Fresh off a bye week, the Lehigh football defensive line is set to battle against one of the best running backs in the country, Fordham University’s Chase Edmonds.
Edmonds, a senior, has proven himself as a great threat to all opposing teams, regardless of the competition. Edmonds has accumulated over 5,600 rushing yards throughout his career and has scored 70 total touchdowns for the Rams.
Edmonds has torched the Lehigh defense in his career. Holding him to just under 185 yards rushing in 2016 was considered a victory for the Mountain Hawks. In the 2015 matchup, Edmonds ran for 347 yards — setting a Patriot League record at the time — and scored four touchdowns.
“Going against (Edmonds) is always interesting, and I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now,” fifth-year defensive lineman Jimmy Mitchell said. “Last year it felt like we shut him down, but he still managed to get 180 yards — which isn’t really shutting him out at all, but he didn’t score, so that’s always good.”
Mitchell said in order to control Edmonds, the defensive line needs to make sure it stops Edmonds within the first three yards to make sure he doesn’t get that momentum. Mitchell said Edmonds has the ability to balance himself well and take multiple hits before going down. If he is not stopped early, he will continue to move forward.
“Not one man’s going to tackle him,” Mitchell said. “We got to get all 11 hands to the ball to tackle him.”
Lehigh defensive line coach Donald Roberts described Edmonds as a great player who the team should consider a threat. Roberts said he isn’t intimidated by Edmonds’ past production, but he wants to work with the team to control his speed of play.
Mitchell said the team has been working on some plays to improve its defense for Saturday’s game. He said the defense has also been working on being less reckless and focusing more on penetrating the offensive line.
Lehigh (2-5, 2-0 PL) remains optimistic and believes with practice, the team can claim a victory to move to 3-0 in Patriot League play.
“Edmonds is a great player, but honestly, if we just play our game plan, do what we do and tackle — I think that as a team, we’re going to do really well,” senior defensive lineman Harrison Johnson said.
Although the team has started its season 2-5, Roberts said the defense’s greatest attribute is its resilience. Roberts said the team has continued to fight and work hard to get to the place it wants to be.
“We feel like we’ve finally got some momentum going this season,” Mitchell said. “Looking and comparing ourselves to the other Patriot League schools, we feel pretty good where we’re at. We’ve learned from those first five games where we didn’t perform like we wanted to, but now we’re really starting to perform in the games that count the most, so that’s good.”
This will be the Mountain Hawks’ first time playing since their victory over Georgetown on Oct. 14. The Mountain Hawks came away with a 54-35 win at Goodman Stadium.
“We’ve had a nice week — we’ve had time to rest up and a little more time to prepare ourselves,” Johnson said. “It’s nice just to relax and get treatment and grab some ice. But now it’s time to get back to football.”
The rest of Lehigh’s games will be against Patriot League opponents.
“We have to focus on the future,” Roberts said. “Everyone wants to win a championship, but we got to take it one game at a time and try to win the Patriot League. We have to focus on the league and gain the league supremacy.”
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