VILLANOVA, Pa.—It is Homecoming Weekend on campus and No. 5 Villanova (6-1, 3-1 CAA Football) will host Stony Brook (4-3, 1-2) for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff at Villanova Stadium on Saturday afternoon presented by the Villanova School of Business.  The game will be broadcast by FloFootball and can also be heard on the radio at 610 ESPN as the Wildcats begin a stretch of playing four of their final five regular season games at home.  The 2019 Villanova Football season is presented by Independence Blue Cross. 
 
Saturday's game on FloFootball can be seen across all screens by downloading the FloSports app on iOS, Roku or Apple TV 4.  Special pricing is available for CAA Football fans by visiting flosports.tv/caa.  Becoming a PRO subscriber allows fans to access live and on-demand coverage of exclusive content and games.  Nick Mantegna and Steve Pinone call the action on Saturday, while Ryan Fannon and Villanova coaching legend Andy Talley have the radio call.  The broadcast on 610 ESPN can also be heard online via TuneIn.
 
Villanova had a well-timed bye week during Fall Break last Saturday after coming off its first loss of the season to No. 2 James Madison on October 12.  The game against Stony Brook will be only the third home contest of the season for the Wildcats, who last hosted a game on September 28 and have played on the road in five of their first seven games.  Villanova goes back on the road to face New Hampshire next weekend but will then return home for the final three games of the regular season. 
 
The first business at hand is a matchup with a Seawolves team which is also coming off both a bye week and a loss in their last game.  Stony Brook fell at to New Hampshire, 20-14 on October 12, after being dealt a narrow overtime loss by James Madison (45-38) a week earlier.  Saturday's game will only be the fourth meeting in the series between the Wildcats and Stony Brook, with the Seawolves winning on their home turf last season.  The teams split the first two meetings in the series in 2012 and 2013, the former a first-round playoff game at Stony Brook and the latter being Stony Brook's only prior visit to the Main Line in their first season as a CAA Football member.
 
Villanova is 14-5 in its last 19 games coming off a bye week, including a 38-10 win over Lehigh earlier this year in the home opener.  A large crowd is expected for the annual Homecoming game, in which the Wildcats are 34-20 all-time despite suffering losses to New Hampshire last season and Elon the year before. 
 
One of the factors that has enabled Villanova to race out to a 6-1 start and a No. 5 national ranking in the first two months of the season is that the Wildcats have stepped up their level of play in the key situations that can swing a game in one direction or another.  Villanova ranks seventh in the FCS in converting on third down (51.0%) this season and has been even better (55.7%) over its last four games.  Possessions in the red zone have also been a telling stat for the Wildcats, who have scored points on 25 of their 29 (86 percent) offensive possessions in the red zone.  On the flip side, Villanova leads CAA Football by allowing the opponent to score on just 73 percent of its defensive red zone possessions. 
 
The catalyst for a Wildcats offense which is averaging 37.3 points per game has been junior quarterback Daniel Smith (Leesburg, Va.), who has thrown for 1,615 yards and 20 touchdowns on the year.  Smith also leads the team with six rushing scores and ranks third in the country with the 156 points that he is responsible for.  The first-year Villanova signal caller is a transfer from Campbell where he started the past two seasons, and in the game at James Madison two weeks ago Smith surpassed 5,000 career passing yards.  He set new career highs in the JMU game with 26 completions, 47 attempts and 387 passing yards. 
 
Junior wide receiver Changa Hodge (East Stroudsburg, Pa.) also had a career day against the Dukes with eight receptions, 134 receiving yards and two touchdowns.  It was the second 100-yard game of Hodge's career and his first since the second game of the 2017 season.  He is tied with freshman Jaaron Hayek (Wayne, N.J.) for the team lead with 26 catches and five receiving touchdowns on the year, while Hodge owns a slight edge over Hayek (395-391) in receiving yards.  Hodge enters the Stony Brook game needing just 38 more yards to become the 35^th player in school history to top 1,000 career receiving yards.
 
The top performer on defense for the Wildcats this season has been junior linebacker Forrest Rhyne (Waynesboro, Pa.), a tri-captain who hit the ground running at the beginning of the year and has elevated his level of play of late.  In the last two games at James Madison and William & Mary, Rhyne has been credited with a combined 28 total tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks and a forced fumble.  He registered a career-high 15 tackles at William & Mary on October 5, then made another 13 stops at JMU a week later.  Rhyne leads the Villanova defense with 62 total tackles and 10.0 tackles for loss on the year.
 
Just as Stony Brook has not visited Villanova Stadium since 2013, the Wildcats have similarly not traveled to New Hampshire in the past six years.  Next week's game at Cowell Stadium in Durham kicks off at 1 p.m.