It is finally game day for Wildcats football after more than a month of preseason. Excitement is high for No. 13/12 Villanova (0-0) as it gets set to host future conference foe Colgate (0-1) for a 6 p.m. kickoff. Saturday's season opener is sponsored by Rothman Orthopaedics. Themes of the game include Community Day and College Blitz.
 
Saturday is a "light blue out" game and fans can dress like the Wildcats by wearing their favorite Villanova light blue apparel. When the game kicks off, the Wildcats will be wearing light blue jerseys and pants with navy helmets as they open the 128^th season of varsity football on campus. It is the third time in the last four years that Villanova is opening the season at home.
 

2025 SEASON GAME 1: VILLANOVA VS. COLGATE

Game Notes: Villanova, Colgate, CAA Football, Patriot League

Fan Center: Football Promotions, Gameday Program

Football News: CAA Football, CAA Scoreboard, FCS Football

TONIGHT'S GAME
Villanova begins its 128th season of varsity football when it kicks off against Colgate in the friendly confines of Villanova Stadium. The game will stream live on FloCollege with Sam Kuperman and Steve Pinone in the booth, and Tessa Peloso on the sidelines. The radio call with Ryan Fannon and Matt Szczur can be heard on Fox Sports Radio Philly which is accessible on mobile devices via the iHeart radio app.

ABOUT VILLANOVA
Excitement is high for the Wildcats as the 2025 season dawns. Villanova is coming off a second round playoff appearance last season and returns 70 players from a team which compiled a 10-4 record. Head coach Mark Ferrante has guided the Wildcats to 36 wins over the past four years and Villanova is ranked in the Top 25 of both prominent FCS national polls entering the 2025 campaign. 

ABOUT COLGATE
One of the better games on the Week 1 FCS scoreboard was a matchup between the Raiders and CAA Football member Monmouth which featured a combined 1,219 yards of total offense. Colgate led 31-7 midway through the third quarter before the Hawks scored five unanswered touchdowns in a span of less than 13 minutes and went on to a 42-39 victory. The star of the game for the Raiders was senior wide receiver and captain Treyvhon Saunders who caught 13 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns. Saunders, like Villanova sophomore running back David Avit, is on the preseason watch list for the Walter Payton Award.

SERIES STUFF
Villanova leads the all-time series against Colgate by a 7-1 margin and has won each of the last seven meetings since losing the inaugural matchup between the teams in 1978. This will be the third straight year that the teams meet each other on the gridiron, with recent matchups taking place in 2023 at Villanova Stadium (42-19 victory) and last year in Hamilton, N.Y. (28-3 win). Those two games, along with this week's contest, all took place in Week 2 of the season. 

PLAYING THE PATRIOT LEAGUE
It is apropos that the Wildcats begin the 2025 season by playing a Patriot League foe. Earlier this year, Villanova announced that it had accepted an invitation from the Patriot League to join the conference as an associate member in football beginning with the 2026 season. The move to the Patriot League is a natural fit for the Wildcats on many levels, including geographically. The average length of a Patriot League road trip for Villanova will be 175 miles, includnig two opponents (Lafayette and Lehigh) who are located within 50 miles of Villanova.

FAMILIAR FOES
The Patriot League in recent seasons has consisted of seven football members and the Wildcats have faced six of the seven at least once within the last 10 years. Villanova will also continue longstanding conference rivalries with Richmond and William & Mary, who have each announced moves to the Patriot League as football members over the past two years. The league's football membership as of 2026 will consist of 10 teams: Villanova; charter members Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette and Lehigh; and associate members Fordham, Georgetown, Richmond and William & Mary.

SEASON OPENERS
Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante is 8-0 in season openers in his career. The streak began with a 38-35 win over Lehigh in 2017 and most recently continued last year when the Wildcats tallied a season-opening 24-17 victory over Youngstown State. Villanova has the second-longest active streak of season-opening wins in the FCS, trailing only Montana who has won 10 straight season openers and also begins the 2025 season this week. ­

The average margin of victory for the Wildcats in their eight straight season-opening wins is 16.9 points. Villanova has allowed fewer than 20 points in each of its last seven season openers.

STARTING AT HOME
This is the third time in the last four years and the second in a row that Villanova will begin the season at home. Prior to the 2022 lid-lifter against Lehigh, the Wildcats had opened on the road in 16 consecutive seasons from 2006-21. Many of those contests were against FBS foes, while in recent years Villanova's annual game against an FBS opponent has taken place later in the year.

FRIENDLY CONFINES
There won't be any argument from the Wildcats about opening the season at home. That is because Villanova is riding a program record 16-game winning streak at its venerable on-campus home. The active streak of home wins at Villanova Stadium ranks second in the FCS behind only South Dakota State's 30-game home winning streak which began in 2021.

Villanova's home winning streak began during the 2022 season and — at 16 games — is longer than two previous 15-game streaks. The record-setting game came in the first round of last year's playoffs when the Wildcats defeated Eastern Kentucky. Villanova has had an average margin of victory of 14.8 points during its home winning streak.

The two previous occasions in which the Wildcats won 15 straight home games were notable for very different reasons. The first streak occurred from 1927 to 1930 in the first 15 games ever played at Villanova Stadium, which made its debut on October 8, 1927 with a 32-7 win over Lebanon Valley. The second 15-game home winning streak lasted from 2008 to 2010, during which time Villanova won its first national championship in 2009.

POLLING PLACES
Villanova begins the 2025 season ranked in both the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 and the AFCA FCS Coaches Poll. It is the 33rd time in the last 38 years that the Wildcats have been nationally ranked for at some point during the season. Villanova comes in this week at No. 13 in the Stats Perform poll and No. 12 in the AFCA FCS rankings.

Villanova ranks fourth among all teams in FCS history (since 1978) for the number of weeks appearing in the national media poll. In their 326 weeks being nationally ranked, the Wildcats have been in the top 10 for a total of 153 weeks (11th most all-time) and have been ranked in the top five for 66 weeks. Villanova has achieved a Top 5 ranking at least once in 16 seasons since 1991.

FANTASTIC FIVE
Villanova has compiled a record of 36-15 (.706) over the last five seasons (2021-25) while making three playoff appearances and winning 10+ games three times. The overall record puts the Wildcats 12th among all FCS teams in terms of winning percentage since the start of the 2021 season. Villanova came into the 2025 season as one of six FCS teams to have won 10 games or more in at least three of the last four seasons. 

DECADE OF DOMINANCE
Villanova is the only current CAA Football member to have won at least 70 games over the past decade (2015-25). In this strech the Wildcats have an overall record of 72-42 (.632) and have gone 47-29 (.618) in regular season conference games while making the playoffs five times.

PRESEASON WATCH LISTS
Sophomore running back David Avit and senior linebacker Shane Hartzell have been named to the preseason watch lists for the Walter Payton Award and the Buck Buchanan Award, respectively. These national honors are given to the top offensive and defensive players in the FCS at the end of each season. Villaonva is one of 10 teams to have at least one player on both watch lists at the start of the season. The others are Harvard, Illinois State, Montana, Montana State, North Dakota State, Rhode Island, Samford, South Dakota State and UIW.

NATIONAL ATTENTION
Fifth year offensive lineman Jake Picard and senior linebacker Shane Hartzell generated preseason All-America buzz entering the year. Picard is on the Stats Perform Preseason All-America first team and Hartzell appears on the second team. It is the first time in their careers that either player has garnered national accolades. 

CAA FOOTBALL PRESEASON POLL
Villanova was picked to finish third in the CAA this season and had four players named to the Preseason All-Conference team. The four honorees included fifth year offensive lineman Jake Picard and sophomore running back David Avit on the offensive side of the ball along with a pair of defensive players in senior linebacker Shane Hartzell and fifth year defensive lineman Obinna Nwobodo. Two more players — senior offensive lineman Stephane Voltaire and sophomore cornerback Zahmir Dawud — were named preseason honorable mention.

VETERAN EXPERIENCE
Villanova has 94 players on its 2025 roster and they begin the year having played in a combined 1,103 college football games. Leading the way for the Wildcats are 11 players who have played in at least 30 career games, including three who have played 40 or more. Villanova has six new graduate transfers on the team this year and each has played in at least two dozen games prior to arriving on the Main Line. The six are punter Luke  Larsen (East Carolina); placekicker Jack Barnum (Central Connecticut State); wide receiver Luke Colella (Princeton); quarterback Pat McQuaide (Nicholls); and defensive backs Jordan Adderley (Lehigh) and Julian Talley (Penn).

NEW FACE UNDER CENTER
Villanova has had remarkable stability at the quarterback position for well over a decade, as the quartet of John Robertson, Zach Bednarczyk, Daniel Smith and Connor Watkins combined to start 141 of the 151 games the Wildcats played from 2012-24. A new starter will be under center for the Wildcats this season as graduate transfer Pat McQuaide takes over as the starter. McQuaide played the past two seasons at Nicholls, a member of the Southland Conference, and in 23 starts for the Colonels he was 395-of-686 for 4,414 yards with 27 touchdowns. McQuaide compiled a 57.6% completion percentage and a 118.2 efficiency rating at Nicholls while averaging 11.2 yards per completion.

LEANING LEFT
Graduate student Pat McQuaide will only be the third left-handed quarterback to start a game for Villanova during the program's FCS era which began in 1985. The other two are Christian Culicerto who started three times during the 2011 season and stalwart Zach Bednarczyk who started 34 career games from 2015-18.

ENTERING WITH LIFE EXPERIENCE
The oldest active player in Division I college football this season will be Villanova punter Luke Larsen who recently turned 33 years old and will be making his Wildcats debut in Saturday's season opener against Colgate. Larsen is a graduate student transfer from East Carolina and a native of Australia who played Australian Rules Football, volleyball, cricket and tennis during his scholastic career prior to coming to the United States.  

Larsen appeared in 43 games at East Carolina and punted 174 times while averaging 40.8 yards per punt. He landed 51 punts inside the 20-yard line, booted 19 punts for 50+ yards and had 75 of 174 attempts fair caught. He ranked second all-time in net punting for the Pirates and was a two-time National Football Foundation Honor Society member in 2024 and 2025.

ALL ABOUT AVIT
Sophomore running back David Avit burst onto the collegiate scene in a big way last year when he emerged as the Wildcats top running threat and was a finalist for the Jerry Rice Award presented to the top freshman player in the FCS. Avit ran 173 times for 923 yards and nine touchdowns in 2024. He ranked third in rushing yards among all FCS freshmen and was the only Villanova player to top 1,000 all-purpose yards (1,098) on the season. Avit was named the CAA Football Offensive Rookie of the Year and an honorable mention All-CAA selection in voting by league head coaches. He earned a spot on the Phil Steele Freshman All-America second team.

YOU GOTTA HAVE HARTZELL
Senior linebacker Shane Hartzell has developed into a mainstay on the Wildcats defense during his career. He has played in 41 games and has tackled 249 tackles, including 140 solo stops, 24.5 tackles for loss and 13 sacks. Hartzell has three career forced fumbles and one fumble recovery to go along with an interception and six total passes defended. He is coming off easily his best collegiate campaign in 2024 when he led Villanova with five sacks and recorded a team-high 67 solo tackles. He wound up second on the team with 121 total stops and 9.5 tackles for loss. Hartzell reached double figures in tackles four times last season, including a career day against New Hampshire when he had 20 total stops in a tightly contested 14-6 victory.

VILLANOVA FOOTBALL HISTORY
Villanova has compiled a 287-170-1 (.628) record in 40 seasons as an FCS member. The program's success includes 16 appearances in the FCS playoffs and appearing in the final national rankings of the season 19 times in the last 36 years. 

POSTSEASON SUCCESS
Villanova is tied for 10th in FCS history with 16 playoff appearances. In their FCS playoff history, the Wildcats have a record of 15-15 with one natonal championship (2009) and three semifinal berths (2002, 2009, 2010). Villanova has won at least one playoff game in 10 of its last 12 postseason appearances. The 15 playoff wins for the Wildcats are tied for the 12th most ever among current FCS programs.