Villanova is ready to put ‘a better product on the field’ against Bucknell

Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante sat behind his large wooden desk on Thursday. He peered out the window to his left and looked at Villanova Stadium. It was the site the Wildcats’ agonizing season-opening loss to William & Mary last week.

Villanova led William & Mary by 10 points with 58 seconds remaining in regulation. Then a slew of mistakes by the Wildcats allowed William & Mary to kick and make a field goal, recover an onside kick, score a touchdown, intercept Villanova, and kick a game-winning 45-yard field goal as time expired.

As much as Ferrante strives to move on from games, this one stuck with him, and not by choice. While Villanova is preparing for Saturday’s Patriot League matchup at Bucknell (6 p.m., ESPN+), radio shows and media interviews have peppered Ferrante with the same questions about the season-opening loss.

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“We want to try to follow our own advice as coaches,” Ferrante said. “Learn from it, digest it the day after, celebrate the victories, mourn the losses, 24 hour rule, come in the next day, make the corrections, and then put it in the rearview and move on. So I’m hoping that’s what our team and our staff have done.”

To shorten it, Ferrante simply said: “We took the L, but the L stands for learn.”

There are still 11 regular season games left on Villanova’s schedule, beginning with Bucknell (0-1, 0-1 Patriot League) on the road this upcoming Saturday.

Villanova has not started seasons quickly in recent years. The Wildcats previously showed mental lapses on both sides of the ball, even in wins. Those errors lessened as those seasons progressed, especially last year after Villanova suffered a 51-33 blowout loss to Monmouth in Week 3. The Wildcats responded with a 11-game win streak to parlay a run to the FCS playoff semifinals.

Ferrante does not view seasons game-by-game or even half-to-half. He views the season in the form of each play, referencing the words of recent champions in Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti and New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson.

“Cignetti says the same thing,” Ferrante said. “Every play has a life of its own. And once that play’s over, you have to get to the next play, regardless of what happened. Jalen Brunson came down, and he popped into our Ocean City practice. He basically said the same thing. Take one play at a time, regardless of the outcome of that play, put it in the rearview and get to the next play.”

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In preparation for this weekend, Villanova has prioritized cleaning up the penalties after committing 15 for 107 yards against William & Mary. In comparison, William & Mary had three penalties for 22 yards.

Villanova also lost the turnover battle, 4-1.

“You’re going to have a couple of penalties during the course of the game,” Ferrante said. “When you can put 15 of them together, that’s a big deal. … If you tell me we’re going to have a turnover a game, we’re going to have 11, 12 turnovers by the end of the year, that’s probably a pretty good year. Right now we’re on pace to have 60 if we do five a game. That’s not a good year.”

However, there is still good that came out of the loss for Ferrante, notably the team’s tackling.

In previous seasons, the Wildcats struggled early on with tackling in the open field, attributed to the lack of live tackling during the preseason.

“One of the positives, I thought, looking at previous opening games is we looked fast, and our tackling was a little better than some preseason or early games in previous years,” Ferrante said. “So I think that’s something we can build off of. But one week to the next is all you got. And this one will come up a lot faster. You don’t have all preseason to get ready for the next one.”

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Villanova last faced Bucknell during the 2021 season, when the Wildcats dominated the Bison, 55-3. A lot has changed since then. Bucknell named Jeff Behrman its 28th head coach of the program earlier this year.

“This one might even be a little trickier than the opener because we haven’t played Bucknell in a long time and they have a new coaching staff,” Ferrante said. “So all we have to go on is film from where they came from, John Carroll, a semifinal team from a year ago [in] Division III, and then last week’s Richmond game. … We think [Jeff Behrman will] run the same offense he ran at John Carroll.

“We’re excited for the challenge. We’re looking forward to going out there and playing better and putting a better product on the field than we did last week, collectively, at least for four quarters, and minimizing our mistakes.”