College football: Lehigh and Lafayette both are postponed
Lehigh football coach Tom Gilmore spent much of his weekly media conference Wednesday talking about the difficult circumstances COVID-19 has caused for his football team.
But as much havoc as the pandemic has brought his Mountain Hawks, Gilmore had no idea what the next 24 hours would bring.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Gilmore learned that Saturday’s game at Colgate was postponed due to COVID-19 situation at Colgate.
On Thursday morning, Gilmore learned that Lehigh would have a game after all, but at Holy Cross instead. It would have been a rematch of last Saturday’s 20-3 Crusaders win.
But before plans to Worcester, Massachusetts, could be finalized, Lehigh announced late Wednesday afternoon that due to a positive COVID-19 test within its program, the game at Holy Cross was also cancelled.
Holy Cross offered to play Lehigh after the Crusaders’ game against Fordham was scrapped due to coronavirus concerns.
At least for now, the Mountain Hawks are scheduled to open Patriot League South Division action at home against Bucknell on March 27 and then travel to Lafayette on April 3.
Meanwhile, it also announced Thursday that Lafayette also had to postpone its game at Bucknell because of a COVID-19 case within the program.
That means no one will be playing in the Patriot League this week and four games have already been postponed in the first two weeks of the league schedule. Another game, Holy Cross at Colgate, has already been postponed on March 27.
Lehigh is still scheduled to host Bucknell and Lafayette is slated to visit Fordham on March 27. More games are still scheduled for April 3 and April 10 with a potential league championship game slated for April 17.
The rematch against Holy Cross would have given Gilmore and the Lehigh coaching staff an immediate opportunity to measure the team’s improvement after an offensively anemic effort against Holy Cross in the opener.
On Wednesday Gilmore said after looking at film the offensive performance wasn’t quite as bad as it may have seemed, especially considering the circumstances. Lehigh’s offensive line and tight ends were quarantined by the coronavirus for two weeks during preseason camp.
“When you look at the quarantine situation and you miss two weeks out of four after missing an entire year, and put it on top of it being such a young and inexperienced unit, it had an effect,” Gilmore said. “When I evaluated the film, we made mistakes up front. But you know what, it wasn’t as bad as you would think. There were little things here and there.”
Gilmore said there was a true freshman, two sophomores, a junior and a senior starting up front and they had minimal time together.
Lehigh not only was kept out of the end zone, but had a net-24 yards rushing on 33 attempts and totaled 137 yards overall.
They converted just six of 19 third or fourthdown situations.
Gilmore, though, was encouraged after reviewing his team’s performance against the team that won the last Patriot League championship and is favored to win the abbreviated spring season.
“We were just off,” Gilmore said. “We were just off timing-wise with some of the blocking schemes and things like that. We weren’t getting great movement at times and it really affected our ability to run the ball. Then in protection, we had a few relatively minor breakdowns, but you go against a good team like Holy Cross and have a minor breakdown, it’s going to result in pressure on the quarterback.”
Gilmore noted that sophomore transfer quarterback Cross Wilkinson was making his first appearance in three years.
Wilkinson was 8-for-13 passing with one interception and 56 yards before getting injured. Addison Shoup replaced him and completed a pass for 46 yards.
Had the game at Colgate been played, Wilkinson would have been the starter.
“A lot of things contributed to what happened … the inexperience along with the lack of preparation time,” Gilmore said. “On the flip side, I’m really encouraged. I think the talent is there. We just have to keep developing it both physically and mentally. But those guys hung in there. They competed.”
Lafayette can’t go either
While Lehigh couldn’t wait to play because it wanted to put a dismal opening-day effort in the review mirror, the Leopards were looking to build on their impressive 24-10 win over Colgate.
“I’m really proud of our team and how they played and how they have responded to the circumstances,” Garrett said. “We’ve got a bunch of the right kind of guys who have showed the mental toughness and the discipline daily to handle it and get themselves ready.”
There were many things to like about Lafayette’s performance, especially a rushing game that produced 171 yards on 50 carries. Equally solid was a passing attack that saw the Leopards complete 10 of 15 passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns.
But perhaps even more pleasing to Garrett and the coaching staff was that Lafayette didn’t have a turnover and had just three penalties for 40 yards.
“We did all of those things very well,” Garrett said. “The operation of the game was really clean and smooth and that’s a credit to our players and assistant coaches who on a daily basis practice the