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Villanova improved to 2-0 on the season this past Saturday with a 38-10 home win over Lehigh. It was a victory that had a lot of similarities to Villanova's opening game win over Colgate.
"Second game (that) we did not commit a turnover, so that was big," said Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante. "We also took an interception back for a touchdown. So that's our second game in a row where we have a score from (our) defense.
"That always is an exciting thing and adds momentum to the sideline. And we had a balanced attack on offense."
That offense was led again by quarterback Daniel Smith. The transfer from Campbell threw three touchdown passes.
Ferrante said Smith is doing a good job of spreading the ball around, and that has helped the Wildcats get a lot of players involved in their success so far this season.
"In the first two games we've played, we've scored ten touchdowns," Ferrante said, "eight of which have come from the offensive side of the ball. Six passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns and then we have the two interceptions for touchdowns on defense. Ten different people have scored those touchdowns."
Bucknell has had a rough start to its season under new head coach Dave Cecchini. A 56-12 loss to Temple in their opener was followed up last week by a 30-10 road loss to Sacred Heart.
"They've rotated quarterbacks," Ferrante said of the Bison. "They've had three different quarterbacks play in the first two games. So it's something that I think they will continue to do. That's always a little bit of a stress on the defensive coordinator calling the plays and on the defensive staff, because is one guy more of a running guy? So what's your call list look like when you're facing that guy, when he's in the game versus maybe the guy who is more of the passing guy, and those type of things.
"You're not getting two completely different game plans ready, but you probably do have some different calls based on some of the personnel that they have in the game at the quarterback position and so on."
Last year, these two teams met on the Main Line, where Villanova rolled to an easy 49-7 win.
Saturday's game gets underway at 6 p.m.