Jan. 11, 2012
Center Valley, Pa. - After winning the Patriot League and advancing to the quarterfinals of the Football Championship Subdivision postseason, Lehigh received praise for its accomplishments this week as it claimed the ECAC FCS Lambert Cup and finished in the top five nationally.
The Mountain Hawks became the first Patriot League team since 2001 to win the Lambert Cup as the top FCS team in the east. They were voted No. 1 in the final Lambert Meadowlands FCS Poll announced Monday.
Lehigh will be honored as the ECAC FCS Team of the Year at the annual Eastern College Football Awards Banquet presented by FieldTurf Tarkett held on Thursday, Feb. 16, in the Lexus Club of MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The event, will honor the ECAC teams of the year, winners of the Lambert Meadowlands Award, ECAC players and rookies of the year and ECAC All-Stars from the 2011 football season. Lehigh senior quarterback Chris Lum and Georgetown senior defensive lineman Andrew Schaetzke won the ECAC FCS Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year awards, respectively.
Lehigh also finished fifth in the final Sports Network/Fathead.com top 25, and sixth in the FCS Coaches Poll. The ranks are the highest for a Patriot League school since Colgate came in at No. 2 following a national runner-up finish in 2003.
The Mountain Hawks climbed to the top of the Lambert Poll and into the national top 10 while winning nine straight games to close the regular season with a 10-1 record and second consecutive Patriot League title. Lehigh helped seal the Lambert Cup by defeating then No. 2 Towson, the Colonial Athletic Association champion, 40-38 in the second round of the FCS playoffs on Dec. 3. The Mountain Hawks fell the next week in the quarterfinals at eventual national champion North Dakota State.
Lehigh finished with an 11-2 record and took 200 points in the final Lambert Poll. The Mountain Hawks were followed by Maine with 172 points, while Towson finished third with 164 points.
Lehigh wins a sixth Lambert Cup for the Patriot League. Holy Cross earned the trophy in four straight seasons from 1986-89 before the Mountain Hawks claimed the crown in 2001. The Mountain Hawks previously won six Lambert Cups as a Division II program from 1957-1980.
Established in 1936 as the Lambert Trophy to recognize supremacy in Eastern college football, the award has since grown to recognize the best team in the East in the Bowl Subdivision. In 1957, the Lambert Cup was created to recognize non-Division I-A teams. In 1983, the Meadowlands Sports Complex was selected to sponsor the award, and since that time, the awards have been known as the Lambert Meadowlands Awards.
To be eligible for the Lambert Meadowlands Award, a school must be located in the East or play at least half of its schedule against eligible Lambert teams. The award territory includes eastern teams from Maine to Virginia.
Lehigh's fifth-place showing in the Sports Network/Fathead.com rankings trailed only the four teams that made the national semifinals. FCS champion North Dakota State came in as a unanimous No. 1, followed by runner-up Sam Houston State at No. 2 and semifinalists Montana (No. 3) and Georgia Southern (No. 4).
The Mountain Hawks followed those four schools as well as Northern Iowa to place No. 6 in the FCS Coaches Poll. Lehigh becomes the first Patriot League team to finish in the top 10 since Colgate in 2003.
While no other Patriot League team was ranked in any of the polls, Georgetown received votes in both the ECAC Lambert Poll and Sports Network/Fathead.com top 25.
For the full final rankings from the ECAC, Sports Network/Fathead.com and FCS Coaches Poll, read the links below.
ECAC Lambert Meadowlands Poll
Sports Network/Fathead.com Top 25
FCS Coaches Poll