Villanova Univeristy Athletics

The first player in school history to win the Walter Payton Award, a two-time first team All-American and a 10-year NFL veteran, Brian Finneran still holds the all-time Villanova records for receiving yards in a career and a single season. He was the Walter Payton Award winner as the top player in FCS football in 1997 and, for the first 28 years of the awards history (1987-2014), he was the only wide receiver to win the award. Finneran broke a multitude of school records while playing for the Wildcats from 1994-97. He graduated in 1998 and was a first ballot Varsity Club Hall of Fame inductee in 2013.
 
Finneran played at Villanova alongside his twin brother Brad, and together they were part of a dominant Wildcats receiving corps during their careers. Brian still holds the program’s career record with 3,872 yards, nearly 1,000 more yards than anyone who played before or after him. Brad amassed 1,252 receiving yards and was ranked ninth in school history at the time of his graduation. As seniors in 1997 the twin brothers single-handedly combined for more than half of Villanova’s 4,001 receiving yards and 45 touchdowns (the pair totaled 2,116 yards and 24 touchdowns between them).
 
In addition to holding the career receiving record, Finneran set a single season mark with 1,389 receiving yards as a senior. He caught a career-high 96 passes and scored 19 touchdowns for the year on the way to being the Walter Payton Award winner. His 96 receptions were also a school record which would be passed two years later by future Hall of Famer Murle Sango. Finneran owned three of the top seven single season receiving totals in the Villanova record book when he graduated, including his 1997 outburst along with 1,207 yards in 1996 and 805 yards as a freshman in 1994. All three of those totals remained in the Wildcats top-20 for a single season more than 25 years after Finneran graduated. He is also the only player in school history to make as many as 16 catches in a game, a feat which he accomplished against Connecticut in 1996 and matched in the FCS playoffs against Youngstown State in his final career game in 1997.
 
Finneran was named a first team All-American by the American Football Coaches’ Association in both his junior and senior seasons. As a senior in 1997 he added first team honors from the Sports Network, the Associated Press and Walter Camp. He had been a third team All-America selection by the Sports Network a year earlier. On the conference and regional levels, Finneran was chosen as the Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Year and the ECAC Offensive Player of the Year in 1997. He was the first offensive player in school history to win any major conference postseason award. Finneran was a two-time first team all-conference and first team All-ECAC honoree, as well as a second team Yankee Conference selection as a freshman in 1994. He was the conference Rookie of the Week twice that season and later in his career was a four-time league Offensive Player of the Week.
 
Finneran topped 100 receiving yards in a game 14 times during his career – another school record – and had seven games with over 150 yards. His single game high was against Rhode Island on November 2, 1996 when he caught nine passes for 229 yards in a 34-16 victory. He is the only Villanova player to ever have six games over 100 receiving yards in multiple seasons (1996, 1997). Finneran is also the school record holder with 265 career receptions and 34 receiving touchdowns. His 19 touchdowns in 1997 are the single season school record.
 
In a game against James Madison on October 4, 1997, Finneran became the first player since Mike Siani who played from 1969-71 to catch as many as four touchdowns in a game. He had eight catches for 144 yards and four scores in a 49-17 win over JMU. Finneran’s career average of 88.0 receiving yards per game and his best single season mark of 109.7 yards per contest in 1996 are each second to Siani in the program record book. He holds two of the five seasons in school history with over 100 yards per game, including his 1996 output and 106.8 yards per game in 1997.
 
Finneran’s final two collegiate seasons were good ones for the Wildcats, who went a combined 20-5 in 1996 and 1997 while making consecutive playoff appearances. The 1996 squad was 8-4 and finished in a tie for second place in the Yankee Conference standings. The league became the Atlantic 10 in 1997 and Villanova put together a perfect regular season, going 11-0 and ascending to No. 1 in the national polls for the first time ever. The Wildcats swept their way through an 8-0 record in conference play while winning their games by an average of more than 17 points per contest.
 
Villanova tallied the first postseason win of its FCS tenure in the first round of the 1997 playoffs when it defeated Colgate in a 49-28 decision. It was Brad Finneran who led the team with 107 receiving yards that day, while Brian caught 16 passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns against eventual national champion Youngstown State in the second round despite playing on a sprained ankle.
 
Finneran went undrafted coming out of Villanova but would eventually put together a 10-year career in the NFL during which he played in 129 games and caught 238 passes for 3,093 yards and 19 touchdowns. His best season was in 2002 for the Atlanta Falcons when he started all 16 games and made 56 catches for 838 yards and six scores. Finneran also had 50 receptions for 611 yards and two touchdowns for the Falcons in 2005. He caught another 18 passes for 202 yards in six career playoff games.
 
The first professional contract for Finneran came as an undrafted free agent in 1998. He played for the NFL Europa Barcelona Dragons in 1999 and was named All-NFL Europe for the season. That led him to sign a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles and got his first taste of NFL action in 1999 when he appeared in three games and made two catches. Finneran played the rest of his career with the Falcons from 2000-10 and returned to action for his final three years after missing all of the 2006 and 2007 seasons with knee injuries. He had 19 receptions for 166 yards and three touchdowns in his final NFL season in 2010.
 
Finneran had his jersey number 25 retired on the Wall of Fame in Villanova Stadium in 2003. In his post playing career he has been a radio talk show host in the Atlanta area and an ambassador for USA Football. During the 2016 Men’s Basketball Final Four, Finneran made his television color commentary debut on the Villanova Team Stream which aired on TruTV.