Lehigh football welcomes two new coaches to staff ahead of 2025 season

After winning the 2024 Patriot League title, the Lehigh football team is gearing up for the upcoming season by adding two new coaches to its staff.

Following a 2-9 record in 2022, the team overhauled their coaching staff, hiring Kevin Cahill as its new coach in December of that year. After a year of rebuilding, Cahill improved the team’s winning by nine games and secured Lehigh’s 13th Patriot League title — its first in 13 years — this past season. 

As Cahill heads into his third season in the nest, he said he’s aiming for higher success. He’s beginning to work toward this by recruiting not just like-minded players but coaches that match the team’s motivation. 

In the offseason, the team hired defensive line coach Jeff Comissiong and linebackers coach Tom Jurkovec. Both Comissiong and Jurkovec come from Boston College, where they coached the team to a 7-6 record and an appearance in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Comissiong and Jurkovec are set to replace Lehigh coaches Demeitre Brim and Ben Thaw, who joined the University of Central Florida’s and Austin Peay State University’s coaching staffs respectively.

Junior defensive back Nick Peltekian said the transition and adjustment to the new staff has felt natural, because both Comissiong and Jurkovec align with the team’s culture. 

“They understand what our goals are and where we’re trying to go,” Peltekian said. “Now it just doesn’t even feel like new coaches at this point.”

Cahill said the program was fortunate to bring in Jurkovec and Comissiong, and he’s looking forward to the knowledge they’ll bring to the team.

Before coaching at Boston College, Jurkovec had previous experience at Duquesne University and Washington & Jefferson College.  

He said the decision to come to Lehigh was more than just a new coaching opportunity, as it was also about finding the right fit and people. 

But he also said after first meeting Cahill, the decision to join Lehigh was a “no-brainer.”

 “Seeing where the program is going, and the type of coaches and people they are, made it a very easy decision,” Jurkovec said. “It’s a place that I really wanted to be a part of.”

For the defensive line, Comissiong brings nearly 30 years of coaching experience to the nest, having coached at the University of Maine, Cornell University, Hampton University, Old Dominion University, Bates College, Harvard University and, most recently, Boston College, where he resided for 12 seasons. 

Known for his player development, Comissiong has coached numerous NFL players prior to their debut. He most recently coached Donovan Ezeiruaku, who was drafted 44th overall to the Dallas Cowboys on Friday evening. 

Jurkovec said prior to getting hired, he had a lot of respect for Lehigh’s football program. 

Due to their shared time at Boston College, Comissiong and Jurkovec share a long-standing professional relationship. Jurkovec said Comissiong told him about the other open coaching position when he decided to join Lehigh’s coaching staff himself.  

“He told me about the opportunity, I came down here,” Jurkovec said.

As the Mountain Hawks prepare for the upcoming season, the team and staff’s expectations have evolved. 

Peltekian said the team’s performance last year was great, but the team is still taking the upcoming season one game at a time.

“We can’t think championships — we’ve got to think about winning our first game,” Peltekian said. “Our focus is on that opener, and we’ll take it one step at a time from there.”

Cahill said he plans to make championships and playoff appearances the standard for the program moving forward.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm around the program after winning a championship last year,” he said. “My goal is to embark on the journey to do that again and continue to get this program back to the standard it should be at.”