Kevin Cahil

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

For many reasons I am interested to see how this plays out. A few thoughts...

- Cahill's biggest upside is without question is his organizational/people skills. His M.A (?) in Athletic Administration, time spent on Yale's Cultural House Subcommittee (shows commitment to DEI/social justice), coaching at Yale has molded him into a prime candidate from a character, leadership perspective. I am assuming he used his "institutional awareness" to investigate the ongoing AD transition. Having Troyan introduce him was a drastic change for anyone who has followed Lehigh Athletics for the last 30 years. Candidates would have been wise to approach this opening with caution given such a seismic transition. That is not a knock on Troyan as an AD, rather simple vetting given the working relationship exists between coach and AD. I would expect Cahill to be well versed in AI, admission processes at Lehigh, support systems for student-athletes etc. This is experience his can leverage to advance the program. Kevin Higgins and Biddle were great at this, Chensey is great at this......

- From a purely football perspective nothing about Cahill really stands out. The Eli offense has generally been their achilles heel in each of their 7 losses the last two years. Cahill seemed to have struggled to either develop or handle the QB battle heading into the 2021 season which directly contributed to Yale's 5-5 record. His offenses have not performed well against Chesney's Defense (Chesney is known as a defensive guy); 28, 23, 17, 14 points scored, Yale 1-3 against Chesney and the Crusaders. Second half improvement has also been lacking in many of these instances. I would love to know more about these data points from Cahill. How was game planning, in game relationship with Reno? How would he improve the Yale offense moving forward? Given the Eli's up and down nature on offense I could see this parting of the ways actually benefitting Yale given their talent level. They seem to have another offensive assistant they are high on.

- Since Cahill is a first time head coach I really hope his surrounds himself with a strong staff. He is simply not a great/transcended enough OC to handle both play calling and HC duties; at least at first. Remember, Cecchini in many ways "saved" Coen during his first few years as HC. Watching Joe Conlin struggle at Fordham in critical situations while continuously fielding subpar defenses has sadly limited Fordham's ceiling each of the last 2 years. Chesney simply beats him over the course of 60 minutes. Given Cahill's seeming penchant for detail, it would be a major disappointment if he failed in game management/hiring practices. Another former Reno assistant, Jordan Stevens (Assistant Head Coach/DC for the Eli in 2021), went 2-9 in his first season at Maine.

- The program absolutely needed change! However, given the mess Gilmore is leaving behind I was really hoping for someone with HC experience. As it is, Cahill has to kick butt on the fly by leaning on his administrative experience to construct a winner! Lack of HC experience simply CANNOT be used at as an excuse this year! I expect Cahill to be qualified from the start!

It seems like Chensey is returning which is awesome! Lets see what Troxell in year two, Conlin, Cahill and Dakosty have for the Crusaders! I'm predicting an unprecedented 5peat in Worcester. But Lehigh will still have those 3 undefeated seasons in 4 years title teams

[IPSY1975]

Yale OC will be our new HC...terrific hire

Wow!...Just listened to the Intro Speech and his Q & A

Cahil sounds like a complete brainiac compared to Tom Gilmore!!

I am all in:)

[Sundayamqb]

For those who asked if a video of the introduction had been posted...... the full introduction, coach Cahill's remarks as well as his answers in a Q & A session are now up on LehighSports.com.

My first reaction was that facially he appears a bit like Cael Sanderson (egad!). His remarks in the presser were as one would expect with thanks to those who helped him get here. But his answers in the Q & A sold me on the guy, lock stock & gun barrel. I almost started looking for a helmet! The video runs about 20 minutes and well worth your time.

I completely agree with mookie's remarks (above). We will be thrilled while he's here, and crying when he moves to FBS.

Thanks for info about the link -- I settled initially for Twitter clips.

My hope is that by the time he leaves for FBS, he's left a succession plan much like Higgins did, with a number of folks from his staffs moving onto HC jobs.

[HFO]

Nothing against they guy, but IVY does not compete in FCS playoffs. Yale top win was over #155 Princeton.
To be in ballpark for FCS National Championship Game, you a coach that can be Top 60 in D1. Top 80 to make Semi-Finals.

Holy Cross thumped Yale and Holy Cross was only #136 and then got thumped in FCS playoffs. Is he likely an upgrade over Gilmore, absolutely, but in my honest opinion this is a lackluster hire again by Sterrett. If Lehigh was serious, it would have been knocking on the door of North Dakota State and South Dakota State for one of their offensive coordinators to become a Head Coach.

LEHIGH is a lost institutions. Has no clue what excellence in all things is. Needs to be getting administrators from places like Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Caltech and other small elite college with world class graduate schools. Instead, we got an IVY lite President.

[Lehigh4Life]

Have to argue that HC got thumped in playoffs. They had the #1 team in FCS tied late in the 3rd quarter, after missing two FG. Was a one score game until 5 mins left or so. South Dakota scored with under a minute to make it 42-21 when they could have/should have just knelt on it. HC was a nationally ranked FCS team this year.

Did get to watch Yale a little on offense this year. 1600 yards passing for the Ivy League Player of the Year is not a great offense, especially when our top passer in PL was over 4k yards and the next two threw for over 2k. If you look hard at what Yale does on O, it's a lot more QB run than we are used to.

Will be interesting to see. I wouldn't expect much more than 3-8 or 4-7 in first year. OOC schedule makes it hard to have winning seasons. Will take some time to turn ship.

[Hawkineer]

Will be interesting to see. I wouldn't expect much more than 3-8 or 4-7 in first year. OOC schedule makes it hard to have winning seasons. Will take some time to turn ship.

The out of conference schedule appears to be much more manageable than the 2022 schedule. Dartmouth, Merrimack and Cornell should be be winnable games. Georgetown, Colgate, Bucknell, and Lafayette are certainly winnable games. 3-8 or 4-7 would not be an encouraging sign for the new coach.

[ngineer]

Nothing against they guy, but IVY does not compete in FCS playoffs. Yale top win was over #155 Princeton.
To be in ballpark for FCS National Championship Game, you a coach that can be Top 60 in D1. Top 80 to make Semi-Finals.

Holy Cross thumped Yale and Holy Cross was only #136 and then got thumped in FCS playoffs. Is he likely an upgrade over Gilmore, absolutely, but in my honest opinion this is a lackluster hire again by Sterrett. If Lehigh was serious, it would have been knocking on the door of North Dakota State and South Dakota State for one of their offensive coordinators to become a Head Coach.

LEHIGH is a lost institutions. Has no clue what excellence in all things is. Needs to be getting administrators from places like Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Caltech and other small elite college with world class graduate schools. Instead, we got an IVY lite President.

There is no way in hell that the OCs at the Dakotas would look to a PL school. They have no experience recruiting the type of students we admit, they likely command much more money than what Lehigh is willing to pay, and they are likely looking to move more quickly toward FBS positions and heading is east is not the way to go. Too many people think Lehigh has gone to the dogs because it has EVOLVED into a full first class University. Most likely, much of the disgruntlement coming from old engineers who don't like the idea that the College of Engineering must share a greater portion of the stage with the others. And as far as athletics go, Other than wrestling, few sports had any significant success until the 1970's when football took off. Since then the number and quality of intercollegiate sports has grown and the women's program has grown successfully over the past 40 years. Too many alums focusing on the rear view mirror.

[jimk72]

++++++++!

[HFO]

Nothing against they guy, but IVY does not compete in FCS playoffs. Yale top win was over #155 Princeton.
To be in ballpark for FCS National Championship Game, you a coach that can be Top 60 in D1. Top 80 to make Semi-Finals.

Holy Cross thumped Yale and Holy Cross was only #136 and then got thumped in FCS playoffs. Is he likely an upgrade over Gilmore, absolutely, but in my honest opinion this is a lackluster hire again by Sterrett. If Lehigh was serious, it would have been knocking on the door of North Dakota State and South Dakota State for one of their offensive coordinators to become a Head Coach.

LEHIGH is a lost institutions. Has no clue what excellence in all things is. Needs to be getting administrators from places like Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Caltech and other small elite college with world class graduate schools. Instead, we got an IVY lite President.

There is no way in hell that the OCs at the Dakotas would look to a PL school. They have no experience recruiting the type of students we admit, they likely command much more money than what Lehigh is willing to pay, and they are likely looking to move more quickly toward FBS positions and heading is east is not the way to go. Too many people think Lehigh has gone to the dogs because it has EVOLVED into a full first class University. Most likely, much of the disgruntlement coming from old engineers who don't like the idea that the College of Engineering must share a greater portion of the stage with the others. And as far as athletics go, Other than wrestling, few sports had any significant success until the 1970's when football took off. Since then the number and quality of intercollegiate sports has grown and the women's program has grown successfully over the past 40 years. Too many alums focusing on the rear view mirror.

Keep telling yourself that. Excuses.

[HFO]

Will be interesting to see. I wouldn't expect much more than 3-8 or 4-7 in first year. OOC schedule makes it hard to have winning seasons. Will take some time to turn ship.

The out of conference schedule appears to be much more manageable than the 2022 schedule. Dartmouth, Merrimack and Cornell should be be winnable games. Georgetown, Colgate, Bucknell, and Lafayette are certainly winnable games. 3-8 or 4-7 would not be an encouraging sign for the new coach.

Thinking it is more like a 2-9 team next year.