PL All-Conference teams

So AU’s 9 games did not hurt O’Neill’s candidacy for rookie of the year.
Versus RJ’s 16

If there is something to be taken from the PL awards, it is that they are dominated by upperclassmen. Colgate placing players on all three "All-PL" teams and one player on the "All-Rookie" team is a testament to their success. As the HC roster continues to age and develop, we can expect Nelson's teams to be competitive when he's got a group of Juniors and Seniors. Furthermore, we should ask ourselves if the current crop can develop into top 15 players in the league. Time will tell, but I am cautiously optimistic.

So Colgate had players on 3 all-PL teams and HC had players on 2. Each had a frosh on the all-rookie team. Does that mean HC is a program as soon as they get one more selection on the top 3 teams?

I agree with your top two, and that Lehigh brings up the rear.   However I haven't seen anything from the coaches of Army, Loyola, and American that puts them ahead of the next group.    Army has had some underachieving years and AU has had many.   And Loyola this year earned  the 9th seed despite having the league's best player and some other talent.  Tavaras Hardy, running the Carmody offense, has led Loyola to an 18-34 record in PL play.

Lafayette is perhaps the hardest one to evaluate.   FOH runs a very good offense, but LC's defense typically is very poor.   They often lean on the zone because they don't do M2M well.

Very difficult to evaluate coaching during the transfer epidemic era in D1 the last few years. Especially at the PL level, continuity from year to year is almost impossible to maintain. I am not the biggest FOH fan, but he has a system that works for them offensively, recruited to it very effectively and kept most of his impact guys four years. (LC's defense has been a little better than it was a few years ago, too.)

I give Langel big credit for hitting on multiple players (Burns had no D1 offers coming out of HS in Texas, and came to Colgate after decommitting from a D2 school) the last few years. But he struggled big-time his first 4-5 years. He got Colgate good by going the transfer route (Burnatowski, Jacobs, Ivanauskas, Cummings, among others). Full disclosure, I have no problem with that-but it's risky if you miss.

Nobody's dazzling me with their Xs and Os. Hardy runs some nice stuff at Loyola, IMO. But if it doesn't lead to wins, what does it matter? DeChellis has had a better run of late and had a great season, but I think we'd all agree Army and Navy have a bit of an advantage over everyone else this year.