Lehigh University Athletics
Lehigh's new leader
8/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
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by Paul Sokoloski
of The Express-Times
A sudden sense of excitement is swirling through
Training camp opens Thursday for a Lehigh football team that’s intent on rebuilding some sagging respect after missing the Division I-AA playoffs last season for the third time in four years. The Mountain Hawks only wished their preseason practices opened two months ago.
They are ready to sweat, bleed, and smash head-first into brick walls for their new head coach, with unshakable faith that he will take them farther than any Lehigh team has gone before.
Barely seven months into his new job, Andy Coen has made them all believe.
“We’re real excited,” said Lehigh senior center John Reese, one of three team captains for this season. “The coaching change has been great, a real good transition.”
“There’s a lot more competitive spirit around.”
That is due solely to the arrival of Coen, an offensive genius with an electric personality who has returned to Lehigh and immediately injected new life into a bummed-out program.
He was hired in January to replace former coach Pete Lembo, who bolted for
But whatever foul air that sickened the Mountain Hawks after they were denied a Patriot League title and an automatic playoff berth with last season’s last-minute loss to
“We’ve got a lot of guys on board with the Andy Coen philosophy,” said returning Lehigh junior quarterback Sedale Threatt, another tri-captain. “I said this before, the night before our first spring practice, guys slept with their spikes on.”
It’s hard for the Mountain Hawks not to get caught up in Coen’s coat tails.
A former offensive coordinator at Lehigh and then at the University of Pennsylvania for the last six years, one of the first things Coen talked about to his new Lehigh team was playing for a national championship.
“I’m not sure that’s the first thing I’d have said if I’d have gotten the job,” laughed Penn coach Al Bagnoli, who enjoyed great success during the past five years with Coen running his offense. “He knows the caliber of players they’re able to recruit. Heck, Colgate made it all the way to the national title game two years ago.”
“He’s a confident guy, which is a good thing.”
Coen has every right to be.
After all, he’s enjoyed tremendous success over the past 10 years churning out star players who contributed heavily to championship programs.
Under Coen’s direction, the Penn offense produced the school’s all-time leading rusher, passer and receiver as Kris Ryan ran for 3,181 career yards, Gavin Hoffman threw for 7,542 career yards and Rob Milanese caught 3,405 yards worth of career passes.
All-American offensive lineman Jeff Hatch, who was a converted defensive lineman, was a 2002 third round draft selection by the New York Giants. And all five Penn starting offensive linemen were named All-Ivy League following Penn’s 10-0 season in 2003.
Ivy League teams don’t compete in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs, but during Coen’s six-year tenure with the Quakers, Penn won three league titles and finished with a top 10 national ranking in 2003. The Quakers were among the nation’s top 10 in scoring during the past six seasons, setting a school and Ivy League record for points in 2000 and then eclipsing it in 2002.
“He’s a very creative guy, a very innovative guy on offense,” Bagnoli said. “He’s an aggressive guy.”
Coen showed that during his first trip around Lehigh.
As an offensive coordinator for the Mountain Hawks from 1996 through 1999, Coen was part of three Patriot League championship teams – including the 1998 club that set a school record for wins with a 12-1 mark and reached the NCAA Division I-AA quarterfinals.
“He’s certainly a special guy,” said
During Coen’s run as Lehigh’s offensive coordinator, the Mountain Hawks produced 10 All-Patriot League offensive linemen; his teams finished among the national top 10 in passing offense in 1996 and 1998; and the Mountain Hawks produced four consecutive 1,000-yard rushers, including Lehigh’s all-time leading rusher Rabih Abdullah (3,696 yards), who went on to play in the NFL.
“People don’t change their soul, who they are as a human being,” Lehigh director of athletics Joe Sterrett, who hired Coen in January after passing him over in favor of Lembo following the departure of highly-successful Kevin Higgins in 2000.
But through the interviewing process following Lembo’s abrupt departure, Sterrett immediately noticed a change in Coen’s demeanor.
“There was a maturity and a quiet confidence in him that was quite compelling,” Sterrett said.
Sterrett is sure at least part of that stems from the fact that Coen is now married to the former Laura Jones, and raising his daughter Molly (who is 3 years old) and son Nolan (born last year).
“He has a broader perspective on life now,” said Sterrett, who mentioned that Coen’s arrival has enthused the school’s alumni – which is sure to translate into a huge surge in ticket sales. “He’s married, has a couple of kids. You start to appreciate that the kids you’re working with as a coach are somebody else’s kids – just like your own.”
That doesn’t mean family life has sapped any energy or charisma from Coen on the football field.
The Mountain Hawks discovered it hasn’t, from the first day they checked in for spring practice.
“He’ll do everything in his power to challenge you as a person and as a player,” Reese said. “He’s a great motivator.”
“I get the feeling he’s a fiery coach,” Threatt said. “He’s going to be a more physical guy.”
Fiery, as Bagnoli pointed out, is just one adjective to describe Coen.
“He has a terrific sense of humor,” Bagnoli said. “He was a lot of fun to be around. He’s very bright, very competitive. He helps kids in a positive way. He’s emotional.”
“I feel great,” Reese said, “about playing for coach Coen.”
By all accounts, Coen brings crafty schemes to the table, along with an uncanny ability to make adjustments on the fly and put players in positions to achieve their greatest success. That was all learned over the years.
He wears his heart on his sleeve naturally.
“When I played football,” said Coen, a former offensive lineman. “I wasn’t the best player, but I played it (football) with a lot of intensity and passion for the game. If you’re not passionate, I’m going to let you know it. I try to be as positive as I can, but there are times I yell. We want to challenge the kids.
“Sometimes on the field, challenging will be a little loud.”
It is a welcome sound to a Lehigh program that hasn’t achieved a 10-win season since 2001, and longs for the days when the team earned four consecutive playoff berths from 1998 through 2001. That once-powerful program was picked to finish third in this year’s Patriot League preseason poll.
Rest assured, that’s not where the new leader at Lehigh plans to wind up.
“He’s very passionate,” Sterrett said. “He loves the game of football. He loves coaching. That comes through in everything he does. The most compelling of those points over their first six-month period of preparations is the reaction of the kids. There are a lot of kids walking around with smiles on their faces and they’re eager to get started. That’s always a fulfilling thing.”
“Hey,” Threatt said with more than a trace of wide-eyed optimism, “it’s a new year.”
This story originally appeared in the Monday August 7, 2006 edition of The Express-Times. Used with permission.
