Post
by Go Lehigh TU Owl » Sun Nov 12, 2023 4:54 pm
There is talent on this team which is why they have been competitive in the majority of their games. Lehigh stood toe to toe physically (all things considered) with Holy Cross last week. The same HC team who was in a 60 minute game of gridiron trench warfare with Army yesterday. The showed the athleticism to give Fordham trouble. However, the lack of development on offense, Silbor looking very much like a "Hunt product", the no-shows/clear lack of preparation against Cornell and Colgate to start the game, and general lack of consistency/formation of an identity is concerning.
I'm not buying this team is devoid of talent. The schedule was very modest this year, easier than any schedule Gilmore faced imo, and they're staring at 2-9. When with just better cohesion there's 3 more wins to be had ala like last year under Gilmore. I actually give credit to Gilmore/ "Former LU Coach" for bringing in some talent that is capable of competing in the PL. However, the players are still trying to figure out how to win.
The staff is without question an odd construction. It just is, you have two former head coaches as coordinators and a first timer running the show. First, the two coordinators have "interesting" histories that are consistent with peaks and valleys. Not only that, once a head coach, always a head coach. They will look at things differently no matter how much desire there is to approach their responsibilities as someone who has only been an assistant. There's just a lot of moving pieces with how this staff was setup when cohesion/continuity is critical from the start.
I'm not here proclaiming doom and gloom but at times you do need to remove the brown and white/company line of excuses to see what's going on. There is a CLEAR track record, something worthy of further investigation, of quality head coaches/staff succeeding in year two; Biddle, Moorhead, Troxell, Chesney, Higgins, Gadd (Bucknell's only PL Title, 1996 came in his year 2). Troxell took over a program that hadn't had a winning record in 13 years, 13 years(!), and will likely celebrate the program's first 9 win season in over 40 years (!) and a trip to the FCS playoffs on Lehigh's home turf next Saturday. Can Lehigh win? As one figures it to be a relatively competitive game ala Fordham and HC, I think they absolutely have the players to win (they outplayed Laffy last year!). But will Lehigh win? The odds clearly say no.....
IIRC, won't the next two rivalry games be in Easton? Troxell has something cooking. Pards are well positioned to take over for HC by going on their own little run...