Lehigh University Athletics
Coen's way refreshing for players
3/26/2006 12:30:00 PM | Football
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by Paul Sokoloski
of The Express-Times
It didn't take Andy Coen long to start raising the hopes and lifting the spirits of Lehigh University's football team.
From the opening day of spring practice, the new head coach of the Mountain Hawks inspired everyone to think big.
"First thing he talked about was national championship," returning quarterback Sedale Threatt said. "Having a coach come in, saying things like, 'We're not here to play 11 games' is exciting."
The Mountain Hawks hope all that enthusiasm over Coen, a former Lehigh and University of Pennsylvania assistant who replaced Pete Lembo on Jan. 3, will take them to new heights.
The quest to get back to Patriot League championship form and return to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs began Saturday at the Goodman Complex, where Coen put the Mountain Hawks through a 2½ -hour workout.
And it showed the transition from Lembo's pass-happy system to Coen's more balanced attack won't be seamless.
"I was disappointed we jumped offside so many times," Coen said. "The snap count was a little different than it was a year ago. I guess that's to be expected on the first day."
More than a few times, Coen was forced to restart drills -- which took place without pads -- while barking his displeasure. But his new team appreciated the attention to detail and demand for perfection.
"He's a fiery kind of coach. That's what we need," said wide receiver Frank Trovato, a senior-to-be from Bethlehem Catholic who showed flashes of big-play potential but who was seldom used in Lembo's offense over the past three seasons. "Even though we're putting in a lot of new stuff, it's more terminology."
"I'm not going to lie, the playbook might be a little bit thicker," Threatt said with a grin. "It's not all new, but there are some different words. Maybe our call for a 'trips' (formation) wasn't the same wording, things like that."
Then the Mountain Hawks better start spending extra hours reading the new playbook.
Coen plans to spend the next few weeks evaluating practice performances and trying to identify playmakers he can rely on by the time the team ends its annual Brown and White scrimmage on April 22 at Goodman Stadium.
"Some of the kids I was very pleasantly surprised with. Other kids need a lot of work," said Coen, who will make his head coaching debut Sept. 2, when Lehigh hosts Albany in the season opener.
"My evaluation after one day isn't too much different than what I had seen on film. The No. 1 thing we're looking at is to really evaluate all the kids, find out if the kids that we are projecting as starters are what we thought they were.
"But attitude? Great. Effort? Great."
He'd also like to instill more toughness in the Mountain Hawks while turning them into more of a running team than they'd been in the past. And Coen hopes some of that starts to show next Saturday, when Lehigh puts the pads on and begins contact sessions.
"It'll depend on how the kids respond to it," Coen said. "It's a different style."
And the change Coen plans to bring could mean the difference between the Mountain Hawks making a playoff run, or sitting home again.
"He's a great coach." Trovato said, "You could tell that right away from the emotional standpoint, his body language and the way he acts on the field."
"All the guys are really excited," Threatt said, "A lot of the guys slept with their cleats on. Everybody wants to get after it."
This story originally appeared in the Sunday, March 26, 2006 edition of The Express-Times. Used with permission.
