Villanova will be a formidable challenge for unseeded South Dakota State football in FCS playoffs
South Dakota State’s playoff tour heads east this week, as the Jackrabbits face 5th-seeded Villanova on Saturday in suburban Philadelphia.
The Wildcats, of course, are much more well-known for their men’s basketball program, which is among the best in the nation, having gone to six Final Fours and won three national championships, in 1985, 2016 and 2018. Jacks fans may also remember that the Villanova women knocked SDSU out of the NCAA tournament in an overtime thriller in 2018.
But the Wildcats play pretty good football, too, if not on as big a scale. Villanova, with an enrollment of 10,000, played football as a Division I independent until 1981, when the program was discontinued for lack of support. It was reinstated in 1985, first at the Division III level, then after two years moved up to I-AA (now FCS). They play in Villanova Stadium, a 12,000 seat facility that was built in 1927, renovated in 1999 and updated with field turf in 2002.
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Saturday’s meeting will mark the second between the Jacks and Wildcats, and both have come in the playoffs, just within the last six years. SDSU hosted the Wildcats in the second round in 2016, where the Jacks escaped with a 10-7 win on a snowy afternoon in Brookings when Chase Vinatieri tucked a 40-yard field goal with a minute to go just inside the upright. Senior center Wes Genant, a freshman at the time, is the only remaining Jackrabbit who played in that game.
That game was the last one in the long and storied career of coach Andy Talley, who led the Wildcats for 32 seasons, starting in 1985, when the program was reinstated. Talley went 229-137-1 for Villanova, taking them to 12 FCS playoff appearances, highlighted by the 2009 national championship.
After SDSU sent Talley into retirement, the Wildcats stayed in-house for his replacement, hiring Mark Ferrante, who’d been Talley’s offensive line coach and later assistant head coach since 1987.
Villanova went 5-6 in each of Ferrante’s first two seasons, going just 5-11 in Colonial Athletic Association play. But the CAA has long been one of the few conferences with close to the depth and parity of the Jacks’ home, the Missouri Valley Football Conference, and in his third year Ferrante got the Wildcats back to the postseason, going 9-4 and losing a 45-44 thriller to Southeastern Louisianan in the first round of the playoffs.
After going 2-2 in the abbreviated spring season, the Wildcats came back this fall perhaps as strong as ever. They’re 10-2, went 7-1 in CAA play to earn a share of the league title, have won four in a row, and have several quality wins on the ledger.
They came out roaring, winning their first two games by a combined score of 102-6, then beat a 21st-ranked Richmond squad to get to 3-0 before a trip to Penn State. The Nittany Lions were ranked 6th in FBS at the time, and while Nova trailed 31-3 after three quarters, they scored twice late for a respectable 38-17 final. A week later, they knocked off No. 3 James Madison 28-27 in Harrisonburg. That’s the Dukes’ only loss this season.
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All that kept the Wildcats from going unbeaten against FCS competition this year was a head-scratching 31-18 home loss to William & Mary. In that one, Nova turned it over four times to dig a 31-3 hole they could not climb out of. They also gave up 258 rushing yards that day, an outlier for a defense that, for the season, has held opponents to 99.3 rushing yards per game.
They’ve won four in a row since, however, including last week’s 21-16 playoff win over Holy Cross.
The Wildcat offense has been balanced, averaging 205 passing yards and 175 rushing yards per game, with a deep backfield and plethora of reliable receiving targets.
Meanwhile the Nova defense has limited opponents to 15.1 points per game, with two shutouts and four games in which they did not allow a touchdown. They’ve been nearly as good against the pass as the run, holding opponents to 163 yards per game, with 18 interceptions and only seven touchdown passes allowed. Senior linebacker Forrest Rhyne was named the CAA defensive player of the year, as he’s totaled 131 tackles and 4.5 sacks, while defensive back Christian Benford is tied for second in the nation with seven interceptions.
“Their ability to not gimmick – to just line up in base defense and everyone knows what they’re doing and they say show me you can move the ball,” Jacks coach John Stiegelmeier said when asked what impressed him about the Wildcat defense. “Their tackles dominate the line of scrimmage, their linebackers play downhill and their five secondary guys are very athletic. You watch the film and it looks like the guy got some yards and then it’s a two-yard gain. So they’re really good defensively.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: FCS quarterfinal game against Villanova will challenge SDSU football
