Villanova officially began preparations for the 2019 football season on Friday morning with a spirited workout on the Villanova Stadium turf. The team's preseason camp runs for four weeks leading up to the season opener on Saturday, August 24, at Colgate.
 
The Wildcats will play a 12-game slate this season with six games at home and six on the road. Villanova will host Lehigh (Sept. 7) and Long Island (Nov. 16) in non conference games and Maine (Sept. 28), Stony Brook (Oct. 26), Richmond (Nov. 9) and Delaware (Nov. 23) in CAA contests.
 
Villanova was predicted to finish ninth in the CAA predicted order of finish, while three Wildcats earned Preseason CAA Honorable Mention selection, including senior linebacker Drew Wiley (Pennington, N.J.), senior tight end Simon Bingelis (Brick, N.J.) and junior cornerback Jaquan Amos (Philadelphia, Pa.).
 
Wiley started all 11 games last season and had 55 tackles, a team-high 9.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, one interception and two pass break-ups. His best game of the 2018 campaign came at Delaware in the season finale when he had eight tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and one interception.
 
Bingelis is coming off a 2018 season when he tallied 15 catches for 135 yards, including recording a career-high six receptions for 40 yards at Stony Brook.
 
Amos returns for his third year as a starter in 2019. As a sophomore a season ago, he led the team in tackles with 57 to go with two tackles for loss, two interceptions, two forced fumbles and six pass break-ups.