Villanova Football Rides Defensive Adjustments, Running Backs to Comeback

Trailing 17-14 with a defense that struggled to contain mobile William & Mary quarterback Tyler Hughes throughout the first half, Villanova Football needed to make a statement with their opening possession of the third quarter.

Sophomore running back Ja’briel Mace did just that, putting the Wildcats (2-2, 1-1 CAA) ahead for good with a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown. Mace said that two bits of advice from Coach Ferrante helped him on his run to the house: one in a halftime speech, the other something he remembered as William & Mary’s kicker tried to chase him down.

“The entire season we’ve kind of always been close, you know, I’ve kind of always been like a step away. But Coach Ferrante coming out of the half said that special teams is always the spark of the team, so we already knew what the job was,” Mace said. “I noticed [the kicker], but Coach Ferrante always preaches if you get caught by the kicker then you’re not going to be kick returning here. So I knew I had to score.”

Villanova ended up defeated the Tribe 31-24, Mace’s long return kicking off a 17-0 run.

Avit (and His O-Line) Lead the Way

Running back David Avit came away with the other three Villanova touchdowns, picking up 144 yards on 18 touches. The sophomore running back and reigning CAA Offensive Rookie of the Year said that he feels obligated to perform at a high level because of the holes his offensive line opens up for him.

“When you’ve got guys like [center Jake] Picard, Steph [Stephane Voltaire], Kyle [Fay], Chris [McCullers], Temi [Ajirotutu], it’s just easy. It’s simply so easy because you know they’re going to do their job. Even when [tight end] Nolan Clayton is pulling, I have full trust in him that he’s going to go do his job and then I just got to do my part.” Avit said. “So I feel like with those guys up front, I don’t think there’s a team that can stop us, especially for the second half when we start running downhill.”

Perhaps more impressive than Avit’s yardage total was the way he picked up those yards, with six carries and one reception for more than ten yards, chunk plays that helped spark drive after drive for the Wildcats. Even though he made it clear that team success matters most to him, Avit admitted in a candid moment that improving his statistics does matter to him.

“I love getting first downs, so can’t lie, sometimes I look at my averages. I try to keep it above five [yards per carry],” Avit said. “Because I feel like on first down if you get five yards, it puts the quarterback in a good spot, it puts the OC in a good spot to call the right play. So I got to do my job on first down and get those first five yards.”

Defense Settles In

While Avit and Mace accounted for the splash plays, but the Villanova defense also played a major role in the win, settling in after an ugly first half and limiting William & Mary to just one second half score.

Ferrante praised his team’s improved discipline as one factor that helped the defensive turnaround, allowing them to get off the field on third downs. After receiving eight penalties for 74 yards in the first half, the Wildcats committed just three penalties for 21 yards the rest of the way. 

“You can’t give them first downs with penalties. You can’t give them the big explosives. And obviously, you can’t have them convert on a third and, you know, 10 plus. And they did that in the first half.” Ferrante said. “But we were able to stop that in the second half, and we got a better pass rush at them too, started rotating some more guys through there, and you know, put a little more pressure on him. I think we just made a little halftime adjustments, a few things, called a couple different things. Nothing too crazy, but I think our guys just played smarter.”

Ferrante also praised graduate linebacker Shane Hartzell, who managed to touch down Hughes for the game-sealing sack after he slipped on the wet turf.

“Shane is Shane… a lot of experience, and he knows how to slip through blocks and take those openings to get those plays behind the line,” Ferrante said. “The fact that they didn’t even get the ball thrown is a bonus.”

Secondary Gelling

Beyond their pass rush, a massive part of the Wildcats’ defensive improvement came from their secondary. After losing their entire starting pass defense to graduation last season, Villanova turned to younger players and the transfer portal in a bid to reshape the unit. The Wildcats allowed 156 passing yards in the first half and just 77 in the second half, with most of them coming after they held a two score lead in the fourth quarter.

Ferrante described the challenges the secondary faces as they continue to learn how to play together, and how they overcame those issues on the way to a strong finish. 

“They had some chunk plays and [we] were just not quite in the right position. They had a couple of plays down the middle where we should have a guy underneath that, but for whatever reason, he’s just off a little bit. So it just takes timing… we had some good pass breakups in the second half. And some of them were in position, you just got to give the receiver credit for coming down with sometimes,” Ferrante said. 

“It’s gonna take time for the guys to come together. We had an experienced secondary, the same five guys started for pretty much three years in a row. Now we’ve got a bunch of new guys. Some of them have experience, some of them came from other programs with experience, so now they’ve got to just get used to playing together.”