’26 Patriot League Football Preview: Villanova
Predicted Order of Finish: 1st
The biggest question going into Villanova’s season wasn’t answered until the very end of preseason training camp.
It was inevitable if there was even a hint that one of last year’s heroes on the Wildcats’ amazing playoff run, QB Pat McQuaide (3,123 yards passing, 28 TDs, 4 INTs), would be eligible to play this season for Villanova, at the very least, have head coach Mark Ferrante‘s attention.
Unfortunately for McQuaide and the Wildcats, it became a saga involving a courtroom in Ohio, the Patriot League offices near Easton, Pennsylvania, and the NCAA’s offices in Indianapolis. But the bottom line, only revealed and understood this week, is that the Patriot League denied McQuaide’s chance to play a sixth football season.
With an otherwise stacked team, the biggest question Villanova has entering the 2026 season is whether the circus surrounding McQuaide – in the otherwise sleepy Patriot League, the McQuaide news is as Ringling Brothers as it gets – will affect this team, and it might, considering none of the other quarterbacks in the room have attempted have attempted a Division I pass, though QB Michael Benincasa played at Franklin & Marshall back in 2022.
Other than QB, Villanova returns a ton of key members from their Lambert Cup-winning team that made a run in last year’s FCS Playoffs.
Start with the scary running back duo of RB Ja’Briel Mace (946 yards rushing, 152 yards receiving, 13 TDs) and RB Isaiah Ragland (755 yards, 3 TDs). WR Braden Reed also returns (518 yards, 3 TDs), as well as OL Chris McCullers and a relatively experienced offensive line. Their speed out of the backfield, along with Reed, also gets applied to the Wildcats’ return units, making their return game extra dangerous.
Defensively, Villanova loses some key members of their defensive line, but do return DE Capri Martin (33 tackles, 7 1/2 TFL), LB Omari Bursey (50 tackles, 8 1/5 TFL)), and LB Turner Inge (56 tackles, 4 1/2 TFL), so there’s plenty of expectation that the Wildcats will continue to field a FCS National Championship-caliber defense.
Villanova is extremely athletic and rightfully is seen as the favorite in the Patriot League title race. If there are questions, they involve whether their move to the Patriot League will affect their ability to reload. Historically, that has not been a problem whatsoever – when a Daniel Smith graduates, there’s generally been a Connor Watkins in the wings, ready to be the next man up. If they have a Connor Watkins ready to go, if they can develop a bit of depth on the defensive line, and if they build a young secondary, they’ll be thinking of a lot more than a Patriot League title.
Fearless Prediction: The Wildcats will have to navigate the target squarely on their backs, but no game is trickier than their season opener vs. William & Mary, themselves an unknown quantity. If they survive that early test, they’ll have a three-game road stretch vs. Bucknell, Louisville and LIU that will help solidify their team before three huge league games vs. Colgate, Lehigh, and Richmond. One has to acknowledge that winning that first game against William & Mary would have been way easier with a 6th-year player in Pat McQuaide running the team, but that’s now water under the bridge. If Villanova can beat William and Mary, they should be well poised for a Patriot League title run, with the “Big Three” at home.
Chuck has been writing about Lehigh football since the dawn of the internet, or perhaps it only seems like it. He’s executive editor of the College Sports Journal and has also written a book, The Rivalry: How Two Schools Started the Most Played College Football Series.
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