Villanova football team dismisses low Colonial Athletic Association preseason rankings

BALTIMORE — Villanova coach Mark Ferrante said he hadn’t looked at the Colonial Athletic Association preseason poll, even though it was hanging in his peripheral vision.

The Wildcats were ranked ninth in the 12-team league, and at the CAA media day at M&T Bank Stadium, Ferrante brushed it off.

“I don’t even know where they have us ranked, to be honest with you,” Ferrante said, with the rankings on a poster 10 feet away. “We had pretty good preseason rankings the last few seasons and ended up where we ended up because of injuries and so on."

It didn’t end with the preseason poll of league head coaches and sports information directors, though. The CAA’s first-team all-league poll didn’t feature any Wildcats, either.

With only about a dozen returning starters, Villanova has a handful of young players expected to step into more prominent roles for the 2019 season. The most notable opening is at quarterback, as Ferrante and his staff search for a replacement for last year’s senior starter, Zach Bednarczyk.

Ferrante contended that, while the team’s returning-starter count is low, there are still a good number of young players who have gained experience in the last few seasons.

“We’re still relatively young ... but we have guys that have played quite a bit of football over the last couple seasons,” he said. “We do have a number of people who have lined up and played some significant snaps. I’m not talking about guys who have just played a couple; I’m talking about guys who have played significantly in games.”

Two examples are junior running back Justin Covington and junior defensive end Malik Fisher. Covington is replacing Aaron Forbes, but the two shared time in the backfield last season. Fisher spelled Jafonta Johnson but sometimes played as many or more snaps as last year’s senior starter.

Even quarterbacks Jack Schetelich and Qadir Ismail have seen playing time, both in relief of Bednarcyzk when he missed time with injuries.

In response to Villanova’s ranking, tight end Simon Bingelis pointed to last season’s preseason rankings that overlooked eventual conference champion Maine, ranking the Black Bears No. 10 before their 10-4 season (7-1 CAA).

“Not too many people may have predicted that,” said the all-conference preseason honorable mention. “There’s not too many targets on our backs this year."

Wildcats senior linebacker Drew Wiley also earned a preseason honorable-mention nod, after leading the team in tackles for losses and forcing two fumbles last year. The 6-foot-1, 235-pound leader said he expects the defense to lead the team past the conference’s expectations.

“It doesn’t bother us because we know what we have,” he said. “I’ve always seen it as ‘the team can go as far as the defense wants it to,’ and I think, as a unit, we’re very close and very hungry to see what we can do this year.”