PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It will be a pretty quick turnaround for the Villanova Wildcats as they return to game action this fall.
The Wildcats did not play in the fall of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they did get some game action in the spring. They played four games, finishing 2-2 in an abbreviated season that ended in mid-April, so the Wildcats will have only about four-and-a-half months between games.
Head coach Mark Ferrante said that was taken into consideration during preseason camp.
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“The NCAA changed the rules a little bit, plus with the amount of work we got done in the spring, we kind of consciously changed some things up as well,” he told KYW Newsradio.
“We had so much more activity in the spring that we shortened our practices a little bit in preseason. What I mean by how the NCAA made some changes, you’re allowed 25 practices before your first contest. That’s the same, but you used to have to have three helmet-only practices and they increased that to seven.”
The Wildcats will be led on offense by graduate student quarterback Dan Smith, who is one of the top signal callers in the Colonial Athletic Association.
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Ferrante says overall, he likes what he sees on the roster.
“I think we have more depth than we traditionally have, even though we have a similar-sized roster,” he said.
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“We’re still only carrying 90 guys. We just have 90 older guys. So we have a lot of linemen back, the guys who are backups now because of, either being in the program for a couple years or because we had four games in the spring, even some of the backups now have received significant snaps in game-like settings.”
Villanova will open its 2021 season on Saturday, September 4 with a road game against Lehigh.
