Lehigh’s 2024 Patriot League Media Day: Trying To Get Back to the Lehigh Standard
BETHLEHEM, PA – It wasn’t a surprise, really, but it was a surprise.
Coming off a 2-9 season that was “not up to our standard, not up to Lehigh standard”, head coach Kevin Cahill said in his opening remarks, the Lehigh Mountain Hawks were picked to finish sixth in the seven-team Patriot League for 2024.
Only two players – fifth year senior LB Mike DeNucci and junior DB Nick Peltekian – made the preseason all-Patriot League team.
Longtime followers of the Lehigh football program undoubtedly agree with coach Cahill’s statement – being picked to finish sixth out of seven teams is not something most Mountain Hawk football fans are accustomed to.
Nonetheless, it’s Year Two of head coach Kevin Cahill’s rebuild of the Lehigh football program, and in Cahill’s opening statement he talked of the progress that was made.
“There’s a lot going on right now on the mountain, a lot of guys working hard,” coach Cahill said. “I’m looking forward to preseason camp, trying to get ourselves better. I think we’ve taken a lot of strides forward in the past year. Will it result in wins? We hope so. But we have a lot of work to do before we can start to worry about wins and losses.”
Last season was one of culture building on South Mountain.
Last November, Lehigh Nation got a taste of the amount of work the program still has to do.
Every Mountain Hawk fan noticed the meteoric Patriot League rise of their Rivals Lafayette, who shot to the top of the Patriot League, clinched the title on Lehigh’s home field, then proceeded to give Delaware everything they could handle in the first round of the FCS playoffs.
That loss to Lafayette was a “bitter taste”, according to coach Cahill.
And the core of Lehigh’s 2024 team is extraordinarily young, with forty new faces starting camp this summer as true freshmen, joining a fairly large group of rising sophomores that got a lot of playing time last season as well.
That’s a big reason why the return of fifth years seniors LB Mike DeNucci, OL George Padezanin, and QB Dante Perri is big for the 2024 Mountain Hawks. The extensive experience of all three will be critical, but especially at quarterback, where Perri is the only returning QB on the roster with Division I game experience.
“I’m thrilled to have so many fifth years coming back,” Cahill said. “With their leadership we’re making strides in the right direction, and getting back to where Lehigh should be.”
I asked him about Dante specifically.
“To have [Dante] back, to understand where we’re trying to take this program, and his impact on this current team is big. It was big for us culturally, on the field, his mentorship, on and off the field he brings a lot of value to the program.”
Lehigh opens the 2024 season on Friday night, August 30th at West Point, New York to take on Army.
2024 Patriot League Football Preseason Poll
1. Lafayette, 72 (12 first-place votes)
2. Holy Cross, 56
3. Fordham, 53 (1)
4. Colgate, 46 (1)
5. Georgetown, 27
6. Lehigh, 24
7. Bucknell, 16
2024 Patriot League Football Preseason Major Awards
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year – Jamar Curtis, Lafayette, Jr., RB
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year – Matt Jaworski, Fordham, Sr., DL
2024 Preseason All-Patriot League Football Team
Offense (13)
QB: CJ Montes, Fordham, Jr.
QB: Dean DeNobile, Lafayette, So.
RB: Jamar Curtis, Lafayette, Jr.
RB: Jordan Fuller, Holy Cross, Sr.
WR: Treyvhon Saunders, Colgate, Jr.
WR: Justin Shorter, Holy Cross, Sr.
WR: Eli Steward, Lafayette, Jr.
TE: Dallas Holmes, Lafayette, Jr.
OL: Bardhyl Gashi, Colgate, 5th
OL: Chance Niesner, Colgate, Sr.
OL: Ryan Joyce, Fordham, Gr.
OL: Ryder Langsdale, Lafayette, Sr.
OL: Brian Baucia, Lafayette, Jr.
Defense (13)*
DL: Matt Jaworski, Fordham, Sr.
DL: Claudy Robinson, Fordham, Jr.
DL: Will Robinson, Holy Cross, So.
DL: Jaylon Joseph, Lafayette, So.
LB: Christian Sweeney, Colgate, 5th
LB: Frankie Monte, Holy Cross, Sr.
LB: James Conway, Fordham, Sr.
LB: Mike DeNucci, Lehigh, 5th
DB: Nahil Perkins, Fordham, Gr.,
DB: Wedner Cadet, Georgetown, Jr.
DB: Saiku White, Lafayette, Sr.
DB: A.T. Ntantang, Lafayette, 5th
DB: Nick Peltekian, Lehigh, Jr.
Special Teams (6)*
K: Matt Schearer, Bucknell, Jr.
P: Shelby Pruett, Colgate, Sr.
RS: Nicholas Dunneman, Georgetown, Jr.
STNS: John Scott, Fordham, So.
LS: Walker Adkinson, Fordham, Jr.
LS: Sebastian Alonso, Georgetown, Gr.
*Additional student-athletes selected due to ties in the voting.
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.
Reach him at: this email or click below:
