Lehigh football: A win over Lafayette would complete one of the most amazing turnarounds in program history

Lehigh football coach Kevin Cahill said one of the biggest reasons he decided to apply for the Mountain Hawks job two years ago after spending 10 seasons at Yale was to be a part of something thats about to unfold Saturday afternoon.

In front of a sellout crowd, the Mountain Hawks will play Lafayette in the 160th edition of college footballs most-played rivalry with a championship on the line.

With a win, Lehigh will have completed one of the most remarkable turnarounds in its history, going from back-to-back 2-9 seasons to league champions and FCS playoff participants.

This is where Lehigh should be in my opinion, Cahill said.

You play your last game against your rival for a championship.

It happened to me a few times when I was at Yale and it was great.

This is why you come to Lehigh.

Its one of the reasons why I came to Lehigh.

Absolutely.

When he walked off the field after last years 49-21 defeat to Lafayette after leading 21-14 at halftime, Cahill was disappointed and already thinking about changes.

He was thinking about ways to get better.

But perhaps even he couldnt have anticipated the drastic change in results that has the Mountain Hawks on the cusp of their first championship since 2017.

Cahill and staff obviously had a large turnover in personnel and made some structural changes to create a more productive environment.

One thing well always do is look at what were doing and how were doing it, Cahill said.

Well keep asking how can we get better every single day? Every single game? How can we get better whether its personnel, staffing, how we practice.

How can we grow and in what areas? If youre not doing that youre going to get stale.

The last thing you want to do is get stale.

But it helps to have players who buy into the changes and Cahill said he had that with his more veteran players.

Its easier, of course, to get new players and Lehigh has 36 first-year players on its roster and 12 of them in its two-deep chart for starters and backup to buy in.

Its often more difficult to sell a new approach to veteran players.

Lehigh has 15 players in its senior class, including five guys who are in their fifth-year.

It was those guys who Cahill believes were instrumental in Lehigh winning as many games this season as it did in the previous four seasons combined, including the abbreviated 2021 spring season during the pandemic.

It all goes to our leadership, our seniors, in believing, Cahill said.

They bought in the moment I walked on to campus with the staff.

They just said whatever weve got to do to win, lets do it.

They bought in this offseason and a lot of the success started to happen in the offseason.

They have kind of taken over the leadership and what the messaging is and I am just so really proud of them.

If theyre not buying in, were not here right now.

Mike DeNucci, one of the fifth-year guys who will be playing in his fifth Lehigh-Lafayette game and leads the team in tackles with 76 including 10 for loss and 512 sacks, said the underclassmen deserve as much credit as the veterans for providing leadership.

This is a player-led team from the freshman class on up, DeNucci said.

A lot of guys have been buying in.

There are many leaders among the freshmen and its really a buy-in to the process that Coach Cahill and the coaches have instilled in all of us from the top down and now its from the bottom up.

Guys are going after each other and pushing each other to the limit.

Theyre finding out where that limit can be.

I give credit to the young, the freshmen and sophomores who are really not afraid to come at guys like me and George [Padezanin] and Dante {Perri] at practice and let us know when were slacking or we have to get better at this and better at that.

DeNucci said that the change started with the hiring of Cahill in December 2022.

Once he came in here he had a vision and made that vision clear along with the support staff, DeNucci said.

That vision gravitated toward all of us.

The 36 freshmen who came in here, they all bought into it really quick and they wanted to get after it after they saw the vision, too.

But it starts with Coach Cahill and that vision and turning us all into one big family with one big goal and thats to get here where we are today.

DeNucci, Padezanin, Perri, Jackson Wiles and Renach Gena are fifth-year guys who went through the uncertainty of the pandemic along with a program that seemed to have lost its way.

They along with the seniors have certainly seen their share of hard times and now are in position to enjoy the good times.

But theres more work to be done.

All of the good vibes accomplished over the past three months will be diminished if the Mountain Hawks cant beat a Lafayette team that desperately doesnt want to see Lehigh get the trophy they held high 12 months ago.

This is obviously a very good team coming into our house, Padezanin, the starting center, said.

Defensively, they will give us a lot of different looks and a lot of challenges.

They run a lot of different fronts, different coverages and they blitz a lot.

So for us, its a matter of taking it step by step, and just playing like we have all season.

We cant let the moment get to big for us.

And emotions are always a big part of this game, especially for the guys who know that this will be the last time they will be running out on to the Goodman Stadium grass and possibly putting on the pads and helmet for a final time.

You definitely have to prepare for the crowd and the whole atmosphere, Padezanin said.

But at the same time its no different than what weve done the past few weeks.

Every game has seemed like a playoff game and this one is essentially another playoff game.

So you try not to add too much extra pressure to the situation and yet at the same time, you want to put on a good show for all of the alumni out there who are going to be watching.

We havent had the kind of atmosphere were going to have Saturday in my five years here.

Its going to be awesome experience.

I just want to savor every second and out go out and get this win..

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