Lehigh Travels to Richmond for Patriot League Showdown with Spiders

Tagged under: News, Pennsylvania Colleges, pfn

john fox dan di edwardo | November 12, 2026

#17/15 ranked Lehigh is on a 2 game winning streak and will look to make it 3 when they travel to face Richmond this Saturday at 2 PM. Their resurgence the last 2 games comes after Lehigh coach Rich Nagy made the surprising decision to bench starting QB Derek Morgan in favor of freshman QB Patrick Coan. His faith in Coan has paid off and has the Lehigh offense looking like it did the first 6 games of the season. However, Coan will now face his first road test of the year, and Lehigh will see if he’s up for the challenge.

Lehigh enters this game coming off a 33-7 rout of Colgate on their home field. In that game, Patrick Coan, making his first career start, threw for 221 yards and a TD on 13/24 passing. RB Luke Yoder kept up his season dominance with 21 carries for 182 yards and 2 TDs, winning Patriot League player of the week. WR Anthony Feaster had another strong game with 5 receptions for 82 yards. Overall, the Lehigh offense dominated the Colgate Raiders with 526 yards on the day and 305 rushing yards against the team that had the #1 ranked Patriot League run defense before the game. Lehigh was also able to limit Colgate to 230 yards offense and 11 first downs during the game, with a sufficient portion of them coming on the final drive of the game when it was 33-0 in favor of Lehigh. A Lehigh win against Richmond gives them a share of their 15th Patriot League title, and with 2 more victories, Lehigh earns an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs for the 3rd consecutive year. However Lehigh can also earn an automatic playoff bid with a win at Richmond and a Holy Cross win over Villanova.

Richmond enters this game comng off a 30-0 loss to Villanova on the road. In that game, QB Jack Callahan, threw for 60 yards on 8/21 passing. Callahan was also the leading rusher of the game with 15 carries for 54 yards. The leading WR of the game was Quanye Veney with 3 receptions for 27 yards. Overall, Richmond was shutout 30-0 against Villanova and showed no positive signs in that game. However, Richmond will return to their home field and be looking for revenge against a Lehigh team that found a spark behind freshman QB Patrick Coan. As Lehigh found out against then 1-7 Bucknell at home, no opponent is to be taken lightly. However, as long as Luke Yoder continues his dominant pace against Richmond, Lehigh will be tough to beat, no matter the QB under center. Add in the fact that the WR core has stepped up lately behind Anthony Feaster, Bryce Warner, Nick Palumbo, etc, it makes Lehigh a tougher team to beat. Richmond may have home field advantage, but Lehigh is playing with confidence again under Patrick Coan, so Lehigh will be a tough nut to crack.

Overall, the Lehigh Mountain Hawks are 8-2, and the Richmond Spiders are 6-4 on a 2 game losing streak, but the change at QB sparked Lehigh and Richmond is fighting for any slim chance at a Patriot League title. Lehigh is playing for more and carrying momentum into this matchup, so the keys to the game for both teams are to start fast offensively and force the other team to play catch up. However, as long as Luke Yoder continues to take over games, Lehigh will be tough to beat. Richmond will have to play a complete game on both sides of the ball to beat Lehigh. Tune in Saturday at 2 PM to find out who takes home the victory!