Category: Villanova

After a deep semifinal run in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, Villanova football will have to retool its roster for an upcoming inaugural season in the Patriot League.

Villanova lost a large portion of its starters to the transfer portal or graduation. With Power Four programs being able to spend more money on players, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Villanova to retain its players.

The program will be losing at least 15 players who no longer have collegiate eligibility. Notably, that includes quarterback Pat McQuaide, wide receivers Luke Colella and Lucas Kopecky, most of the offensive line, and linebackers Shane Hartzell and Richie Kimmel.

Nine players have officially entered the transfer portal, with three of them already committing to new schools.

Villanova historically is a program built on culture and growth. The program has retained key assets each offseason over the last six years. Current Buffalo Bills defensive back Christian Benford spent four years with the Wildcats and was drafted in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL draft. Benford recently signed a $76 million contract with the Bills last March.

Last year, Villanova convinced David Avit to return to the program after he entered his name in the transfer portal and visited multiple Football Bowl Subdivision programs.

Villanova has to fill some key position openings for the 2026 season.

Here is where Villanova stands one week into the transfer portal window, which closes next Friday.

Portal addition and subtractions

Villanova is bringing back Ja’briel Mace, who had a breakout season at running back and as a kick returner.

Mace withdrew his name from the transfer portal and announced he was returning to Villanova for the 2026 season on social media. The 5-foot-9, 175-pound running back rushed for a career-high 946 yards and 11 touchdowns on 128 carries..

Avit entered the transfer portal and quickly toured Arizona State before committing officially the following day on Jan. 4. The former Coastal Athletic Association offensive rookie of the year, Avit was Villanova’s main running back this past season. He rushed for 687 and eight touchdowns on 125 attempts until he suffered a knee injury against Towson on Nov. 8. It forced him to miss five consecutive games.

Defensive back duo redshirt sophomore Zahmir Dawud and redshirt freshman Anthony Hawkins also departed from Villanova via the transfer portal. Dawud, who only allowed one touchdown in coverage last season, committed to Rutgers in his hometown state of New Jersey.

Hawkins, a FCS Freshman All-America honoree, committed to Iowa.

Tight end Antonio Johnson, defensive back Nino Betances, offensive lineman Capri Martin, defensive back Damill Bostic Jr., and punter Daniel Mueller remain in the transfer portal.

As of Thursday, Villanova has not signed anyone from the transfer portal.

High school class

Villanova signed 13 high school recruits on National Signing Day on Dec. 3. Five recruits signed to join Villanova’s offense, and eight signed to its defense.

Who will be the next quarterback?

McQuaide has exhausted his eligibility. He became Villanova’s starter after a quarterback battle with junior Tanner Maddocks the entire summer camp. Maddocks ended up being Villanova’s backup quarterback and saw playing time late in games.

While Maddocks still had two years of eligibility remaining, he announced on LinkedIn that he had “wrapped up (his) time” with Villanova football. He instead is going forward full-time with his faith-branded energy drink brand, Agape Energy.

That means Villanova’s next starting quarterback is unknown. Villanova had seven quarterbacks on its roster last season. It could be a position that Villanova could pursue in the transfer portal after McQuaide’s success.

No current rostered quarterbacks have played any snaps under center for Villanova.

Wide receiver questions

After getting Kopecky, a former Villanova lacrosse player, an extra year of football eligibility and adding Colella out of the transfer portal last year, the Wildcats had legitimate receiving weapons.

Villanova will now need to replenish its wideouts along with having a new quarterback under center. Colella caught a team-high 77 receptions, totaling 1,071 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.

Retooling the defense

There will be needs at various positions on Villanova’s defense, including at linebacker and in the secondary.

In addition to Dawud and Hawkins’ departures to the portal, Villanova also lost safety Christian Sapp, who is out of eligibility. Villanova had depth on its defense in 2025, but it will need to refill its depth chart even if the current rostered players step into starting positions.

At linebacker, Hartzell and Kimmel are large holes that will need to be filled after five years.

With the depth at linebacker, Villanova still has redshirt freshman Omari Bursey and juniors JR Strauss and Turner Inge, who will step into the starting roles as long as they remain on the Main Line.

Villanova succumbed to Creighton, 76-72, marking its first home and conference loss of the season on Wednesday night.

Villanova (12-3, 3-1 Big East) had its five-game winning streak snapped and picked up its first defeat since Dec. 9. The Wildcats could not find defensive stops in the second half, which was coupled with poor three-point shooting. Creighton (10-6, 4-1) pulled away after shooting 18-for-27 (67%) from the field in the second.

Acaden Lewis finished with a team-high 20 points for Villanova. He dished out five assists within the first few minutes of the game and ended with seven and only one turnover. The freshman guard also collected a game-high three steals. Lewis is averaging 13.4 points and 4.3 assists in conference play.

In the paint, ’Nova’s Duke Brennan continued to be a force, picking up his sixth double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds (seven offensive).

Villanova shot 44% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc, compared to Creighton’s 50% on field goals and 30.4% on three-pointers.

Next, Villanova will visit Marquette (6-10, 1-4) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. (TNT/truTV). The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 28-20.

Decisive second half

For just the second time this season, Villanova was outscored in the second half, 46-38. The only other time was in the 76-66 overtime win against Wisconsin on Dec. 19.

Villanova had no answer defensively for a surging Creighton offense. The Bluejays spun off a 13-2 run, while Villanova went on a three-minute scoring drought.

“I thought [the Bluejays] did a really good job of using their size to their advantage,” Villanova coach Kevin Willard said. “I thought [Josh] Dix and [Blake] Harper made some really big plays just using their size against us, and every time we tried to get a stop. You’ve got to give those two credit. They played really well.”

Creighton made Villanova’s best shooter, redshirt sophomore Bryce Lindsay, a nonfactor. Lindsay, who averaged 45.8% from deep in the last three games, went 0-for-3 on three-pointers against Creighton. Villanova made only 2 of 12 three-pointers in the second half.

“We had our opportunities at the rim,” Willard said. “I thought [Jasen] Green had two really good wall-ups towards the end, but we had our opportunities. It had nothing to do with [our] offense. It was totally just abysmal defense.”

Beaten on the boards

Villanova kept Creighton at bay in the first half, and at one point led by25-15. However, it all slipped away after halftime. Villanova gave up 13 offensive rebounds, which Creighton turned into 11 second-chance points.

“Just defense,” Willard said when asked about what he took away from the loss. “I thought we took some bad shots in the first half, when we had a good run going. And I thought we were playing good defensively early. So I thought our offense in the first half was the issue. But defensively, you just can’t give up 13 offensive rebounds to a Greg McDermott team. You’ve got no chance.”

Brennan was quick to take accountability for Villanova’s defensive performance.

“Being a senior, I need to adjust my ball-screen coverages on different teams as we play,” Brennan said. “I don’t think I did a great job at it tonight, but I do look at the film and help out our defense. I’m that line for us.”

Creighton’s 76 points were the most a conference opponent has scored against the Wildcats this season.

Watching rotations

At the beginning of the season, Willard consistently rotated nine to 10 players each game. Injuries limited the rotations with Devin Askew and Zion Stanford missing time to start the season. Villanova had multiple games with eight or more scorers.

Now, it looks like Willard has found his rotations that work efficiently. The coach has leaned on his starting five of Lewis, Lindsay, Tyler Perkins, Matt Hodge, and Brennan for a bulk of the minutes, with most of them playing an average of 30 minutes or more.

As of recently, only Askew and Malachi Palmer have had meaningful minutes off the bench. Freshman guard Chris Jeffrey has missed the last five games due to a knee injury that required surgery, sidelining him indefinitely.

After victories over DePaul and Butler last week moved Villanova to 12-2 this season with a perfect 3-0 start to Big East play, it was fair to wonder whether the Wildcats would see their name in the Associated Press top 25 rankings Monday for the first time since November 2023.

If only they ranked 26 teams.

Villanova was just outside the rankings released Monday afternoon. The Wildcats fell just five ballot points shy of 25th-ranked Central Florida for the final spot.

Relatively meaningless rankings release aside, Villanova is playing really good basketball right now. The Wildcats have won five consecutive games. They were a slight road underdog at Butler on Saturday and won by 18. They flipped the script in the second half one game earlier and beat DePaul on New Year’s Eve. They controlled the second half and won comfortably at Seton Hall before the holiday break. And they rallied in overtime to beat Wisconsin in a neutral-site game in Milwaukee on Dec. 19 that was effectively a road game.

“We’re battle-tested,” first-year Villanova coach Kevin Willard said after the road win at Seton Hall, his old stomping grounds. His team spent its next two outings proving his words wise.

Villanova entered Monday rated 17th in the NCAA’s NET rankings and 21st in the KenPom metrics. Further, ESPN bracket guru Joe Lunardi had the Wildcats slotted in as a No. 6 seed in his latest Bracketology out Tuesday morning. Villanova is comfortably a tournament team through 14 games.

A season with limited expectations, in Willard’s first year after taking over for Kyle Neptune, has gone about as well as one could reasonably hope. The Wildcats have two losses to teams ranked in the top 10 in the country. They are 2-2 in Quad 1 games and 10-0 in the rest.

With 17 games to go — all of them Big East contests — has what some would have considered a rebuilding year turned into NCAA Tournament or bust?

Defying the expectations

It’s worth starting with the idea that preseason expectations in this new college hoops landscape are a bit unserious. The amount of player turnover that happens on a year-to-year basis make projecting records a bit like throwing darts after being over-served at the local dive.

KenPom metrics had Villanova rated 50th before the season started. Lunardi had the Wildcats on the bubble in his preseason Bracketology. Villanova rising 29 spots at KenPom has the Wildcats among the biggest climbers from preseason expectations to current performance.

But while the outsiders were unsure about Villanova, Willard himself was assertive about where he thought the 2025-26 season could go.

“We got to win,” Willard told The Inquirer in June. “From my perspective, laying the groundwork for the future and what we’re doing is extremely important. That’s more important than winning.

“But we got to win. I expect to win. We spent a good number on this roster. I think we have a really good roster.”

Missing the tournament while rebuilding for the future was “not my plan,” Willard said.

“There’s difficulties [in] taking over and really starting over and doing all that, but this is where my ego comes in a little bit,” he said. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job in years past of doing that and I think we’ve done a really good job of putting together a good roster that I expect us to win games, yeah.

“I don’t look at Year 1 anymore like you have a two-year grace period. I think that’s [BS] nowadays. I didn’t take this job and say, ‘I now get two years where I don’t have to work.’ We’ve got to produce.”

So far, so good.

How they’re doing it

The roster Willard put together has been better than many expected. The Wildcats start a freshman, a redshirt freshman, a redshirt sophomore, a junior, and a senior. That’s a pretty young roster in the modern college basketball world. KenPom metrics have Villanova ninth among the 11 Big East teams in experience. The Wildcats rank 256th in KenPom’s minutes continuity metric.

Point guard Acaden Lewis has excelled in his freshman season and is up to 12 points, 4.9 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game against just 1.6 turnovers. Redshirt sophomore Bryce Lindsay, a James Madison transfer, leads Villanova with 16.9 points per game and is shooting 44.7% from three-point range. Senior big man Duke Brennan, a Grand Canyon transfer, is at 12 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. He’s the fifth-best rebounder in the country.

Junior Tyler Perkins (10.9 points, 5.1 rebounds), the lone returner to the roster with game experience, has played well at both ends. And redshirt freshman forward Matt Hodge rounds out a starting five that all average double figures with 10.8 points and 4.4 rebounds.

Willard talked before the season about a deep roster and how he wanted to play as many as 10 guys. But injuries and slower development have led to a shortening of the bench. Villanova played just eight players Saturday vs. Butler.

Willard has also adjusted his own coaching preferences. Villanova shoots a three-pointer on 46.4% of its shot attempts, which ranks 48th in the country, far more than any other team Willard has coached (this is his 19th season as a head coach). The next closest was 41.7% by his 2012-13 Seton Hall team. Last year’s Maryland team, by comparison, took a three-pointer on 35.3% of its shots. (The Terrapins had a star big man, Derik Queen.)

A shorter-than-expected bench has also forced Willard to play a little slower than he usually likes. The Wildcats are 352nd out of 365 Division I teams in KenPom’s adjusted tempo metric. Maryland, meanwhile, was 66th last season.

Willard has also been working wonders in the second half of games. Villanova outscored Butler, 43-34, in the second half on Saturday. The Wildcats have been outscored in a second half just once this season, their overtime victory over Wisconsin.

Tournament talk

So, back to the question at hand: NCAA Tournament or bust? The analytics site Torvik had Villanova’s NCAA Tournament chances at 96.9% on Monday. Missing the dance at this point would be a disappointment and would require a major collapse.

While Villanova’s marquee wins are over Seton Hall (41 NET), Butler (46), and Wisconsin (63), getting through the nonconference slate without a hiccup against a lesser opponent was a big deal.

A 3-0 start in Big East play, including two wins on the road, makes it pretty hard to imagine Villanova slipping up to a degree that would bump the Wildcats out of the tournament field — even if there are still four games to go against No. 4 UConn and a St. John’s team that is underperforming but will still provide a big challenge.

Up next is a home game Wednesday vs. Creighton. The Bluejays were 44th at KenPom and 52nd in the NET rankings on Monday. It’s a Quad 2 game, and after that is a Quad 3 game on the road at Marquette.

Slip-ups in one or both would change the math a little bit. But right now, all roads seem to lead from the Main Line to meaningful basketball in March.

Editor’s note: Jeff Neiburg is an AP top 25 men’s basketball voter. He had Villanova ranked 21st on his ballot this week.

It wasn’t always pretty, but Villanova men’s basketball extended its winning streak to five and preserved its undefeated Big East record with a 85-67 road win against Butler on Saturday in Indianapolis.

The Wildcats (12-2, 3-0) got out to a slow and sometimes sloppy start, which allowed Butler (10-5, 1-3) to take an early lead. Villanova turned the ball over seven times within the first nine minutes and trailed Butler by as many as nine points in the first half.

However, Villanova poured in 55 points in the second half, nearly doubling its first-half scoring performance to put the game away.

“I think sometimes when you have a young team, getting them to understand maybe just being a little bit more purposeful on the offensive end early in games,” said Villanova coach Kevin Willard. “I just thought we came out a little bit too casual to start. The turnovers kind of let us get down, but I felt we came out with a much better purpose in the second half.”

Villanova had just three second-half turnovers shot 55.2% from the field overall.

In the second half, Villanova held Butler’s two leading scorers, Michael Ajayi and Finley Bizjack, to a combined 12 points. Bizjack had 14 first-half points to power the Bulldogs’ early lead and finished with 18. Ajayi had 12 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists.

Redshirt sophomore guard Bryce Lindsay led Villanova in scoring with 18 points, shooting 7-for-13 (54%) from the field. Lindsay is averaging team-highs in points (16.8) and three-point percentage (44.8%) through 14 games.

Senior forward Duke Brennan continued his command of the paint, posting a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double. It marked Brennan’s fifth double-double of the season, and he is averaging 11.4 rebounds.

Three-point shooting guides comeback

Villanova has been a consistent three-point shooting team through Big East play, but on Saturday only shot 1-for-12 from deep in the first half. Despite that, the Wildcats found a way to dig out of their early hole.

After closing the first half on a 7-2 scoring run, Villanova stretched that momentum into the second half. Lindsay and redshirt freshman forward Matt Hodge knocked down three-pointers in a 17-3 Villanova scoring run to open the second half.

Three-point shooting accounted for 18 of Villanova’s 55 second-half points as it shot 6-for-9 in the period. A majority of those threes came from Lindsay and Hodge. Lindsay shot 3-for-5, and Hodge went a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc and finished with 17 points.

“We’re a good shooting team,” Willard said. “So we’re going to take a lot of threes. Bryce Lindsay is probably one of the best shooters in the country. He doesn’t get talked about a lot. [Hodge] can knock it down. Tyler Perkins [12 points on Saturday] is shooting over 40% [from three]. Then we come off the bench with Devin Askew. So, everyone we have out there, most times we have four guys out there that can shoot.”

It was the second straight game in which Villanova found late success with its three-point shooting after a poor first half. On Wednesday against DePaul, Villanova shot 7-for-10 from beyond the arc after going 3-for-13 in the first half.

Overall, Villanova is averaging 37.5% from beyond the arc this season.

Acaden Lewis settling in

Acaden Lewis has come a long way since he was benched for much of Villanova’s season opener against BYU, and the 6-foot-2 freshman guard has displayed confidence as the team’s main ballhandler.

He totaled 12 points, six assists, and five rebounds on Saturday. Lewis is second to Lindsay in scoring, averaging 12 points, and can find unusual ways to finish at the basket.

However, his passing abilities have earned him four Big East Freshman of the Week nods only halfway through the season. He has dished out 68 assists, which is double that of any other player on the team and is averaging 4.8 assists, which ranks third in the Big East.

Up next

Villanova, which entered the game 25th in the NCAA’s NET rankings, now has its second Quad 1 road win of the season. The Wildcats will return home to face Creighton (9-5, 3-0) on Wednesday (7:30 p.m., Peacock).

The Bluejays, which entered Saturday 49th in the NET rankings, was hit with a slew of injuries early in the season but has won four straight. Villanova has lost three straight to Creighton but leads the all-time series, 19-11.

Villanova football announced its 2026 schedule on Friday, ahead of its first season as a member of the Patriot League.

Villanova is coming off its final season in the Coastal Athletic Conference. The Wildcats finished 12-3 with a FCS playoff run that ended in the semifinals with a 30-14 loss to Illinois State on Dec. 20.

Villanova will open the season on Aug. 29 against another team joining the conference this offseason, William & Mary. The Wildcats look to start a new home winning streak after their 23-game run was snapped to end last season. Villanova defeated William & Mary, 31-24, in nonconference play last season, but the Tribe leads the all-time series, 20-17-1.

Then the Wildcats will play three straight road games, which includes their annual FBS game, this season against Louisville, on Sept. 11.

Villanova also will face conference foe Bucknell on Sept. 5.

Besides Louisville, the Wildcats will play just two nonconference games during the 2026 season, facing Long Island on Sept. 19 in New York and Morgan State on Oct. 3 at Villanova Stadium.

Colgate returns to Villanova Stadium for the second straight season on Sept. 26. Villanova has faced Colgate in nonconference play the last three seasons, winning each matchup.

The Wildcats will close out the regular season with six conference matchups, alternating between home and away games. It will begin on the road vs. Fordham on Oct. 17.

A highly anticipated rematch with Lehigh is Oct. 24 on the Main Line. No. 12 Villanova narrowly upset No. 5 Lehigh, 14-7, in the second round of the FCS playoffs last season, ending the Mountain Hawks’ undefeated season.

Villanova then will travel to Easton, Pa., to face Lafayette on Oct. 31. The final three opponents of the regular season include Richmond (Nov. 7), at Holy Cross (Nov. 14), and Georgetown (Nov. 21).

Kickoff times and television information will be announced at a later date. The Patriot League is partnered with ESPN+, which streams most of its football games.