Villanova’s players and coach are ‘super proud’ of a season that ended in the FCS semifinals

Villanova’s season came to an end Saturday night in a 30-14 loss to unseeded Illinois State in the semifinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs at Villanova Stadium.

Emotions were high for the Wildcats who played their last collegiate snaps, but the 12-3 team could take solace in a bounceback season that saw it reach the FCS semifinals for the first time since 2010.

Villanova opened the season with a 1-2 record, including a blowout loss to Penn State and a 51-33 defeat to Monmouth in the Coastal Athletic Association opener. Then the Wildcats played every game like it was the last one, running off 11 wins in a row.

“Week 3, if anyone told us we’d be here now, I think they’re a little crazy,” graduate linebacker Shane Hartzell said. “But I’m super proud of how we responded week after week. Every game after Week 3 was pretty much a playoff game for us. We took that as it was, and I was really proud of the group that we had.”

Hartzell, who led the team with 101 total tackles and 9½ sacks, played his final collegiate game. The Perkasie native led the Wildcats in tackles in three of his five seasons with the program. In the postgame news conference, Hartzell said the end of his collegiate career had not fully set in, but earlier this season he said he could be interested if a professional football opportunity came his way.

“Super proud of this team and the season they were able to put together this year,” Villanova coach Mark Ferrante said. “When you get to a playoff situation, unless you go all the way, it’s bittersweet, because you’re going to end it in an ‘L.’ As I said all year, [this team] gave maximum effort all the time, showed a lot of resilience, and we just came up short.”

Even though the college football landscape has changed with name, image, and likeness opportunities and the transfer portal, Villanova prides itself on a culture that retains players for four seasons, plus graduate years in a lot of instances.

“It was a great season, the ups and downs, but I’m super proud of these guys,” said running back Isaiah Ragland, a redshirt sophomore. “This year was very player-run, so it was very easy to mesh with the guys. And Pat McQuaide was a great leader. He came in last January and he was super hype. [We were] like, ‘Who’s this guy?’ But as time went on, we adapted to him, and we took him in. … We spent a lot of time outside of football, hanging out with each other. And I think that really helped with our successes.”

McQuaide transferred in as a graduate student from Nicholls State last winter. He threw 25 of his 51 career touchdown passes at Villanova. In his final game, he passed for 199 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

» READ MORE: Villanova falls to Illinois State, gets eliminated in semifinals of FCS playoffs

“Pat, honestly, just as an offense as a whole, we had complete trust in him,” Ragland said. “If he made a mistake, we knew he was going to go out there and make a play.”

Ferrante is looking forward to speaking with all seniors and players with eligibility remaining in the coming days and weeks.

“I told them I want to talk to each one of the guys who are exhausting their eligibility here within our program,” Ferrante said. “[We will] let them check it into the training room and then have a team meeting [Sunday], and then I’ll pull those guys aside, we’ll have a great conversation.”

Ferrante was able to retain running back David Avit last offseason after he entered the transfer portal. Avit received offers from Stanford, South Florida, and others before deciding to return to the Main Line.

With the season now concluded, Ferrante and the Wildcats are planning on enjoying the holiday season. Then it will be back to business, with the coaching staff hitting the road for recruiting visits.

“Right now, it’s bitter,” Ferrante said. “As we get further and further away from where we are right now, into the next semester, and we go on a road recruiting, there’ll be a lot of people giving us a lot of compliments on the season we had. So it’ll get a little sweeter later.

“There’s a lot of tears, as you would imagine, especially the older guys whose careers are ending, but they have a lot to be proud of. But right now, I told them, enjoy the holidays with your families, and we’ll move forward, the sun will come up tomorrow, and we’ll be in great shape.”

» READ MORE: Villanova shares a resemblance to the 2009 FCS championship team. Just ask its former players.