Villanova Univeristy Athletics

A veteran member of the coaching staff who is in his second stint with the program, Ross Pennypacker is the Defensive Coordinator for the Wildcats and coaches the team’s defensive line. The 2025 season will be his 11th overall at Villanova and his ninth season on head coach Mark Ferrante’s staff. This will also be his fourth year as the program’s Defensive Coordinator.  

Pennypacker recruits several local schools and his primary territory in the area consists of Pennsylvania districts 2, 4 and 11. He also recruits New York (Sections 3, 4, 5, 6) as well as nationally in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. 

Villanova is coming off back-to-back seasons as a top 10 defensive team in the country in 2023 and 2024. Last year, the Wildcats finished the year ranked 10th in the FCS in scoring defense with an average of just 18.2 points per game allowed. Villanova held nine of its 14 opponents to 17 points of fewer and ended the year ranked third in CAA Football in total defense (326.2 yards allowed per game) and turnovers gained (19). The 2024 defensive unit led the conference in passing efficiency defense (119.9) and was both second in the CAA and 14th nationally in passing yards allowed (171.5 per game).  

Those sterling numbers came on the heels of a 2023 campaign in which the Wildcats won a share of the CAA Football title while ranking seventh nationally in total defense (300.3). Villanova also ranked 11th in the country in third down defense, 13th in scoring defense (18.8) and allowed the second-fewest first downs of any CAA team.  

Six players on the defensive side of the ball earned CAA Football All-Conference honors for the 2024 season, headlined by the trio of linebacker Brendan Bell, linebacker Shane Hartzell and cornerback Isas Waxter who were each named to the CAA Football First Team Defense. It was the first full season since 2016 in which the Wildcats had three first team all-conference selections on defense. Bell went on to be a third team All-American and is on the 2025 preseason watch list for the Buck Buchanan Award.  

Prior to being elevated to Defensive Coordinator, Pennypacker spent the previous three seasons (2019-21) as the Defensive Run Game Coordinator and the Special Teams Coordinator while working with the Wildcats defensive line. Villanova ranked among the national leaders (No. 18) in stopping the run during the 2021 season, allowing just 3.2 yards per carry to the opposition while holding six opponents to fewer than 80 yards on the ground. Pennypacker helped mentor a defense that led CAA Football and ranked seventh in the FCS in total defense last year with an average of just 274.5 total yards allowed per game. 

From an individual standpoint, Pennypacker saw 2021 fifth-year senior Malik Fisher earn CAA Football All-Conference honors for the third time in his career. Fisher was a first team All-CAA selection in 2020, garnered second team accolades in 2021 and was a third team pick in 2019. He ranked among the CAA leaders in tackles for loss and quarterback sacks in each of those seasons while amassing career totals of 125 total tackles, 32.0 tackles for loss and 20.0 sacks. He was invited to the New Orleans Saints rookie minicamp following the end of his Wildcats career. 

 Villanova excelled in special teams during the three seasons Pennypacker was the team’s Special Teams Coordinator. One of the Wildcats most versatile players in 2021 was TD Ayo-Durojaiye who was named a third team All-CAA performer on special teams. Ayo-Durojaiye led Villanova with 10 special teams tackles that year, including eight stops on kickoff returns and two on punt returns. He also scored a touchdown on a return of a blocked punt. Wildcat punter Nathan Fondacaro was named a first team All-CAA choice for the 2019 campaign and kick returner Dez Boykin was a second team All-CAA pick in 2020. Villanova ranked third nationally for the 2020 season while holding opponents to an average of just 10.5 yards per kickoff return. 

Pennypacker returned to the Wildcats in 2017 for Mark Ferrante’s first season as head coach after spending four years (2013-16) as the Defensive Coordinator and safeties coach at Kutztown. During those seasons he mentored 15 players who earned All-PSAC honors. The Bears defense tallied three shutouts and ranked in the top half of the PSAC in rushing defense and turnover margin during Pennypacker’s time on the staff. Kutztown led the PSAC in red zone defense in 2014 and ranked in the top three in the league in total defense and turnover margin that year. Perhaps more impressively, the Bears were 15-1 during Pennypacker’s tenure when the defense held opponents to fewer than 24 points. 

Before his coaching stint at Kutztown, Pennypacker was an assistant coach at Bucknell from 2010-12. He worked with the team’s safeties for the 2010 season before spending two years coaching the linebackers. Pennypacker was also the cornerbacks coach at Cornell from 2008-09 following his first stint at Villanova from 2006-07 when he was the program’s video coordinator and assisted with coaching the team’s defensive backs. He began his coaching career in 2005 at his alma mater, Millersville, and was also an intern assistant at Allegheny College where he worked with the outside linebackers. 

Pennypacker is a 2005 graduate of Millersville with a degree in social sciences. He and his wife, Lisa, reside in Flemington, N.J. with their six-year-old son, James, and four-year-old daughter, Emily.