VILLANOVA, Pa.--Winners of four straight games overall and seven of nine games so far during the 2023 season, No. 13 Villanova (7-2, 5-1 CAA Football) plays its final home game of the regular season on Saturday afternoon when it hosts Towson (4-5, 3-3 CAA Football) for a 1 p.m. kickoff. Saturday is Senior Day and also the Wildcats annual Fan Appreciation Game. The game can be seen on FloFootball with Ben Curtis and Steve Pinone on the call, while the radio broadcast with Ryan Fannon and Kevin Reilly can be heard on the iHeart Radio mobile app.
SENIOR DAY
The pregame Senior Day ceremony recognizing the senior student-athletes on the football team will take place on the field beginning 15 minutes before kickoff. Stay tuned at halftime when the seniors from cheer, dance, twirling and band will be honored on the field.
FAN APPRECIATION
Join us for our annual Fan Appreciation Game to thank Nova Nation for supporting Villanova Football all season. Fans attending Saturday's game will have the chance to win awesome prizes, discounts and more!
THANKSGIVING FOOD DRIVE
Villanova Athletics will be donating food items to the North Light Community Center and Project HOME for Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week. There will be bins at the Villanova Stadium gates for fans to drop off the following suggested items: dinner rolls, 3 of 5 lb. bag of potatoes, cans of cranberry sauce, cans of seasonal vegetables, jars of apple sauce, jars of gravy, boxed stuffing/dressing, frozen turkey and fresh pie.
CATCHING UP WITH THE 'CATS
Villanova has won four straight games and is coming off a 45-33 road win at New Hampshire last week. That victory was the first over UNH since the 2009 playoffs and Villanova's first win in Durham since 2003. During the four-game win streak the Wildcats have an average margin of victory of 23.8 points per game. The streak began with a 37-14 win at North Carolina A&T on October 7, followed by home wins over Elon on October 14 (21-0) and Stony Brook on October 28 (48-13).
TOWSON SERIES
Villanova leads the all-time series against Towson by a 10-7 margin. The teams faced each other for the first time in 2004 when the Tigers joined what was then the Atlantic 10 Conference. In the years since, the Wildcats have gone 5-3 against Towson at home and 5-4 in road games at Johnny Unitas Stadium in Maryland. Villanova's last win over the Tigers was a 52-45 overtime classic in 2019 when Towson was ranked No. 5 in the country. The most recent matchup in the series was last season when the Wildcats traveled to Towson and suffered a 27-3 setback.
POLLING PLACES
Villanova's four-game winning streak has taken it from an unranked team in the national polls to a top-20 squad in both the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 and the AFCA FCS Coaches Poll. In this week's rankings the Wildcats moved up four spots in the Stats poll into a tie for No. 13 along with Florida A&M. Villanova is also ranked No. 18 in the AFCA poll, four spots higher than last week.
CROWDED AT THE TOP
Entering play this week there is a five-way tie for first place in the CAA Football standings. Villanova, Delaware, Elon, Richmond and UAlbany are all sporting a 5-1 record in conference play with two weeks remaining in the regular season. Adding intrigue to the large mix of teams are two games within the maelstrom over the next two weeks. Richmond plays host to Elon this week, while Villanova travels to Delaware to end the regular season next week.
FLIPPING THE SCRIPT
Despite the fact that Villanova and New Hampshire have been conference foes since VU joined what was then the Yankee Conference in 1988, the teams faced each other last weekend for only the third time in the last 10 seasons. Villanova snapped a string of five straight losses to its mascot namesakes with last week's 45-33 win, its first over UNH since a 46-7 victory in the quarterfinal round of the FCS playoffs. Villanova also won on the road against New Hampshire for the first time since a 48-14 win in 2003. VU lost five straight games in Durham in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2019.
FIVE YEARS OF SUCCESS
Over the last five seasons (2019-23) the Wildcats own the best overall winning percentage among the current CAA Football teams. Villanova has gone 34-16 (.680) in 50 games played since the start of the 2019 campaign and won its most recent CAA title in 2021. Only the Wildcats along with Monmouth and Delaware have posted a winning percentage above .600 among conference teams in the past five seasons.
TEN YEARS OF SUCCESS
Villanova also has the second-highest winning percentage among CAA Football teams over the last 10 seasons (2014-23), going 70-40 (.636) since the start of the 2014 campaign and making FCS playoff appearances in 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2021.
SECOND WEEKLY HONOR FOR BELL
Senior linebacker
Brendan Bell was recognized as the CAA Football Co-Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season when this week's honors were announced on Monday afternoon. Bell is coming off a monster game against New Hampshire where he had a career-high 14 tackles in a 45-33 win. The stat line for Bell last week included eight solo tackles and six assisted stops. He also recorded the first interception and first forced fumble of his career to go along with a pass breakup. The forced fumble in the second quarter led to a Villanova touchdown which tied the score at 10-10.
CAA WEEKLY HONORS
Brendan Bell is one of three Wildcats who have earned CAA Football weekly awards this season. He has been the league's Co-Defensive Player of the Week on September 25 and again this week (November 6). Fifth year quarterback
Connor Watkins was named the Co-Offensive Player of the Week on October 30 and freshman running back
Isaiah Ragland garnered Rookie of the Week accolades on October 16.
DECIDED BY DEFENSE
Although the 33 points allowed to New Hampshire last week are the most given up by Villanova in a victory since a 52-45 win at Towson in 2019, the turning point in the win over UNH was a number of big plays made by the Wildcats defense. Villanova forced a season-high four turnovers in the victory, including three interceptions by UNH quarterback Max Brosmer who began the day leading the FCS in passing yards and total offense per game. The four turnovers equaled the number that Villanova had forced in the previous seven games combined. It was also the first time since the Rhode Island game on September 23 that the Wildcats won the turnover battle.
LEADING THE WAY
The strong defensive performance by Villanova last week included senior linebacker
Brendan Bell, sophomore linebacker
Shane Hartzell and sophomore safety
Christian Sapp all recording interceptions. Bell also forced a fumble which fifth year safety
Elijah Glover returned 40 yards to the six-yard line to set up a Wildcats touchdown. The trio of Bell (14), senior safety
Ty Trinh (12) and Hartzell (10) all reached double figures in tackles on the day. The 40-yard fumble return by Glover was the longest for Villanova since Jaquan Amos had a 99-yard return for a touchdown against Maine on October 7, 2017.
MORE DEFENSIVE DOINGS
Villanova enters play this week leading CAA Football and ranked 12th in the country in fewest first downs allowed (144, 16.0 per game). The Wildcats also rank second in the conference in both rushing defense (102.0) and total defense (298.3) through nine games played. Villanova ranks 12th nationally in total defense and 13th in rushing defense. VU has allowed fewer than 100 rushing yards five times in nine games played. In fact, taking out a 251-yard rushing performance by FBS and Big 12 member UCF on September 16, the Wildcats rushing defense in its eight other games is just 83.4 yards per contest.
ON THE GROUND AND IN THE AIR
For the first time this season and only the 36th time in school history, the Wildcats had both a 100+ yard rushing performance and a 100+ yard receiving performance in the same game last week. Sixth year running back
Jalen Jackson rushed for 145 yards on 19 carries against New Hampshire and fifth year wide receiver
Rayjuon Pringle tallied four receptions for 104 yards. The last time Villanova had such a game was last season on October 22 against UAlbany when Pringle had 143 receiving yards and
TD Ayo-Durojaiye rushed for 136 yards.
MARKING MILESTONES
Sixth year running back
Jalen Jackson and fifth year wide receiver
Rayjuon Pringle moved into the top 10 in school history in career rushing yards and career receiving yards, respectively, last week. Jackson currently ranks 10th in career rushing with 2,185 yards while Pringle is ninth in career receiving with 2,264 yards.
MOVING THE STICKS
Villanova ranks second in CAA Football and 15th nationally in third down conversions with a rate of 45.3 percent (48-of-106). That is a strong number, but in recent weeks VU has been even more impressive on third down. In the first three games of the season the Wildcats were just 24.2 percent (8-of-33) on third down. In six games since then, Villanova has gone 40-of-73 (54.8%) on third down, including 5-of-10 against New Hampshire last week.
PUT THE WHISTLE (AND THE LOSSES) AWAY
Villanova has won four straight games and there has been a common theme in those contests: in each of the four games the Wildcats have been whistled for fewer penalties than their opponent. Since the start of last season, Villanova is 8-0 against FCS competition when it commits fewer penalties than its opponent.
MAKING BIG PLAYS
Villanova has recorded 52 plays from scrimmage of 20 yards or longer this season. That total includes 33 pass plays for 20+ yards and 19 rushes for 20 yards or longer. It comes out to an average of 5.8 offensive plays per game which go for at least 20 yards. Of particular note, Villanova has 14 pass completions on the year for 40 yards or longer. The most recent of those came last week when fifth year quarterback
Connor Watkins and fifth year wide receiver
Rayjuon Pringle connected on a 68-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter against New Hampshire.
Connor Watkins has 13 pass completions of 40 yards or longer this season and he is the first quarterback in school history to throw three passes of at least 75 yards in the same year. Below is the breakdown of the big plays that Watkins has made during his career. Since he became the starter under center at the beginning of the 2022 season, Watkins is 13-7 (.650) as a starter and has thrown more than 12 percent of his total completions (28 of 230) for 40 yards or longer.
ENTERING WITH EXPERIENCE
Villanova has 19 players (out of 93) on its 2023 roster who are graduate students in their fifth or sixth years of playing college football. All 19 graduate students on the roster were listed as starters or reserves on the Wildcats depth chart to open the 2023 season.
In all, the 93 players on the Villanova roster began the 2023 campaign with 1,111 career games played and 369 yards. The current tally for the players on the Wildcats roster is 1,494 career games played with 567 starts.
