Lehigh at Richmond
1. Turning the page
It wasn’t the opening day Lehigh was looking for coming off a winless spring, but the Mountain Hawks are moving forward.
“When you look back at the film, it’s never as good as you think it is and it’s never as bad as you think it is after the game on Saturday,” Lehigh coach Tom Gilmore said. “I saw some positives and things that we did well. We just didn’t do them consistently. The biggest things that jump out are the things we all saw Saturday. You can’t turn the ball over six times and you have to tackle better.”
Gilmore emphasized that the turnovers were not takeaways: “They were giveaways,” he said. “We have to take much better care of the ball.”
Lehigh head coach Tom Gilmore, seen on the sidelines at Lafayette, last April, is looking forward to better things for his Mountain Hawks after a 47-3 season-opening loss to Villanova. (DAVID GARRETT / Special to The Morning Call)
2. Tackling the problem
Gilmore prides himself on his teams playing good defense and even in an 0-3 spring schedule, the defense was stout. But the effort against Villanova was disappointing and led to 506 total yards by the Wildcats, including 275 on the ground.
“A lot of them weren’t particularly difficult,” he said. “On their longest run of the day, all we had to was wrap up. The runner was stopped at or near the line of scrimmage. We lost leverage a couple of times. That’s not a lack of effort. Those things are correctable.”
Liberty High graduate and defensive tackle Trevor Harris, who had three stops, agreed.
“We have definitely flipped the next page,” he said. “Our loss to Villanova came down to mental breakdowns. We need to get 11 hats to the ball on defense. If we do that, we can get the offense the ball and we know they’re capable of good things.”
3. Seeing the CAA
The Colonial Athletic Association is considered one of the top FCS-level leagues in the nation and a lot of them look the same. Harris sees similarities between Richmond, which is coming off a 38-14 win over Howard, and Villanova.
“They remind me a lot of Villanova with big guys up front and a strong all-around quarterback,” he said. “They have a two-back rotation. They remind me a lot of Villanova which is good because we’ve just seen Villanova and know what to prepare for. We’ve just got to prepare like we never have before.”
4. Road trip
Lehigh hasn’t played a game outside the Lehigh Valley since late in the 2019 season: at Sacred Heart in Connecticut. The Mountain Hawks three games in the spring were all in the area with the one road contest at Lafayette.
It’s a lengthy bus ride to Richmond, but Lehigh is embracing the journey.
“Getting away and getting totally focused on the game can be a positive for this team,” Gilmore said. “I’m looking forward to it and I think most of our players are as well. We have a lot of hope moving forward. We’re playing quality opponents early in the season, but we have to focus on the long run. We’re not going to go undefeated, but a lot of our goals are still within reach.”
5. Entering the Spiders web again
Lehigh and Richmond have met just one time before and that was in the 1998 NCAA playoffs when the Mountain Hawks were No. 14 seeds and stunned the No. 3 seeded Spiders 24-23 on Jaron Taafe’s 30-yard field goal with three seconds left in regulation. Current Notre Dame-Green Pond coach Phil Stambaugh led Lehigh 56 yards on 10 plays for the game-winning score after Richmond took a 23-21 lead with 1:18 left. Stambaugh was 26 of 37 passing for 281 yards and a TD.
