Lehigh continues to rise in national polls, and Lum gets another national honor

FROM KEITH GROLLER

The good stuff keeps coming for the Lehigh football team, fresh off its 5-1 start and 30-6 shellacking of Bucknell on Saturday. The Mountain Hawks are now No. 8 in one national FCS poll and No. 9 in the other. And Chris Lum just received his second national offensive player of the week honor. Here are the details in a Lehigh-issued press release:


Senior quarterback Chris Lum and senior defensive lineman Ben Flizack were recognized with Patriot League weekly awards on Monday. Lum was also named FCS National Co-Offensive Player of the Week by the Sports Network, while the Mountain Hawks continued to rise in the national polls.



Lum enjoyed another spectacular outing at Bucknell as Lehigh won its league opener, en route to being named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week and the National Co-Offensive Player of the Week. For the sixth time in as many games this season, and the seventh straight game dating back to last year, Lum eclipsed the 300-yard passing mark, completing a whopping 81 percent of his passes for 368 yards and four touchdowns. Lum spread the ball around to six different receivers, with three Mountain Hawks recording at least one touchdown catch.



Less than a week after being added to the watch list for the Walter Payton award, Lum guided the Mountain Hawks on three straight touchdown drives in the second quarter of Saturday’s win, plus a drive early in the third quarter that put the game out of reach.



For the season, the Michigan native has completed 68 percent of his passes for 2,177 yards and 23 touchdowns. Lum has thrown four or more touchdown passes in four of Lehigh’s six games this season. He continues to lead the nation in passing yards, touchdowns and total offense (375 yards per game).



Lum has now won four Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week awards this season and six of the last ten dating back to last season. He shares the Sports Network national honor for the second time this season, this time with UT Martin quarterback Derek Carr.



Also of note in the national statistics, one of Lum’s top targets, junior Ryan Spadola has taken over the national lead in receiving yards per game at 147, following his 10-catch, 181-yard, two-touchdown performance against Bucknell. Spadola and senior Jake Drwal both rank in the top five nationally in receptions per game. As a team, Lehigh ranks in the top five nationally in passing offense, total offense, passing efficiency and on the defensive end, sacks.



Sacks were the name of the game for Lehigh against Bucknell as the Mountain Hawks racked up ten against Bison signal-caller Brandon Wesley. Flizack earned the first Patriot League weekly award of his career after leading the Mountain Hawks with six tackles, and recording two of the ten sacks. He also had a pass breakup on the day, as Lehigh yielded just 246 yards of offense to the Bison, most of which came with the game’s outcome already decided.



For the season, Flizack leads all Lehigh defensive linemen with 19 tackles and tops the Mountain Hawks with 4.5 sacks and six tackles for loss.



With a pair of top ten teams losing last week, Lehigh rose in both the Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS Top 25 as well as the FCS Coaches Poll. The Mountain Hawks come in at No. 8 in the Sports Network poll, the highest ranking for any Patriot League team since Lehigh was ranked eighth in November of 2004. Lehigh moved up one spot to No. 9 in the coaches’ poll.


http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/2011/10/lehigh-continues-in-national-polls-and-lum-gets-another-national-honor.html