In their third year under head coach John Whitehead, the Engineers compiled an 8–3 record.
[1] Bill Bradley and Pete DeLuca were the team captains.
[2] Lehigh had won the NCAA Division II Football Championship in 1977, and in 1978 the Engineers moved up to the newly formed Division I-AA, later to be renamed the Football Championship Subdivision.
Also moving up from Division II, and competing as I-AA independents, were in-state rivals Bucknell and Lafayette.
Lehigh played its home games at Taylor Stadium on the university's main campus in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.