LEHIGH'S DEFENSE BEATS OFFENSE IN "BROWN & WHITE GAME", 39-25.

[ngineer]

As usual, the defense was ahead of the offense in today's sloppy spring game. The field conditions were soggy from overnight rains, though the rain eased off before game time and only showered occasionally throughout.
Takeways: Our defense may well be better than last year's. The 'new' secondary looked very promising. While the O was missing several WRs due to minor injuries (especially all-american Spadola), the DBs played aggressively and had two picks; both by Kenyatta Drake, who returned on about 70 yards.
The OL is underconstruction and also was missing several players who are rehabbing. However, in the second half nice running attack was sustained on two long drives.
Soph. TB Dormeville was impressive as a new 'scat back' throwback to the days of Jermaine Pugh and Ron Jean. Zach Barket showed good power between the tackles and Keith Sherman also broke some nice runs.
All three QBs struggled statistically and tried to force some throws into coverage that I doubt would have been made in a regular game. However, all three showed good arms. Part of the problem was missing some of the WRs and the weather.
It was apparent the OC Cecchini was making the running attack a focus of the spring practices, as should be with our inability to control the ground game in some big games last year.
One downside was a severely sprained ankle by TE Haggins who has been impressive. Hopefully, just a sprain, but will certainly take a few months to heal fully for camp in August.
Bright spot was surprising 40-50 yard ave. by soph. punter Divers, who appears to be the 'new guy' as we learned that All-League punter Alex Smith has been declared ineligible. Smith's 'strategic' punting last year really aided several of our big wins. Divers will need to learn such nuances.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Alex Smith was declared ineligible? xeyebrowx

[RichH2]

Any confirmation on on Smith? Ol will be better with IR guys back. Dormevil nice scat back, Nice if he could stay healthy this year. Anyone notice Kablan out at WR? Kid has wheels.

[Lehigh74]

Curious as to whether the effort to run the ball more effectively included the use of more running formations or was it mostly out of the shotgun as in prior years?

[ngineer]

Most of the runs came via the shotgun with the back picking his hole. The RBs showed a lot of potential for this year. Kablan has always had a good set of wheels. In the past, I had heard he had trouble picking up all of the offense. Looks like he's reached that level. As for Smith, he's done. Divers will be the punter and showed a nice leg. Just needs experience on the situational punting, i.e. placement/directional. Also competition at longsnapper among three guys. The 3rd QB,Bialkowski from Arizona, looked very good. Very nice touch and a strong arm. It's nice to see talent waiting in the wings at the position.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2011/04/brown-39-white-25-final.html

So far behind. I finally got my recap of the Brown/White game up. The upshot: some nice bright spots, yet with a ton of questions still unanswered.

The biggest unanswered questions, to me, come on special teams. Hopefully the competition for long snapper will be a long one all summer, since in the limited amount of long snaps there were left a lot to be desired. Kicking will be interesting, too, though Divers looks like he's got a real good leg - and even showed some good directional punting, too, in his limited opportunities.

[ngineer]

Yes, Peery does not have a 'booming' leg. He seems to get out of sync whenever he attempts anything over 35 yards and pulls it left. We have a freshman kicker coming in, so it will be interesting to see if there will be any competition there in August. Will Pellegrini and Hood out from the OL, that definitely had an impact. I would think those two, when healthy, will bring significant strength to the OL. The area with the biggest question marks, the Seconday, came through with flying colors.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

It's hard to draw many conclussions from a spring game. In the grand scheme of things it means nothing. Given the amount of starters returning the biggest thing is staying healthy. It's a lot easier to replace a once in a generation OL than it is a once in a generation QB, RB or WR. The OL unit as a whole should be solid even with the departure of Rackley.

Hopefully a few fresh faces emerge over the next 5 months. The front line guys are Top 15 good imo. Unfortunately, the lack of schollies makes it difficult to build quality depth. Three or four guys jumping on the scene from now until Monmouth could be the difference between 7-4 and 10-1.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

I will say that I was pretty impressed with the depth in the front seven and even the secondary. My biggest concern, as I've mentioned, was special teams, and that's where the depth issues sort-of come to light.

[RichH2]

Depth has always been PL problem. This year we have some quality depth on D front 7. 2ndary lots of skill not much experience. WR and Te good epth . OL ????. Qb and rb OK. rb needs some outside speed Dormevil or Sodeke? they also need an OL. August will tell . Pelligrini seems to be most important piece remember tho he has not been healthy in 2 yrs.

[ngineer]

Yes, I would think Vinnie would have a possible medical redshirt available so he could be around for a few more. Only game where we are clear underdog is UNH. All other games are 'winnable'. But with a possible toe stub along the line, would I dare say,....again...that 9-2 would be a 'reasonable' prediction?xsmiley_wix