LEHIGH 2024 SEASON PREVIEW: Mountain Hawk Football Will Have A New Look, And Hopefully A New Record
BETHLEHEM, PA – Over the preseason, Lehigh football revealed a brand-new uniform design that freshens up the kit they had been using over the past six years.
For a program that hasn’t had a winning record since 2016, it’s not the only thing that Lehigh Nation hopes is brand new going into the 2024 season.
Bill Parcells once grumbled, when he was head coach of the New England Patriots, “I don’t want uniforms that make players look good, I want players who make uniforms look good.”
That’s a sentiment that Lehigh head coach Kevin Cahill would undoubtedly agree with – and he’d also tell you that he and the team have been working hard to get there since the end of last season.
“We all want to be in the Kevin Higgins Era again, or the Pete Lembo Era again and, of course, Coach [Andy] Coen did a phenomenal job,” Cahill said to Keith Groller of The Morning Call this week. “But those eras don’t happen overnight. I’ve been very honest with our alums about where we’re at and I feel they appreciate that more than anything. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m not going to tell them we’re ready to go because we’re not. Are we a better team than we were last year? I think so. Will it result it more wins? I don’t know that either. All I do know is that we all want Lehigh to be great again and we’re all working in the right direction to have that happen.”
This week, the Lehigh football team will be traveling to West Point, New York to take on Army to kick off the 2024 season. The team that takes the field there will once again be a young team but with a lot of familiar faces that took their lumps in last year’s 2-9 season. Thirty-five first years grace the roster, along with twenty-five sophomores.
It’s an intriguing mix of players coming back from injury, underclassmen that proved themselves from last year, several fifth-years in critical positions, and a year of marinating in the new Lehigh systems, with a lot of welcome continuity in the coaching staff. That combination of youth, talent, upperclass leadership is intriguing.
New-Look Offense
A few players and head coach Kevin Cahill was pretty upfront to me during the with the fact that the offense would look different in 2024 than 2023.
With QB Brayten Silbor leaving Lehigh, it was bound to look different, and while this isn’t an excuse, the team that suited up vs. Lafayette last November were missing a lot of key pieces who were Game 1 starters.
During the first six or perhaps seven weeks of the 2023 season, there was a different starting offensive line combination every week, and that was a big impediment to what Lehigh was trying to do.
Keeping healthy is clearly a very big priority with this coaching staff – also mentioned to me several times – and if they meet that goal on the offensive line specifically, that continuity will play a big part in allowing Lehigh’s offense to grow offensively.
Only one of Lehigh’s five starting linemen on their two-deep for Army this week – 6’3. 315 lb OL Langston Jones – played in all 11 games last season. C George Padezanin got injured in Week 1. OL Aidan Palmer was lost in Game 2. OL Christian Curatolo was lost by Game 5. And OL Austin Huff stepped in as a first year in Game 6 in October and finished out the season strong.
What might happen when all of these starters are all healthy, all at the same time, all in the positions they’re supposed to be? That’s one of the big questions of this Lehigh team in 2024 – and a position that has the potential to be a big strength of the team, too.
“We’re a work in progress, and we’ll continue to be a work in progress,” Cahill told me during the preseason. “And I think we’re getting better. We’ve asked for them to do a lot of different things in the offseason up until now, and the kids have responded. We feel like we’re getting bigger, faster, stronger, especially on the offensive line. Hopefully, that shows true throughout the season and continued to grow throughout the season.”
Padezanin, who is returning for his fifth year, couldn’t wait to get back out on the field.
“We have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder,” Padezanin told me during Patriot League Media Day. “I understand we haven’t proven anything but we are dying to prove to this league, and to each other, really, who we really are on the field, and what we strive to be. The adversity [from last season] really brings the team together overall.
At quarterback, fifth year QB Dante Perri will be the starter going into the Army game. The mobile QB, a former walk-on, went from starter and team captain in 2022 to backup quarterback in 2023, but has consistently been a popular leader on offense from every role he’s been asked to perform.
In 2022, Perri threw for 2,213 yards and scored 14 TDs, and with first year QB Hayden Johnson behind him on the depth chart with no Division I game experience, Dante is the man.
“Dante is a tremendous leader,” Cahill said this week. “He values Lehigh in a tremendous way, and we value him. There’s not a better spokesperson for Lehigh football than Dante Perri. To have him back and to understand where we’re trying to take this program, and his impact on the current team, is big. It was big for us culturally, his mentorship, on and off the field.”
At running back, sophomore RB Luke Yoder (644 yards, 5 TDs) returns, Lehigh’s leading rusher last season, with first year RB Jayden Green backing him up. On offense, there are no first year starters, but they occupy eight spots on the two deep, meaning we possibly will be seeing a lot of new faces on offense as the season rolls along.
At receiver is junior WR Geoffrey Jamiel (327 yards, 4 TDs) whose impact and production was held back somewhat last year due to constant double- and triple-teaming, though he was Lehigh’s leading receiver in 2022. Rounding out the starting pass catchers are some familiar names: TE Nick Williams (140 yards receiving), WR Mason Humphrey (348 yards, 1 TD) and WR Dylan McFadden (229 yards, 1 TD). Four of Lehigh’s five leading pass catchers return from last year, though Lehigh Nation will want to see at least one of these guys break out this season if Lehigh is to get back to the top of the league.
Experienced Defense
On defense, nine out of eleven starters return, and look to return more consistency than they showed last season, but boast individual all-league talent that Lehigh Nation is hoping will coalesce into a top Patriot League unit when conference play rolls around.
From the Army game notes, it looks like Lehigh will be lining up in a 3-3-5 formation, with three defensive linemen, three linebackers, and five defensive backs (including a “Rover” position that acts as a hybrid linebacker and defensive back).
The defense should be bolstered by a lot of returning starters and what could be a tremendous linebacking corps.
The experienced trio of LB Mike DeNucci, LB Tyler Ochojski, and LB Brycen Edwards combined for 201 tackles and 12 tackles for loss last year, ranking second, third, and fourth on the team in tackles. With DeNucci one of the team leaders on defense, their continued development and improvement will be a key thing to watch in 2024.
DeNucci has taken on the role of mentor to the younger guys on the defense, and it shows.
“The biggest thing for me is just keeping the young guys around me confident,” he told me during Patriot League Media Day. As a three year starter, going on four, and even last year, I found myself out there with a lot of guys who didn’t know the ropes when it came to playing football at the college level. My goal is to elevate my game and have the guys elevate with me.”
Up front, Lehigh’s team leader in sacks returns in DE Matt Spatny (5), and run stuffer NT T.J. Burke (28 tackles, 2 sacks) return from a year ago. Joining them are first time starter junior DT Quentin Joyner, who has gotten bigger and stronger from last season, listed at 6’3, 280 lbs.
In the secondary, DB Nick Peltekian returns, last season’s tackles leader at 91 (with 4 tackles for loss), and promising CB Jordan Adderley returns after an injury-plagued junior season.
A rare transfer from Miami (OH) in DB Mason Moore is slotted to start at strong safety. The Lexington, Kentucky product was a 2* Rivals recruit out of high school and got in six games at Miami of Ohio.
Rounding out the secondary is CB Aidan Singleton, who started part of the year as a first year and ROV Davis Rice, the only active player on the roster with an interception last season. (The Mountain Hawks only nabbed 3 picks last season, a number they desperately need to improve.)
Special Teams
The one first year that is starting this Saturday is P/K Connor Poole, who will be punting and handling kickoffs for the Brown and White. He’ll be joined by a lot more veteran hands in field goals – PK Nick Garrido had a very strong year, although he didn’t get as much of a chance to showcase his accurate leg, going 5 of 8 kicking field goals and 23/24 in extra points.
On kick returns, WR Geoffrey Jamiel and DB Nick Peltekian return, two steady hands, as well as first year RB Jayden Green, but Cahill wants to see an attitude from this team on special teams as well.
“Special teams is where we have to find an edge,” Cahill said. “It has to be our trademark. We need it to be a weapon.”
Lehigh opens the season at Army this Friday evening at Michie Stadium in West Point, NY. Kickoff is at 6:00 PM.
Chuck has been writing about Lehigh football since the dawn of the internet, or perhaps it only seems like it. He’s executive editor of the College Sports Journal and has also written a book, The Rivalry: How Two Schools Started the Most Played College Football Series.
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