Dean DeNobile knows how to bounce back.
Throughout his time with the Leopards program, he has seen a lot of good and bad. He experienced a 4-7 season as a freshman in 2022, a nine-win, championship season that ended with him getting knocked out of an NCAA FCS playoff game at Delaware in 2023 with an injury. He then he battled back from the injury in 2024 when Lafayette went 6-6 overall, 2-4 Patriot League.
This year, DeNobile and the Leopards are 4-2 and 2-0 in the league and have one of their biggest games of the season at 12:30 p.m. Saturday against Bucknell (4-2 PL, 1-1 overall).
Lafayette lost to Princeton 38-28 on Sept. 27 but bounced back for a 24-10 win over Fordham last week when DeNobile completed 25 of 35 passes for 314 yards and a pair of TDs.
“We’re in a great spot and our destiny is in our hands,” said DeNobile, a 6-foot-1, 198-pounder from Morris Catholic and Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Asked about the importance of bouncing back from the loss to Princeton, DeNobile said: “That Princeton game was definitely disappointing. It’s a game I know we could have won. It was a terrible feeling coming back into the locker room and seeing the guys. We know we could have won that game, and we feel we can win every game we play.
“Even if it wasn’t a league game, we really wanted to respond against Fordham and make a statement. Now, we have the biggest game of our lives against Bucknell, and that’s because it’s the next one. I’m excited to see what this group does the rest of the season.”
As he hopes to lead Lafayette up in the standings, DeNobile is moving up the school’s all-time passing charts. His 5,699 passing yards are sixth all-time. His 20 TD passes are tied for fifth, and 504 completions are also fifth. His 2,417 passing yards last year are eighth-best in school history.
“It’s exciting to be on any all-time list, especially at a school like Lafayette,” he said. “It’s amazing. I had an injury at the end of my sophomore year after we won the championship. I broke my ankle in the playoff game at Delaware. That next season was difficult because I came back fast and definitely wasn’t at 100%. But this season, I feel great. The guys are rallying around me, and I can’t wait to show everyone what I’ve got.
DeNobile’s best trait is his accuracy. He is the second-most accurate passer in school history with a 66.1% completion percentage. His 67.1% this season (108 of 161) is the third-best in a season. He has started 30 of the team’s last 31 games. He was the MVP of the 2023 win at Lehigh that clinched the league championship.
“It’s a credit to him for him to get where he is now,” Leopards coach John Troxell said. “We know how hard he worked to get back to playing at this level. Sometimes you never want to evaluate yourself and say, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ You want to point the finger at others, but at no point did Dean ever do that. He knew that he had to work harder than ever to get back, and he did that. He’s just an ultimate competitor. He hates losing. He wants to win, and he’ll give you everything he’s got.”
Troxell said one of the first calls he got when he got the Lafayette job in December 2014 was from DeNobile’s high school coach.
“I knew about him because I wanted him to come to the other place I was at,” Troxell said, referring to Franklin & Marshall. “His coach felt he was a Division I kid, and I was like, ‘I’m not so sure about that.’ But when I got here, he asked me if I was still interested in him, and I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ He came here as a non-scholarship kid and has earned himself a scholarship, and we’re excited about how he’s going to play in the second half of the season.”
Lehigh is in New York state of mind
The unbeaten Mountain Hawks, ranked seventh in one national poll and No. 8 in the other, have four road games left this season, and three of them are in New York state, starting with Saturday’s game at Columbia. Lehigh is at Fordham on Oct. 25 and at Colgate on Nov. 15. The other road game is in Easton on Nov. 22.
“The road games give your team a chance to be together, whether it’s on a bus trip, in a hotel where you have meetings and can do all of that going into a game,” Lehigh coach Kevin Cahill said. “Our kids did a really nice job going out to Pittsburgh to play Duquesne and also traveling over to Bucknell, and now this will be another overnight game for us. It’s going to be a good one in New York City, and then we have to do it again in a few weeks. We’re going to have to win road games, and that’s really hard to do.”
Lehigh has played four of its first six games at home and has generated some excitement on campus.
“We’ve had a lot of support since the day that myself and our staff got here,” Cahill said. “There’s been a lot of support for our vision and what we thought could happen here. Now we’re trying to live that vision as much as we can, and it was great to have. We had President [Joseph J.] Helble in our locker room after we beat Yale. That should show we’re receiving support from the top all the way down. It’s fun to walk around campus and see people, and they’re excited. It’s a good vibe to be at Lehigh right now.”
Here’s a look at this weekend’s matchups:
Lehigh (6-0, 2-0) at Columbia (1-2, 0-1)
When/where: 12 noon Saturday at Kraft Field at Wien Stadium, New York City
The storylines: Lehigh is trying to continue its best start since going 9-0 in 2012. The Mountain Hawks would also win their third straight game against an Ivy League opponent, and a victory would be a great sendoff for the team entering its bye week. Lehigh leads the league in scoring offense, scoring defense, rushing offense, rushing defense, and total defense. The Mountain Hawks are also ranked fifth in the nation in rushing offense (243.8 yards per game), third in rushing defense (75.3 yards per game), and third in total defense (290.3 yards per game). Columbia was routed at Lafayette, 38-14, in its opener on Sept. 19, but bounced back with a 19-10 win over Georgetown before losing at Princeton. The Lions have lost 10 straight games to Lehigh and trail the overall series 12-5-1.
Players to watch: Luke Yoder and Jaden Green continue to give Lehigh a potent 1-2 punch with its ground game, combining for 1,211 yards and 10 touchdowns. Quarterback Hayden Johnson has thrown for 1,072 yards and 11 touchdowns. He has gone four straight games without throwing an interception after throwing three of them in the first two games. Lehigh placekicker Nick Garrido, a Notre Dame-Green Pond product, is 26-for-26 on extra-point attempts and 6-for-6 on field goal tries. Columbia, which shared the Ivy League title last year with Dartmouth and Harvard, has used three quarterbacks this season, with Chase Goodwin starting all three games. Titus Evans is the team’s top receiver with 14 receptions for 203 yards. Jack Smiechowski leads the defense with 27 tackles and three interceptions.
Keith Groller’s pick: Lehigh 30-21
Bucknell (4-2, 1-1) at Lafayette (4-2, 2-0)
When/where: 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Fisher Stadium, Easton
The storylines: The Leopards end a four-game homestand and could create a happy, cross-country flight for themselves since they’ll play at Oregon State next Saturday with a game that will start at 10 p.m. Eastern. That game will be followed by the team’s bye. Lafayette, still without injured Kente Edwards, scuffled with its running game last week against Fordham, managing just 83 yards on the ground. But DeNobile had one of the best games of his career with a 314-yard, two-TD effort. Phillipsburg’s Matthew Scerbo and Carson Persing caught two TD passes. The defense was also strong against Fordham, registering 13 tackles for losses, led by Jaylon Joseph’s 2.5 sacks. Bucknell, featuring former Lehigh star and assistant coach Dave Cecchino at the helm, is coming off a 33-28 win over Richmond.
Players to watch: Lafayette got a special play from its special teams as Tighe Commiskey blocked a punt and Dylan Aguilera returned it 19 yards for a score. The offensive line continues to be one of Lafayette’s biggest strengths, and it features Nazareth graduate Sean Kinney at center and Easton product Sean Wilson at left tackle. The Bison have a fifth-year quarterback in Ralph Rucker, who is the school’s career leader in total offense. He passed for 284 yards and a touchdown in the win over Richmond and was selected the Patriot League Player of the Week. Bucknell’s sophomore left guard, Mark Mulhern, is a Bethlehem Catholic graduate.
Keith Groller’s pick: Lafayette 24-20
