Quarterback Pat McQuaide has Villanova in the Patriot League title hunt after a rough start. Holy Cross is up next.
The Wildcats can earn an FCS automatic playoff bid but would need to keep winning and get some help in the form of a Lehigh loss.
A roar came from Villanova’s locker room in the moments after the Wildcats shut out Richmond, 30-0, last Saturday. It marked the program’s first shoutout since 2023 and its fourth consecutive win after opening the season 2-4.
Quarterback Pat McQuaide was at the front of the huddle as safety Jayvont Williams lifted a custom Villanova blue and white boom box over his head with “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba blasting out of it.
The lyrics — “I get knocked down/But I get up again/You’re never gonna keep me down” — are fitting to the season the program has had.
McQuaide returned to Villanova after saying goodbye to the program last December, figuring at the time he had exhausted his collegiate eligibility. He joined the program as a transfer from Nicholls State before last season and fought his way through camp to earn the starting quarterback job. McQuaide went on to lead Villanova to an FCS playoff run that ended in the national semifinals. It was enough for the program to fight for him to gain an extra year of eligibility through an Ohio court.
After an inconsistent start to his 2026 season, McQuaide has not turned the ball over in the last four games while throwing seven touchdown passes and for an average of 223 yards per game. He currently leads the Patriot League in completion percentage (65.5%), passing yards (222.7 per game), passing touchdowns (14), and passing efficiency (151.3).
McQuaide will now lead Villanova into a vital game against Holy Cross (5-5, 5-2 Patriot League) on the road Saturday (noon, ESPN+). Both programs are tied for second place in the Patriot League, and Villanova must win if it wants to make the FCS playoffs.
If Villanova (6-4, 5-2) beats the Crusaders and Georgetown (3-5, 3-3) next week, and Lehigh (8-2, 6-1) — which currently holds sole possession of first place — loses at Richmond (6-4, 4-3) or Lafayette (4-5, 3-3), the Wildcats would get an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs. Villanova holds a tiebreaker over Lehigh since Mark Ferrante’s team defeated the Mountain Hawks, 24-18, on Oct. 24 in what could hold up as McQuaide’s most important performance of the season.
“Our confidence in Pat never wavered even when he was away, because once he came back, we kind of plugged him in as a starter,” Ferrante said. “I think the timing from Pat was a little rusty at the front end of the season. So I think now that he’s been here longer and getting reacquainted with his teammates, some of them newer teammates and some of them older teammates, but [in] bigger roles. Obviously, his confidence is getting better.”
This offseason, Villanova filed a waiver request with the NCAA in an attempt to get McQuaide an extra year of eligibility. The NCAA denied it. McQuaide hired an attorney who collaborated with Villanova to file a court injunction in McQuaide’s home state of Ohio that would compel the NCAA — and the Patriot League, which had also deemed him ineligible — to allow McQuaide to play.
After weeks of back and forth, McQuaide found out he was permitted to play hours before Villanova’s opening game against William & Mary on Aug. 28.
“I mean, that’s everything,” McQuaide said of Villanova bringing him back. “That gives you the strength to keep going. And just knowing that you have people behind you, you know, that means the world to me. And it would mean the world to anybody… I’ll be the first one to tell you that I did not play that well at the beginning of the season. But just to have the coaching staff and the rest of the team openly tell me that ‘You’re our guy and we’re going to ride wherever you take us,’ it means the world.”
McQuaide was one of the most vocal leaders on the team as the team hit the bye week at 2-4. Ferrante heard rumblings of a players-only meeting that may have focused the group.
“So that may be where it turned, but again, I wasn’t privy to that,” Ferrante said. “I think the bye came at a good time.”
Since then, Villanova has not lost a game and has defeated a ranked opponent in Lehigh and a second-place Richmond squad.
“Pat definitely is the more vocal of the bunch, but I know he’s not doing it himself,” Ferrante said. “I know [Isaiah Ragland] and the other two captains, along with a lot of the other seniors and grads. ... I think it’s them coming together collectively and saying what we’re putting on the field right now is not Villanova-brand football.”
McQuaide is projected for two more games in a Villanova uniform, but he and the program have the opportunity to stretch that into more with a playoff run.
“This is an incredible place,? McQuaide said. ”And I’ve said that since the day that I got here, is that I’m extremely lucky to get to be here to wear the ‘V.’ The ‘V’ changed my life. So I’m still just trying to repay that every day by giving everything that I have back to this program.”
