Scouting Lehigh

This guy is incredible

Overview

First off, for the real scoop on Lehigh you HAVE to log on to Chuck Burton's Lehigh Football Nation as much as possible. 

Now for my take: 

Columbia still leads the league in something: bad luck.

Not only do they have to play a Lehigh team that is somehow better overall than it was last year, (thanks to incredible play so far from its new QB), but now they’re facing a Mountain Hawk squad that is being told to play angry after a loss to Fordham last week.

Lehigh is currently a 28-point favorite Saturday, and many would say that’s being generous to Columbia.

The Lions are facing what looks like a powerful and wounded animal.

Oh, and the game is going to be on national TV.

Offense

Senior QB Brandon Bialkowski has been a revelation this year. The statistics are awesome: 371 yards passing per game. 14 TD passes vs. 6 INT’s. 64% completion rate. 8.3 yards per passing attempt. But the stats don’t really tell the whole story. Bialkowski is also excellent under pressure and dynamite at avoiding sacks when the defenses know Lehigh is in almost constant passing mode. He’s a real leader and I wonder if he would have been a better starter for this team last season instead of riding the bench.

His main target is fellow senior Lee Kurfis who also has monster stats that are NOT misleading. Through five games, Kurfis has 804 receiving yards to go along with four TD’s. Fellow senior Sergio Soto-Fernandez and junior Josh Parris are Bialkowski’s secondary targets, but they grab about five passes a game each and they also each have a pair of TD’s.

And one receiving target who really scares me is TE Dylan Colgate, a junior backup who goes 6-4 and an incredible 265 pounds! He scored the winning TD vs. Princeton and God help the guy who had to tackle him in the open field. Colgate hasn’t been used much yet… but if you see #90 on the field Saturday, watch out!

Lehigh has been running the ball less this season, thanks to the fact that the team has had to play from behind a lot so far. But when they do run it, senior RB Keith Sherman is the guy. He has 345 yards so far this year through five games, but an impressive 4.7 yards per carry average. The Mountain Hawks may look to get him more involved this weekend.

The Lehigh O-line is huge and the nine sacks allowed stat is a bit misleading because of the huge amount of times the team has had to throw the ball.

Oh, and one more thing: Lehigh is almost never penalized. Through five games, the Mountain Hawks have just 16 penalties! Getting flagged just three times per game is usually a sign of a very good and disciplined offensive line.

Defense

Well, here’s where Lehigh is not quite as impressive… especially when it comes to run defense where the Mountain Hawks have allowed a stunning 237 yards per game on the ground. Throw in the paltry six sacks recorded in that same period and you have some real questions about this defensive line.

The stars are LB’s and DB’s, like DB Tyler Ward who is a senior and leading the team in tackles. Linebackers like senior LB Nigel Muhammad and sophomore rising star Noah Robb are carrying the load.

But Lehigh simply plays better on defense in the clutch. The Mountain Hawks are also good at taking the ball away with six iNT’s so far.

Nevertheless, Lehigh has allowed significant points in every game it’s played so far this year and perhaps the much maligned Columbia offense won’t be too overmatched here.

Special Teams

Lehigh placekicker Ryan Pandy is not the guy the Mountain Hawks rely on for big-time kicks. He’s four for seven on FG’s so far this year and has not made anything longer than 22 yards out.

On the other hand, punter Tim Divers is one of the better booters in the Patriot League.

Freshman kick returner Brandon Leaks is doing a great job so far, but hasn’t broken a big one yet.

The Lehigh kick coverage has been stellar.