And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Back-to-back PL champs 2016 and 2017.... but need to get back to relevance in the national FCS scene.
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RichH
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Re: And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Post by RichH » Thu Jan 03, 2019 2:46 pm

lfnadmin wrote: Thu Jan 03, 2019 12:39 pm Lehigh is a Division I school and should compete with other Division I schools in sports. The goals should be national championships in any sport (for football, that is the FCS National Championship). What sets the PL institutions apart from other schools is their commitment to academics. That is the red line, not scholarships.

At the PL level, they need to realize that roster caps and limitations to need-based aid actually harm the commitment to academics that they claim they have. Without the restrictions, say Lehigh could get a combination of 100-105 athletes that can get through academic admissions, some on scholarship, some partial, some with need-based aid, doesn't that mean Lehigh gets a team filled with the most possible high-academic achievers? Artificially mucking around with aid and roster caps simply deny some kids a chance to play football at a school like Lehigh that they ordinarily might attend. Not only that, it denies kids that might also pay some or all of the freight. How is that not a win for the institution?

Furthermore, dropping to D-III will not expand the pool of attendees, it will reduce it. Currently Lehigh attracts all high-academic football players. If you remove scholarships, many of those players will no longer consider Lehigh. It means fewer high-academic players.
Our restrictions are not based on any philosophical basis. Purely a financial compromise for members with Title IX and budget issues. Redshirting also has that Ivy tint that some Presidents adore. A bunch of nonsense given the lengths Ivies go to to avoid the rule.


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Re: And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Post by Sundayamqb » Thu Jan 03, 2019 11:56 pm

RichH wrote: Thu Jan 03, 2019 2:46 pm
lfnadmin wrote: Thu Jan 03, 2019 12:39 pm Lehigh is a Division I school and should compete with other Division I schools in sports. The goals should be national championships in any sport (for football, that is the FCS National Championship). What sets the PL institutions apart from other schools is their commitment to academics. That is the red line, not scholarships.
I tend to agree with RichH national championships should be the goal.

But in what Division I sport has Lehigh ever seriously competed for a national title? Wrestling? The first year of I-AA football doesn't count. Maybe I'm forgetting about something else ...

I hate to be a negative Nellie, but other than in wrestling, it likely never will again unless we change conferences. I don't see that happening.

And let's be serious: Urban Meyer could come and coach here and, given current limitations, the football team never will have a shot at an FCS title. The reality is we're spending lots of time chatting about hiring a football coach/staff that at best will help LU win a couple of playoff games.

Am I wrong?
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Re: And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Post by ngineer » Fri Jan 04, 2019 11:11 am

Other than wrestling, and that would require a perfect alignment of the moon and stars (though the primary focus has been individual national champs which we do get a couple every ten years, and where getting into the top ten is a significant achievement; the only other sport that has an arguable shot at a national championship would be lacarosse (mens). The PL is now, arguably the second toughest conference in the nation behind the ACC (though I grant you the Ivy is right there, too, and the Big Ten is starting to throw assets in that direction).

With football given a bit more leeway in recruiting, I think we could, again, be part of the national conversation and, at least, be into the playoffs beyond the first round. If you can get that far, then who knows. Colgate has made things interesting twice by getting beyond round 2 twice. I think that could be realistic, and a I'd be happy with that.
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Re: And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Post by ngineer » Fri Jan 04, 2019 11:21 am

BTw...today was my 'deadline' for naming a new HC. if we don't have one by Monday, then I'd start to worry that perhaps our #1 choice has declined and Joe is on to the runner-ups...but who knows. In terms of starting the second phase of the recruiting period, though, on January 10, I think it important we have someone 'named' so as to show recruits "all is stable and well" and, hopefully, provide some excitement as to becoming part of a 'new beginnng'.
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Re: And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Post by ngineer » Fri Jan 04, 2019 11:23 am

ngineer wrote: Fri Jan 04, 2019 11:11 am Other than wrestling, and that would require a perfect alignment of the moon and stars (though the primary focus has been individual national champs which we do get a couple every ten years, and where getting into the top ten is a significant achievement; the only other sport that has an arguable shot at a national championship
would be lacarosse (mens). The PL is now, arguably the second toughest conference in the nation behind the ACC (though I grant you the Ivy is right there, too, and the Big Ten is starting to throw assets in that direction).
With football given a bit more leeway in recruiting, I think we could, again, be part of the national conversation and, at least, be into the playoffs beyond the first round. If you can get that far, then who knows. Colgate has made things interesting twice by getting beyond round 2 twice. I think that could be realistic, and a I'd be happy with that.
Though in a different generation, I believe we had a couple lacrosse teams "crowned' national champs in the late 1950's by whatever coaches poll existed then.
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Re: And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Post by lfnadmin » Fri Jan 04, 2019 11:54 am

If Lehigh wants to be a perennial FCS playoff team, that is achievable. Be good enough to win the Patriot League, schedule a challenging OOC schedule and finish over .500. That gives a team a chance in the playoffs.

If Lehigh wants to win more than 2 playoff games, they need to be as good as Colgate was this year. Probably not coincidentally, Colgate's success came at least in part by being good enough to be seeded 8th - thus ensuring a home playoff game. This requires a facility that can not only host FCS playoff games but also be a credible 1st round host as well. And as things stand now, a facility without lights is not, in the FCS and ESPN's eyes, a credible 1st round host.

I don't see either of these things as impossible to achieve with the right head coach.

Long-term, I see the PL structural football issues (roster sizes, 60 cap) as something that needs to be fixed right away, and something to fight for, not something to just shrug one's shoulders and accept. It's a multi-pronged thing that is a big problem IMO, a problem somewhat masked (as it often is) by the extraordinary success of one football team this one season. Put another way, the PL's problems will be behind us when the PL has Colgate-type success every year, consistently. It sure doesn't look like that's the case, with 2 champions/playoff representatives in the last 7 years with under-.500 records.
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Re: And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Post by van » Fri Jan 04, 2019 12:49 pm

roster size a red herring as long as we are stuck at 60, not enough walk ons available
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Re: And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Post by News » Fri Jan 04, 2019 1:45 pm

We may have an eleventh-hour candidate:
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Re: And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Post by Richb-3 » Fri Jan 04, 2019 2:08 pm

Lax, around 1970 the Brown and White ran a picture of Taylor Stadium holding 8,000 fans with #1 Lehigh hosting Navy. It was part of Spring House-party. We had 5 national champs in that era, although NCAA did not recognize Lacrosse until after WW2

That era ended around 1927 when Faculty decided to "de-emphasize football. A lot of the guys played Lax, and the sport also went downhill. Look at W-L of football 1927 to '47 and you can see what happens when our opponents did not De-emphasize, I think we were at beast 4-20 against the evil maroon.
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Re: And the Head Coach Clock restarts. Tick-Tock....

Post by lfnadmin » Fri Jan 04, 2019 2:21 pm

Richb-3 wrote: Fri Jan 04, 2019 2:08 pm Lax, around 1970 the Brown and White ran a picture of Taylor Stadium holding 8,000 fans with #1 Lehigh hosting Navy. It was part of Spring House-party. We had 5 national champs in that era, although NCAA did not recognize Lacrosse until after WW2

That era ended around 1927 when Faculty decided to "de-emphasize football. A lot of the guys played Lax, and the sport also went downhill. Look at W-L of football 1927 to '47 and you can see what happens when our opponents did not De-emphasize, I think we were at beast 4-20 against the evil maroon.
I always thought that Pres. Henry Drinker was behind a lot of the efforts to "de-emphasize" football which happened just after 1921. 1923 was a bit of an aberration, but the 1920s in general were a dark place in Lehigh football, mostly because Lehigh was running a squeaky-clean program and national title contenders like Lafayette were continuing to exploit loopholes (not saying it was bad) in order to have stupendous teams. In the late 1920s, collegiate athletics were slammed in general by the precursor to the NCAA for violating amateurism rules, something that largely evaded Lehigh because they had stopped practices like preferential admissions, scholarships, actually requiring their kids to go to class, etc.

Fortunately for Lehigh and the Rivalry, Lafayette responded to this broadside against athletics by firming up their standards as well. IMO, this made the Lehigh/Lafayette games in the 1930s somewhat competitive (with Lehigh managing a 3 game winning streak vs. the Leopards in there). The 40s/WWII though were another dark time for Lehigh overall, though.
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