Even before he got out of the Kibbie Dome at the University of Idaho last December, Lehigh football coach Kevin Cahill talked about how important it was for his program to work toward getting one of the top eight seeds in the NCAA tournament.
With a top-eight seed, teams get a first-round bye and a home game in the round of 16.
Like every other goal the Mountain Hawks have targeted this season, this was fulfilled Sunday.
One day after Lehigh completed a 12-0 regular season and clinched its second straight Patriot League championship, the Mountain Hawks were awarded the No. 5 seed and a first-round bye in the 24-team tournament.
They will host the winner of Saturday’s game between No. 12 seed Villanova and Harvard at noon Dec. 6 at Goodman Stadium. It will be Lehigh’s first home game since 2004, when it lost to James Madison 14-13. The only other home game came three years earlier, when the Mountain Hawks beat Hofstra in overtime.
“The goal was to get a bye and a top-eight seed, and now that we have it, we’ve got to do something with it,” third-year Lehigh coach Kevin Cahill said. “We know we’re going to see the winner of Harvard and Villanova, and that’s not a surprise. Those are two very good football teams. We’ve got to get our stuff together and be ready to play because everybody’s good at this point.”
Last year, there were no byes or home games for Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks beat No. 9 Richmond 20-16 at Richmond and earned a cross-country trip to Idaho the following week, where their season ended with a 34-13 loss to the No. 8 Vandals.
This year, Lehigh is seeded behind No. 1 North Dakota State, No. 2 Montana State, No. 3 Montana and No. 4 Tarleton State, from Stephenville, Texas.
The FCS national title game is slated for Jan. 5 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Mountain Hawks were still in a celebratory mood Sunday afternoon as they gathered on campus a day after a 42-32 win over Lafayette in the 161st edition of college football’s most-played rivalry before a sellout crowd of more than 13,000 at Fisher Stadium. Luke Yoder ran for 234 yards and four touchdowns and was an easy choice as the game’s MVP.
Lehigh had to rally from deficits of 7-0, 14-7, 17-14 and 24-21 to beat Lafayette, which was still thought to have a shot at the playoffs despite falling to 8-4 overall, 6-1 in the Patriot League. They didn’t end up making the cut, however.
“Lafayette is a very good football team and I felt walking off the field that they were a playoff team,” Cahill said. “I think they got slighted a little bit, probably because of scheduling and some of that stuff, but that one prepared us for what’s ahead. That was an unbelievable atmosphere. That was a playoff atmosphere. It was good to have the rivalry there.”
Lehigh will have to tighten up a defense that had been ranked among the best in the nation in points allowed and in rushing defense before the Leopards scored the most points of any Mountain Hawks opponent this year and got 149 yards rushing, more than double what Lehigh was allowing on the ground (66.8) coming in.
Lafayette standout Kente Edwards, who ran for 157 yards and scored three TDs, became the 11th player in Patriot League history to register 20 rushing TDs in a season and had a career-high 41 attempts. He recorded his seventh 100-yard game of the season and finished with 1,452 yards, second most in Lafayette history behind the 1,460 yards gained by former teammate Jamar Curtis in 2023.
Fortunately, the Mountain Hawks won’t have to worry about Edwards again this season. Instead, they will have to deal with either Harvard or Villanova.
Harvard lost to Yale 45-28 on Saturday, but finished the regular season 9-1, 6-1 Ivy League. Quarterback Jaden Craig threw for 2,762 yards and 24 TDs and ran for three more scores.
Villanova, which will enter the Patriot League next season, finished 9-2 after starting 1-2. Ja’briel Mace ran for 165 yards and accounted for three touchdowns as the Wildcats closed the regular season Saturday with a 34-10 win over Sacred Heart.
Lehigh is 5-14 all-time against Villanova, with the last meeting coming in the 2023 season opener when the Wildcats spoiled Cahill’s debut as coach, 38-10, at Goodman Stadium.
The Mountain Hawks are 8-9 against Harvard, with the last meeting a 21-19 win in Cambridge in 2010.
While Lehigh waits, the hope is to get healthier.
“The week off will be big,” Cahill said. “We need to get some guys back from injuries that happened Saturday. We’ll see where we’re at after we get this next week off.”
Northampton graduate Colby Reph, the team’s starting center, said it will be nice to be off on Thanksgiving, and he might attend his alma mater’s Turkey Day game at Catasauqua.
“It’s nice to be able to get to get home and spend time with family,” Reph said. “I was just talking with some of the alumni, and Saturday was a surreal feeling, but now it’s basically a whole new season. None of the stuff we’ve done matters. We just have to take one week at a time and keep growing.”
Tickets for the Dec. 6 game are on sale and can be purchased at LehighTickets.com.
Lehigh season ticket holders will have their seat locations rolled over for the game. Season ticket holders should email athleticstickets@lehigh.edu if they would like to buy their same seat location for this game. Lehigh Ticket Services will charge the credit card used to purchase season tickets and will send tickets as mobile delivery.
Season ticket holders who want to buy tickets using a different payment method or would like to have tickets held at Will Call should email or call Lehigh Ticket Services.
The deadline to purchase seat locations for the game is noon Dec. 1. After that, any remaining seats will become available to the general public.
