VILLANOVA, Pa.—The most common opponent in program history comes to Villanova Stadium on Saturday afternoon as No. 15/14 Villanova (8-3, 5-2 CAA Football) hosts Delaware (9-1, 6-1 CAA Football) for a 1 p.m. kickoff. There are playoff implications on the line for the Wildcats in the final game of the regular season, while for the Blue Hens the contest will be their final one at the FCS level. The teams will be facing each other for the 58^th time.
 
Tickets are available for Saturday's game and can be purchased via the link in this release. The game will be broadcast throughout the area on NBC Sports Philadelphia+ and can also be seen on FloFootball with Ben Curtis, Steve Pinone and Tessa Peloso calling the action. The radio call with Ryan Fannon and Kevin Reilly can be heard on the Villanova Sports Radio Network which is most easily accessed on the iHeart radio mobile app.
 
Villanova enters the final week of the regular season in a three-way tie for third place in the CAA Football standings. Working in the Wildcats advantage is that they have defeated each of the teams they are tied with, posting a 42-24 road win over Stony Brook (8-3, 5-2) and a 14-6 win at home over New Hampshire (7-4, 5-2). A win over the Blue Hens on Saturday would ensure that Villanova finishes no lower than third. Stony Brook hosts Monmouth while New Hampshire travels to Maine in games that will kick off at the same time the Wildcats and Delaware get underway.
 
The impact of Saturday's implications will be known on Sunday afternoon when the field of 24 teams for the Division I Football Championship is unveiled at 12:30 p.m. on ESPN. Villanova is vying for its second straight FCS playoff berth and third in the last four years.
 
Saturday's opponent is the most frequent one the Wildcats have ever faced. Villanova has played – and beaten – Delaware more times than any other opponent and leads the all-time series by 34-22-1 margin. The teams first matched up in 1895 and 1896, then faced each other just two times over the next 67 years. Beginning in 1964, there has been a Villanova-Delaware game in all but one year that the Wildcats have played a football season. The exception was in 1985 when Villanova reinstated football after a four-year absence and played a limited five-game slate in its inaugural season at the FCS level.
 
Entering play this week, the Wildcats are riding a 14-game home winning streak which began during the 2022 season. Villanova is 5-0 at home so far this season, including wins over Youngstown State (24-17) and LIU (24-10) in non-conference action along with Towson (14-13), New Hampshire (14-6) and North Carolina A&T (31-3) in league play. The 14-game streak is the longest at home since 15 straight wins at Villanova Stadium spanning the 2008 to 2010 seasons and encompassing the program's 2009 national championship campaign.
 
During the Mark Ferrante head coaching era (since 2017), the Wildcats have played their best football of the season when the calendar flips to November and the home stretch of the regular season. Villanova is 15-8 in November games under Ferrante, including this year's 2-1 record with wins over Hampton and North Carolina A&T to start the month. Ferrante is 17-10 (.630) overall in the months of November and December in his career.
 
One of the reasons Villanova has been successful in 2024 has been its play late in games. The team's most best quarter of the season in terms of scoring differential has been the fourth quarter when the Wildcats have a +45 (82-37) scoring margin against the opposition. In fact, Villanova gets better with each successive quarter of the game. Its scoring differential goes from -17 in the first quarter to +6 in the second period and +20 in the third quarter.
 
Another factor that has worked in the Wildcats favor this year is the turnover story. Villanova has played turnover free football in seven of its 11 games in 2024 and owns a +4 turnover margin for the year. Last season, the Wildcats committed at least one turnover in all 13 games they played. Defensively this season, Villanova has recovered seven fumbles and recorded six interceptions. In a statistical oddity, neither the Wildcats nor the opposition have scored a single point off the other team's turnovers in any of the last four games.