On Dec. 7, 2024, Lehigh football coach Kevin Cahill held a news conference in the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho, following a 34-13 loss to Idaho in the second round of the NCAA FCS playoffs.
On Dec. 6, 2025, Cahill held another news conference, this one in the Goodman Stadium fieldhouse after a 14-7 defeat to Villanova in the second round of the NCAA FCS tournament.
But the one Saturday was much more emotional than the one in Idaho.
The difference?
“It feels a lot worse,” Cahill said. “Last year, we weren’t on anyone’s radar. We snuck in and won the league and went down and won at Richmond, and all of a sudden, you look up, and you’re in Idaho. This year we were at home. We were 12-0 and won the league and played really well, and had a chance to host a playoff game. It’s a little bit different. The expectations have changed around here. We’ve got to find a way to continue winning the league, which is getting more competitive. So it doesn’t feel as good, not that last year felt good, but this year the expectations are just different.”
Perhaps the other difference was last year, Lehigh was not as good as Idaho.
This year, the Mountain Hawks were just as good, if not better than Villanova, but two costly turnovers, the failure to convert in the red zone, and a missed field goal all added up to a frustrating seven-point loss that left one of the largest non-Lafayette home crowds deflated.
Cahill said that it would take some time for him and his staff to fully appreciate and reflect on what the team accomplished with its 12-0 regular season — one win shy of a school record.
But those who have followed Lehigh football could appreciate it immediately.
It’s not lost on the alumni and the team’s most ardent supporters that this turnaround staged by Cahill, his staff and the players has been nothing short of remarkable.
In 2022, Tom Gilmore’s last season as coach, and 2023, Cahill’s first season, the team went 2-9. When the 2024 season began, a winning record might have been too lofty a goal when you consider Lehigh hadn’t had one since 2016.
But after starting the 2024 season at 3-3, the Mountain Hawks won their last five regular-season games, upset Richmond on the Spiders’ home field, and then capped a 9-4 season with the trip to Idaho.
Cahill offered a few reference points in his postgame news conference Saturday, reminding everyone that when he arrived in Bethlehem in late 2022, the players were too embarrassed to wear their Lehigh football attire as they walked around campus. He also said that when he coached his first game, the 2023 season opener against Villanova, there were only a handful of people in the stands and the outcome — a 38-10 Wildcats win — was never in doubt.
But the home side was nearly sold out Saturday, and this Villanova game wasn’t decided until the final minute.
“Our players were literally embarrassed to wear Lehigh football clothing, Lehigh football stuff on campus,” Cahill said. “And now, you can’t get them to take the stuff off. It’s little things like that. The support from the community, the support from the athletic department, the support from the university, it has all changed, and it’s a credit to our players buying into a philosophy that’s a little bit different. They bought into it, and now people know who they are, on campus and off campus. It wasn’t like that before. Football is big around here. We’re proud to represent Lehigh in a really positive way. I thought we did that [Saturday] too. We just didn’t get the win.”
Once upon a time, Lehigh was known for big passing games. Air Lehigh was the thing, and the program produced some of the best receivers in FCS football.
Now, the Mountain Hawks rely more on old-school football, where games are won by running the ball well and stopping the run.
Lehigh did both of those things Saturday, except the Mountain Hawks didn’t hold on to the ball. Two costly turnovers tipped the game in Villanova’s favor, especially a fumble by quarterback Hayden Johnson at the Wildcats’ 11 with 1:49 left.
“The recipe has always been to hold on to the ball and don’t turn it over,” Cahill said. “And to find ways to run the ball, and we did that. We just turned it over, and you can’t do that against a quality team like Villanova. You give them a short field and they will take advantage of it. We had an opportunity on that last drive, and Hayden is sick over it. But I will say this right now, we’re not here without Hayden Johnson. He’s a true warrior, and he got us here in so many different ways. I am very proud of him and very happy he’s wearing brown.”
Lehigh played without its leading tackler, Brycen Edwards, and running back Luke Yoder, the Patriot League’s Offensive Player of the Year, was used sparingly because he was dealing with an injury that kept him from practicing for two weeks after he was voted the MVP in the Lehigh-Lafayette game.
There were no excuses offered by Cahill, who at one point got emotional when talking about his seniors or the players who came into the postgame news conference. The only thing expressed was pride in how far the program had come in a short period of time.
“You see a lot of turnover in programs nowadays, but when Coach Cahill got here, we [the seniors] made it a point of emphasis to stick together and buy into who he was,” senior linebacker Tyler Ochojski said. “That’s a testament to everybody from the support staff to the athletic trainers to the coaches. … We all speak the same language and a strong culture has developed here. In my sophomore year, we played Villanova in the opener and got blown [out] and there were like 10 people in the stands and they were all parents. Now, there’s a proud Lehigh community, and everyone knows that we have a really strong culture, and we built it from the ground up. You lose a game like this, and your college career ends, but you can’t throw it all away. I’m really proud to have ‘Lehigh’ across my chest, and I’ve always been proud to have it across my chest. But I think it means a little more now to the guys who have the opportunity to wear it.”
