruit some skill players that we might not have had a shot at, but our rosters are now about 20 players short of where they used to be. Impacts practice, and especially an issue when the injury bug hits. This past week Lehigh had only SIX OL men available and some had to switch positions. Our main recruiting competitors, the Ivies, have become very aggressive. They can offer virtual free rides to many with their very liberal grant-in-aid programs. Princeton dressed 120 two years ago against us a couple years ago. It's a numbers game, both in bodies and money.

[DFW HOYA]

Seven years later, I still can't understand why the PL has put up so many roadblocks to football. Maybe, as a Lafayette fan once posted, it's the Arthur Rothkopf philosophy of athletics: "be good, but just not that good".

But it's just not that the Ivy zigged while the PL zagged. The PL is less competitive versus 40-scholarship NEC teams (a combined 17-21 since 2013). The PL players aren't appreciably better, but instead of getting their tuition bill funded through financial aid, it's from the athletic department--and the fact that recruits are largely the same has allowed Georgetown to remain competitive against considerable odds. If a non-scholarship Georgetown team played in the CAA, they would be run out of the conference. In today's PL, they're arguably no worse than what they were before 2013.

One wonders if (or when) a Lafayette or Bucknell decide to just save the money and go back to need based aid for football.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Holy Cross has definitely improved with scholarships. It's my belief we nevah had a very good "feel" for need-based recruiting when we dropped scholarships in the early 1990s.

Holy Cross has improved with Bob Chesney. The Crusaders rise is directly attributed to the hiring of him; even so a modest 14-12. Time will tell what the Crusaders ceiling will be while he's in Worcester. At this point all he's done is make the Crusaders the best of the bad lot of PL teams. Holy Cross has still yet to break through on a national level. They're still well off the radar.

He still needs to raise the talent level imo. The Crusaders are well coached and solid but they don't do anything truly great like 2018 Colgate, those Moorhead Fordham teams and the 2010-2012 Lehigh teams offensively. Those teams had something elite to fall back on in order to crack the Top 15/10/5. Chesney still needs to establish a dominant element on Mount James if they're going to take out CAA/MVC teams come playoff time.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Pretty good 'thumbnail sketch' of the problem. Many warned when schollies were being debated that the benefits would be outweighed by the detriments. Yes, we've been able to recruit some skill players that we might not have had a shot at, but our rosters are now about 20 players short of where they used to be. Impacts practice, and especially an issue when the injury bug hits. This past week Lehigh had only SIX OL men available and some had to switch positions. Our main recruiting competitors, the Ivies, have become very aggressive. They can offer virtual free rides to many with their very liberal grant-in-aid programs. Princeton dressed 120 two years ago against us a couple years ago. It's a numbers game, both in bodies and money.

No one has been able to build and establish anything. I think Fordham would have remained nationally relevant had Moorhead stayed. However, unless he could figure out how to develop a top 40 or better defense their ceiling wasn't going to be Frisco. Likewise with Lehigh and their 2016 or 2017 teams. Colgate was a little more balanced in 2018 but their offense was at best "above average".

The the overall level of consistency that Lehigh had from 1998-2013 or Colgate's run under Biddle just hasn't come close to replicating itself. Even Tavani put together a good 5-6 year stretch of Top 40 or better football. Now we can't get two teams in a one season with a winning record.

[Sader87]

Holy Cross has improved with Bob Chesney. The Crusaders rise is directly attributed to the hiring of him; even so a modest 14-12. Time will tell what the Crusaders ceiling will be while he's in Worcester. At this point all he's done is make the Crusaders the best of the bad lot of PL teams. Holy Cross has still yet to break through on a national level. They're still well off the radar.

He still needs to raise the talent level imo. The Crusaders are well coached and solid but they don't do anything truly great like 2018 Colgate, those Moorhead Fordham teams and the 2010-2012 Lehigh teams offensively. Those teams had something elite to fall back on in order to crack the Top 15/10/5. Chesney still needs to establish a dominant element on Mount James if they're going to take out CAA/MVC teams come playoff time.

Whatevah....we're back to scholarship football, where we nevah should have left. Holy Cross football in the "non-scholarship" era was an abject disastah mostly.

[Fordham]

What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is going on in PL football this weekend?!?

[Sader87]

Whispahhs out of Mt St James are saying Bucknell at HC Saturday....nothing confirmed yet

[Sader87]

Whispahhs out of Wisstahh is that Bucknell is at HC this weekend....no white smoke yet.

[ngineer]

Fingers crossed that #156 gets played. Toes crossed on whether some of us 'old alums' who are vaccinated can attend.

[Sader87]

No one cares outside of NE Pennsylvania......

[caribbeanhen]

No one cares outside of NE Pennsylvania......


Just know the Caribbean is watching

[IslandPard]

I'm not even sure I care but I'll be watching. Both teams are "eh". And, as usual, it will come down to penalties and turnovers.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Lafayette 13 Lehigh 6

Bucknell 24 Fordham 21

[RichH2]

My guess also owl on Lehigh today. LU defense will likely have to score for any chance at a W.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

'Pards 7-0 3:53 1Q

I'm loosely keeping tabs on the game while I'm at work....

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Pards 10-0 10:06 2Q

[ngineer]

I'm not even sure I care but I'll be watching. Both teams are "eh". And, as usual, it will come down to penalties and turnovers.

Very prescient!

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Whelp Lehigh goes 0-3 in the spring! Gilmore is now 0-2 against Laughette which for him is pretty much par for the course.

Lehigh football is a dumpster fire! Next fall will be an absolute disaster! Lehigh has an incompetent head coach and offensive coordinator. I can't see them winning more than 1 or 2 games in the fall. Looking at next years schedule they likely won't be favorite to win a game until November 13th against Georgetown. The Hawks are currently on a 7 game losing skid.

I love starting with Villanova, Richmond and Princeton! It gives Gilmore and company no where to hide!

[ngineer]

Whelp Lehigh goes 0-3 in the spring! Gilmore is now 0-2 against Laughette which for him is pretty much par for the course.

Lehigh football is a dumpster fire! Next fall will be an absolute disaster! Lehigh has an incompetent head coach and offensive coordinator. I can't see them winning more than 1 or 2 games in the fall. Looking at next years schedule they likely won't be favorite to win a game until November 13th against Georgetown. The Hawks are currently on a 7 game losing skid.

I love starting with Villanova, Richmond and Princeton! It gives Gilmore and company no where to hide!

I'm with you on changing OC's. We are too predictable. Moreover, Brisson is not 'Quarterback centric'. With our young QB's we need someone who can mentor them, and he cannot. I'd love to see Lehigh bring in Stambaugh as the OC/QB coach. We have some talent, but he OL has been shorthanded this spring and hopefully will be in stronger shape come fall. The Defense has been very good, and that's where any rebuild has to start. I am hoping Hafner returns in the fall. Kicking game is weak. I'm still willing to give Gilmore some time. The cupboard was pretty bare due to the fiasco that occurred with Coen's illness. It was used against us by recruiters from other schools, and things were somewhat in disarray. Today's game was lost on self inflicted wounds, 100+ yards in penalties and 3 turnovers.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

I'm with you on changing OC's. We are too predictable. Moreover, Brisson is not 'Quarterback centric'. With our young QB's we need someone who can mentor them, and he cannot. I'd love to see Lehigh bring in Stambaugh as the OC/QB coach. We have some talent, but he OL has been shorthanded this spring and hopefully will be in stronger shape come fall. The Defense has been very good, and that's where any rebuild has to start. I am hoping Hafner returns in the fall. Kicking game is weak. I'm still willing to give Gilmore some time. The cupboard was pretty bare due to the fiasco that occurred with Coen's illness. It was used against us by recruiters from other schools, and things were somewhat in disarray. Today's game was lost on self inflicted wounds, 100+ yards in penalties and 3 turnovers.

Brisson has go as the offensive coordinator. The units production under his watch has become comically bad. He has little imagination and there's been zero QB development. It reminds me very much of the Troy Brown era.

I'm not sold on the defense being "very good". They've faced a steady diet of average to below average PL offenses. I'll wait to see how the unit does against Villanova, Richmond and Princeton before I throw any superlatives their way.

Between this roster and this coaching staff I'll set the fall O/U win total at 2.5.....

Gilmore did not inherit a complete mess. Yes it was less than ideal but definitely overall far better than what Chesney (Gilmore's losing culture), Cecchini (Susan's culture of losing) or Garrett (Tavani's culture of losing) took over. They all took over dregs. Gilmore took over a team 1 year remove from back-2-back league titles and playoff appearances....

How in the world can Gilmore recruit against anyone in the league right now? He's 0-2 against Chesney, Cecchini and Garrett. Gilmore was literally fired by a peer institution because he was terrible. Chesney comes in turns the Crusaders into the top program in the PL. Gilmore is a terrible head coach....

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Also of note...

Lafayette finished the spring season 2-1. Did their 10 year streak (9-3 '09) of losing seasons "officially" come to and end?

[Leopard Loyalist]

Also of note...

Lafayette finished the spring season 2-1. Did their 10 year streak (9-3 '09) of losing seasons "officially" come to and end?

We might have to give it an asterisk, but we will take what we can get!!

[DFW HOYA]

Looking at next years schedule they likely won't be favorite to win a game until November 13th against Georgetown.

No idea where Georgetown will be by November 13. They return four starters (3Off/1Def) from 2019. And none have set foot on a practice field since that last game. Their first and next scheduled practice is Aug. 5.

[caribbeanhen]

No idea where Georgetown will be by November 13.

I would bet that it would still be right between Lewes and Laurel

[Fordham]

I don't think it's worthy of starting a new thread so I will say that we appear to have concluded the Spring season very strong. Really impressed with the talent Conlin has put together and we're playing well on both sides of the ball imo. Bucknell D was good and they really beat up on Demorat but he was tough as nails and kept dusting himself off and would hang in there and put together a great drive. Really fun game to watch. In Bucknell's defense they had to play with the consideration of next week's title game in mind, so once the game got tough or starting going south I think they went into protection mode to stay healthy for next week.

I wish we could have another crack at HC. Now that we've seen the team perform so well these past two weeks I feel less inclined to hammer coaching and more so to point to the advantage HC had in having a game under their belt while we were not just having our first game but coming out of a Covid shut down. No sour grapes but I do feel like we would be a different team if playing them in game 4 than where we come off of a shut down and play them in our first game while they're playing their second. Regardless, a positive Spring for the Rams imo

https://youtu.be/JqP6KWEfk9A

PS - there's a rumor on the Fordham board that HC may have a Covid shut down and if they can't play next weekend we may be playing Bucknell again for the title. Any truth to that?

[Pard4Life]

I was at the game yesterday. My overall impressions:

This game counts in the books (and I was saying it before we won). We are not immune to real world events. The war years and 1918 flu game were no weekly carnivals but the games went on - such is the nature of Lafayette-Lehigh if you know your history.

Game lacked usual energy - no bands or loud crowd. It felt like a Lafayette home game vs Georgetown. But I think the low energy was due to the crappy football for a quarter. Eventually the energy picked up in the stands and the Leopards were pumped up almost the entire game. Our team was definitely ready to play - credit to the coaches.

Both teams are not very good, but in different ways. What happened to Air Lehigh? Hamm, Washington etc ate Lehigh's OL for lunch.

Lafayette's defense is very good. Less confident in the secondary but the front 7 are very strong.

Lafayette's offense is disappointing. We will be heading into the Air Force game with zero QB experience.

One thing I have noticed about Garrett - his teams seems like they are prepared and seem like they have a good attitude, but sometimes the schemes are just poor and the offense does not execute (plus the very weird development and progress of our QBs). If he were to resolve these issues, I think we could have a very good program.

Lehigh is... a joke. Actually thought Nigel in at QB provided Lehigh with better offensive options. Had Lafayette had a better offense, the game could have been something like 38-13.

[NY Crusader 2010]

Sitting on the sidelines here, but...has the Patriot League's handling of the spring been as bad as it looks?

Yes.

[ngineer]

I was at the game yesterday. My overall impressions:

This game counts in the books (and I was saying it before we won). We are not immune to real world events. The war years and 1918 flu game were no weekly carnivals but the games went on - such is the nature of Lafayette-Lehigh if you know your history.

Game lacked usual energy - no bands or loud crowd. It felt like a Lafayette home game vs Georgetown. But I think the low energy was due to the crappy football for a quarter. Eventually the energy picked up in the stands and the Leopards were pumped up almost the entire game. Our team was definitely ready to play - credit to the coaches.

Both teams are not very good, but in different ways. What happened to Air Lehigh? Hamm, Washington etc ate Lehigh's OL for lunch.

Lafayette's defense is very good. Less confident in the secondary but the front 7 are very strong.

Lafayette's offense is disappointing. We will be heading into the Air Force game with zero QB experience.

One thing I have noticed about Garrett - his teams seems like they are prepared and seem like they have a good attitude, but sometimes the schemes are just poor and the offense does not execute (plus the very weird development and progress of our QBs). If he were to resolve these issues, I think we could have a very good program.

Lehigh is... a joke. Actually thought Nigel in at QB provided Lehigh with better offensive options. Had Lafayette had a better offense, the game could have been something like 38-13.

No question Pards deserved the win. Too many penalties and turnovers. The OL is a disaster as they only had 6 bodies, total, due to injuries and quarantines. Guys playing in unfamiliar places, no coordination/cohesion as a unit. It's a very young team, so I saw the past month and a half as primarily a lot of frosh and sophs getting feet wet. I agree that Summerville gives the offense for Lehigh more of a chance with his mobility... at least until the OL can protect a pocket passer. Wilkerson has good arm, but he was hearing footsteps and has had ball protection issues. The 87 yard drive gave me pause to have some hope that things can be done, but my primary move would be a new OC. This guy has been with us for a number of years and there is no creativity. Pards seemed to know what was coming too often.
Lehigh will get a "real nice" measuring stick come September: Villanova, Richmond and Princeton in a row. This was to have been my 50th in attendance...though 'technically' I am told that I am now in the "50 Game Club" by having 'attended' virtually...xconfusedx

[ngineer]

Yes.

I think they did as much as they could. With the various exposures/quarantines, the entire FCS country was screwed up. A bunch of the "Top 10" teams in the polls have only played a few games. Others have played 7-10 games. At the least it gave the teams a chance to get their spring work in and have a lot of first timers get the feel for game conditions rather than the mundane spring practice routine. It would have been nice in a 'perfect world' to have played the full schedule, but we know that no such thing exists.
Hopefully, August 2021 and beyond will be more normal.

[DFW HOYA]

PS - there's a rumor on the Fordham board that HC may have a Covid shut down and if they can't play next weekend we may be playing Bucknell again for the title. Any truth to that?

Beginning at 6 p.m. today (April 9), all in-person activities are prohibited until at least Wednesday, April 14. This means:

Students should not gather inside or outside with others besides their roommates
No in-person classes.
Libraries will be closed, with drive-up pickup available for faculty members.
No athletics games, competitions or practices.

https://www.holycross.edu/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-information/communications/2021-04-09-important

[Sader87]

Tom Gilmore is a horrific head coach....you're welcome Lehigh.

[DFW HOYA]

Tom Gilmore is a horrific head coach....you're welcome Lehigh.

The PL is home to three levels of coaches: long-term at one school (Hunt, Sgarlata), those eventually headed elsewhere (Chesney, Conlin, Cecchini), or those whose careers plateau at the PL level (Gilmore, Garrett).

[Pard4Life]

If HC is shutdown, and if I were the PL, I would just vote to give Bucknell the auto-bid and end this thing.

[Bogus Megapardus]

I'm impressed that folks are still here and this is even being discussed.

[caribbeanhen]

I watched The condensed game between holy cross Fordham

The HCQB number 9 looked pretty good, he was probably a high school legend

The Fordham quarterback looked like a pretty good pure pro style passer himself

Pretty good game

[Fordham]

I watched The condensed game between holy cross Fordham

The HCQB number 9 looked pretty good, he was probably a high school legend

The Fordham quarterback looked like a pretty good pure pro style passer himself

Pretty good game
Depends on which side you were rooting for! Seriously, hats off to HC. Very impressive amount of true freshmen playing and having an impact in that game. The blocked punt for TD was obviously a huge turning point, as was us getting intercepted in the end zone to close out the half. HC's running game, run D and overall coaching were much better than ours.

That said, I do wish we had another shot at them. After seeing us play that game I was down on our staff as only having this great group of talented players but not putting it all together. Our last 2 games made me re-think that and realize how big an advantage it was for HC to have already played their first game whereas we not only hadn't played yet but actually came out of a covid shut down. Not sure how it would have turned out but it's frustrating that Fordham and HC appear to be the two best teams this year yet had no chance of meeting in the championship.

[The Boogie Down]

I watched The condensed game between holy cross Fordham

The HCQB number 9 looked pretty good, he was probably a high school legend

The Fordham quarterback looked like a pretty good pure pro style passer himself

Pretty good game

W/all due respect to a surprisingly good Bucknell (picked to finish last) squad, I think what you saw was the PL's two best. So yeah, solid teams on display there. I can't speak for their rough-n-tumble #9, but can say our pro-style passer threw for over 1,000 yards in the limited 3 game season. Again, just 3 games, but that was enough to win the PL's Offensive of the Year award which was just announced earlier today. Also announced, Fordham's Ryan Greenhagen won the PL's Defensive Player of the Year award. Looking forward to catching Fordham play some CAA teams (Stony Brook in the regular season, maybe Delaware in the playoffs!) in the fall.


After seeing us play that game I was down on our staff as only having this great group of talented players but not putting it all together. Our last 2 games made me re-think that and realize how big an advantage it was for HC to have already played their first game whereas we not only hadn't played yet but actually came out of a covid shut down. Not sure how it would have turned out but it's frustrating that Fordham and HC appear to be the two best teams this year yet had no chance of meeting in the championship.

Big ups to Fordham for more than holding their own against HC and doing so right after a shutdown but I still put more blame on Conlin than circumstances for that one. Three seasons in a row now Conlin has led Chesney at the half and three W's in a row for Chesney. Thankfully there was a quick rebound against Colgate and Bucknell. Still, as impressive as those wins were, they both kinda felt like punching down. The Richmond win last season was a better testament as to what Fordham can do when everything is clicking. Even there though the Rams followed that up by flopping the rest of the year away. Even towards the end of the Bucknell game, Bucknell's two announcers (on ESPN+) wondered on air how Fordham doesn't win more often with all their talent. Hopefully by the fall Conlin figures it all out.

[Fordham]

Big ups to Fordham for more than holding their own against HC and doing so right after a shutdown but I still put more blame on Conlin than circumstances for that one. Three seasons in a row now Conlin has led Chesney at the half and three W's in a row for Chesney. Thankfully there was a quick rebound against Colgate and Bucknell. Still, as impressive as those wins were, they both kinda felt like punching down. The Richmond win last season was a better testament as to what Fordham can do when everything is clicking. Even there though the Rams followed that up by flopping the rest of the year away. Even towards the end of the Bucknell game, Bucknell's two announcers (on ESPN+) wondered on air how Fordham doesn't win more often with all their talent. Hopefully by the fall Conlin figures it all out.
Yeah, I'm not pushing back a ton since I included "overall coaching" in the reasons why HC won. I do think Chesney is very, very good and has taken us to the woodshed overall. Whether that's because he's elite and Conlin is still figuring it out, I don't know. I just feel like after that game it seemed like just another chapter in the Chesney schools Fordham playbook and seeing how we played in the last two games made me rethink the influence of the shut down as well as us playing game 1. I'm sure it's a mix of both but, for me, it went from 70/30 coaching issue to 30/70 as the season played out.

Seeing how Colgate played against us after coming out of the shut down really hammered that thought in my head. We were the better team but not by that margin imo. Anyway, it's nice to head into the summer with positive momentum.

[The Boogie Down]

Fair post even if I can't make that 70/30 to 30/70 drop with you. I do however fully agree on that "positive momentum" bit. The return of Zach Davis and some other vets who were out this spring only adds to that. In fact, I'm kinda feeling like Fall '21 might be Fordham's best since #22 was in the backfield. And even though I'm not sold on Conlin I'd gladly eat my own words after a return to the playoffs. Hell, just beating HC and wiping that smug smirk off Chesney's face would make for a nice appetizer!

Until then,,, sure wish there was one more game on the schedule. Is the ECAC still around? Can't they sponsor some quickie "bowl games" for teams that just missed these reduced playoffs during this limited season?

[Pards Rule]

I was at the game yesterday. My overall impressions:

This game counts in the books (and I was saying it before we won). We are not immune to real world events. The war years and 1918 flu game were no weekly carnivals but the games went on - such is the nature of Lafayette-Lehigh if you know your history.

Game lacked usual energy - no bands or loud crowd. It felt like a Lafayette home game vs Georgetown. But I think the low energy was due to the crappy football for a quarter. Eventually the energy picked up in the stands and the Leopards were pumped up almost the entire game. Our team was definitely ready to play - credit to the coaches.

Both teams are not very good, but in different ways. What happened to Air Lehigh? Hamm, Washington etc ate Lehigh's OL for lunch.

Lafayette's defense is very good. Less confident in the secondary but the front 7 are very strong.

Lafayette's offense is disappointing. We will be heading into the Air Force game with zero QB experience.

One thing I have noticed about Garrett - his teams seems like they are prepared and seem like they have a good attitude, but sometimes the schemes are just poor and the offense does not execute (plus the very weird development and progress of our QBs). If he were to resolve these issues, I think we could have a very good program.

Lehigh is... a joke. Actually thought Nigel in at QB provided Lehigh with better offensive options. Had Lafayette had a better offense, the game could have been something like 38-13.

P4L, I was there too! At the 50 yard line! Got tix through a great connection! You were right, it felt way weird in beginning but then settled down. Of course the W was excellent! Did you see the guy with stuffed leopard but no garbage bag over head? That was me! Didnt need garbage bag on a fine spring day. Oh God, what are we going to do in Colorado Springs? Are you going? Im in all liklihood going! Who else is?