LEHIGH PRESEASON PREVIEW: For the Mountain Hawks In 2024, It Seems Like Youth Will Be Served
BETHLEHEM, PA – It was a bit of a rainy, subdued day at this weekend’s Lehigh football preseason practice, but the action on the field was not subdued at all.
It was the first and last time this preseason the Mountain Hawks played in Murray Goodman Stadium this August, with some starters being held out for precautionary reasons and others only taking limited reps.
That meant the number of underclassmen on the field was astounding, even for such a young team as the Mountain Hawks.
Thirty-five names were brought into the Lehigh football program this offseason as first years, and a very large number of them and other underclassmen saw the field this Saturday, the final time football will be played in Murray Goodman until the Mountain Hawks’ home opener vs. Wagner the first week in September.
“We got a lot of kids on this roster,” head coach Kevin Cahill told me after the scrimmage. “It’s another practice, but you try to replicate a game as much as possible, and being in Goodman as often as possible is always good. I think these kids came out and competed. That’s all we ask of them, to just come out and compete, give us everything you got.”
There were plenty of signs of a potentially bright Mountain Hawk future in Murray Goodman Stadium this past Saturday.
“They’re a lot of fun,” Cahill said of the incoming freshman class. “They don’t even know what they’re doing half the time. But that’s a good thing, too. A lot of times, these kids just rely on their athletic ability, and they’re pretty talented. But we just got to get them to understand the college football game and how we play football. These kids have bought into everything we’re doing. They’re bought into a lot of culture stuff that the guys above them have laid down. Is there frustration? Absolutely. But you’re more frustrated when they don’t care. These kids care, and they want to get better. They came here to get Lehigh back to where it should be.”
Everyone I talked to mentioned a very healthy competition in camp. Sometimes for upperclassmen that can be a source of tension, but for WR Geoffrey Jamiel and DB Nick Peltekian, they embraced it.
“Everyone’s progressing really well,” Jamiel said. “It’s all competitive in that room. Every position. That whole offense, you’re going to see a lot of new faces. It helps the older guys stay locked in, buy also helps the younger guys have something to chase. It’s a lot of guys competing for jobs, and the healthy competition we’re looking for.”
“They’re giving us a good look every single day,” Peltekian said. “It’s a whole new identity out there.”
After the cancelled Covid spring games and the fall injuries of the last couple of years, it had been a while since there’s been a preseason practice with enough depth and personnel to conduct full on scrimmages, but this Saturday there was, and it showed on the field.
Most notably it showed up in some pretty good individual plays on the offensive line, opening up some holes for some big running plays. After a few springs where there were barely enough linemen to conduct a scrimmage at all, it was a welcome sign.
“The O-line did a good job,” Cahill said. “We’re a work in progress, and we’ll continue to be a work in progress. 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.”
With camp breaking, the schedule for the Lehigh football up until the season opener at Army becomes one of logistics. At Lehigh, football players go through the same orientation as the regular student body, despite the fact they’ve been on campus for weeks.
“We have to be really strategic in how the kids are going to orientation because that matters,” Cahill said. “They got to make sure they learn the ways of Lehigh, because you come here for a degree, obviously. We’re going to make sure we’re smart about how we’re practicing and getting the most out of them, because we’re going to lose some of them mentally because they’re going to be over there going through orientation, and that’s very important. We’ll have a couple more pretty good heated practices over the next couple of weeks and we’ll be smart. The idea is hitting Army at full speed, and that’s the goal.”
Lehigh opens the season at Army on Friday, August 30th at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York. Kickoff is at 6:00PM and the game is scheduled to be broadcast on CBS Sports Network and Fox Sports Radio 94.7 FM and 1230 AM.
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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