September 12, 2025 • 18 mins
The head football coach of your Villanova Wildcats, Mark Ferrante, joins the Daily Ticket to talk about the upcoming game against Penn State!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live from the Fieldburger and Tap and Happy Valley. This
is the daily Ticket with Sean.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Brains once again getting you ready for all things Villanova
and Penn State. Let's go live from the Fieldburger and Tap,
Sean Brace, Ryan Beefcoyle and Sean Bernard. Ladies and gentlemen
joining us a special guest given a few minutes of
his time. Extremely busy weekend for this man. Head coach
(00:27):
of Bulldingepah Football, Mark Ferrante joining us.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Coach. Great to have you, Hi, you Ben, I'm doing well.
I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Normally when you go to the opposing teams venue, they
don't usually want to talk.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
To me that much.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Over here on a day of course, you know, with
our partners here at Playfly and teaming up with the
great folks over here, just rolling out the red carpet
for us here at the Fieldburger and Tap, and they
host a few coaches shows throughout the course of the year,
so they said, please, we'd love to have you. Can't
thank them enough and of course the Lord above for
giving us today we're have in here today.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Unbelievable. Yeah, there's beautiful out here. We just finished our walkthrough.
We actually did it at State College High School. We
actually have a freshman on our team from there, Mike Gahl.
And then we did go by the stadium, you know,
kind of getting us and os out of the way.
We don't play in venues that look anything like this one,
so just had an opportunity to walk the guys through
there and then done our walk through. Get the bus
(01:21):
trip out of their legs a little bit. But this
is beautiful over here. And my neighbor has a son
who's a junior up here, Doug Tyrrell and his son
Cole is up here, and they were talking at this
place here, This Fieldsberglan.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Tap place is pretty awesome. They say they really like
the burgers we need.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, the burger is number one apparently. And I want
to see the course. So we need to set up
a time to come back up here in the offseason. Coach,
get up here and play eighteen.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Sounds good to me. We got a lot to talk
to you about.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Of course, a big game coming up tomorrow, but I
do want to hit the rewind button about Saturday open
up the season with a victory at home.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Colegate seven point win.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
It's week one, though, I'm interested from a coach's perspective,
and you know, look, I know it's apples and oranges,
but you look at what the Eagles do and the
NFL side of things, and we can look at some
other programs at the college level. Just week one, it's
so tough. You guys don't scrimmage all offseasons, so your
thoughts and the performance. Although you got the victory right right,
we don't have preseason games. We don't have a large roster,
(02:16):
so we don't do a lot of eleven out of
eleven live during preseason. We don't even do a ton
of eleven out of eleven live in the spring, you know,
because we're always fear of injury. We need our guys
in the fall, sure, so we try to, you know,
get as much live work as we can, in more
you know, conditioned drill type work and those type of things.
But the first game was pretty clean game. I really
liked the team's effort. I like the way they hustle
(02:37):
to the ball. There was a lot of crisp hitting
out there on both sides. Actually, Colgate did have a
game under their belt, which helped us because they had
a new staff. They have a new head coach, a
new defensive coordinator, a new offensive coordinator, So it gave
us an opportunity to see them in week one and
we didn't open up till week two. So but as
far as the first game's concerned, like you said, you
never know what you're gonna get when you don't have
(02:58):
preseason games or you know, a lot of live work.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So pretty clean game.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
We only had three penalties total, We didn't have any turnovers,
so we're pretty pleased with that. We can work, you
know with those positives. Some things to clean up though,
some correctables we share, some blocks, missed some tackles, took
some bad angles at times, so you know, need to
play out the ball in the air a little better
on defense, but we did well. They did a good
job stoping our run. You know, we have a pretty
(03:23):
good running back room right now. All the guys that
we had last year are back, and all five offensive
linemen that started last year back, So they were probably
concerned about our run because they played us a little
differently than they played mama. Mama's gonna throw the ball
forty times a game, We're gonna be a little more
balanced than that. So their safeties were close in the
line of scrimmage and we were able to get some
big plays over the top. So but as far as
(03:45):
the first game, whenever you get the win, that's a
big thing, that's the most important thing. But there's some things.
Hopefully we'll have that improvement that people talk about from
week one to week two.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, I think Ryan was talking about Matt Caesar. Fantastic
to have Matt in the booth for game one. Unbelievable insight.
But it was interesting to hear him say, look, when
it comes to November, you're not going to look at
that scoreboard. It goes in as a victory and that's it.
So one in the win column when you talk about
how they were playing you. As far as defensively, McQuaid
quarterback Southpa out there slanging it.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I want to say.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Two ninety nine is what he had, which breaks the
record for most yardage passing in a debut game for
a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Do you give game balls? We do not know. We
do not.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
We give gate We we have players of the Game
and those types of things that we announced in our
Sunday meeting, but we don't really give out game balls.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I want to be in a speech for raw ROWI coach,
I do I want to be in that locker room
for that.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
But Pat broke Connor Watkins record by one yard. Connor
debut was to ninety eight and Pat went for two
ninety nine. So and he had his career high run.
His career longest run was that twenty eight yarder he
had for a touchdown.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So trickery, yeah for everybody.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Really just his own read. It really wasn't a trick play,
but they obviously were. It was a short yard of situation.
They were gearing to stop our running back David Abbott,
and the end collapsed, linebacker overlapped, everyone was going to
the David Abbott handoff and Pat came around the end
and there he went in untouched from twenty eight yards.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So we want to know on the season.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And now we get into this weekend here which you
and I were talking at Ocean City, New Jersey. Another
great event that you guys had. Fro Villa of the
football getting ready for the season, and he said, this
is a game that everybody wants to talk about.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I don't know why, just.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
The discussion with your team leading into this game, and
I know, look, you're gonna be honest with us and
it might be coach peak, but you have to make
this just another game, but it really isn't.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Though, correct, Yeah, correct.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I mean when you walk in there, and like I
said earlier, you see the size of the stadium, second
largest stadium in the country behind Michigan. We just don't
play in these type of venues. And you know, they
have one hundred and twenty seven man roster to our
ninety three man roster, so that's a big difference. And
you know, our guys would love for Penn State and
(06:04):
Notre Dame and those type of schools to have recruited them.
And maybe we have some guys that could play at
this level, whether they could do it now after development,
or maybe they could have come out of high school
if they got here and developed over time. But they
have a lot more of those guys. They have a
lot more of those guys, and they're going to rotate
a lot of those guys. But this is a great
opportunity for our guys because that we have guys that
(06:25):
want to play beyond college. We have guys that want
to play in the NFL. So this gives them opportunity
to play against some guys that I know. There's some
guys on the other team's roster that we're playing tomorrow
that will be playing on Sunday, so it gives them
an opportunity to showcase their abilities against really top level competition.
This game here was scheduled way back when, you know,
(06:46):
so when we played them in twenty twenty one, this
game was part of that agreement, so we knew they
were going to be on the schedule in twenty to
twenty five, all the way back when that game was scheduled,
So we didn't know we were playing number two in
the country at the time.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Had we known that and they said, would you like
to sign a contract for two games, I might have
said no. But it is what it is, and we're
here and everyone's excited about it. Nationally televised game FS one.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
You know, we were joking on the way up and
we're not looking for any bulletin board material and I
don't think you know that anybody needs that. We understand
what the expectations for Penn State, but coach, just knowing
what of course these odds makers are saying all that,
and the expectation for Penn State coming into the season
where we're at right now, just you know, comparing it
to some of the upsets we've seen, like you're in
(07:34):
a position to make history. Is that something that even
enters your mind? Just as a fan perspective? You love
the game, you eat, sleep, and drink the game of football.
Do you even like allow that to seep in the
back of your mind?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Not? Really, not really. I don't know what point spreads are.
I don't look at that stuff. You know, I'm not
saying my neighbor who I mentioned earlier doesn't talk about this,
but you know, and I don't look at predictions by
whomever's making those, you know, whatever newspaper writer or whoever
you know, announcers or anything like that. We we say
(08:07):
the same thing. I pretty much go into every week
the same way I go into every week, the same
way James does. Really, we're trying to go one and
O this week, regardless of we're playing Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday practice.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yes, we are preparing for what we're.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Gonna see schematically against the opposition, but we're more concerned
with what we're doing, how we're doing, what we're trying
to do, you know, our execution on our fundamentals and
our plan, you know, and then when we get in there,
there's always gonna be game day adjustments.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
So we try to go one and oh.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Every week we talk about nameless, faceless opponent and you know,
we're just coming up here and gonna give it our
best shot.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And that's a message that was carrying through the Coaches
Show on Tuesday. Yeah, and don't allow me to hog
the microphone. You guys got a question for head coach
Mark far Anti joining us, but just again leading into
this game and what Penn State brings to the table
on the offensive side. What is something that you are
looking at right now when it comes to game planning
for and stay Unoff.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Said, we have five linemen coming back. They have the
pretty much the nucleus of their linemen all coming back
from a year ago. The running backs pretty well, we
we I don't know what you.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Want me to say about their running backs, you know
what I mean. You know they're there.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
We have good running backs, but we don't have all
guys that are that size.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
David Abbott's our biggest guy, and he's about six foot
and he's two twenty four. All their guys are all
of that big boys, you know what I mean. I
remember Singleton when he was at Governor Mifflin in tenth grade.
You know, I saw his film in tenth grade. I'm like, okay,
well we got to go recruit somewhere else because we'll
have no When you looked at him, you knew he
was going.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, I saw sa Quan in tenth grade at Whitehall
High School. I saw you know, Singleton over here Governor
Mifflin in tenth grade, and it's like, okay, they're going elsewhere,
and we'll try to go find it running back somewhere else.
And fortunately we're able to find some good running back.
Oh yeah, you know, I know, there got some new whiteouts,
you know. And then it all starts with the quarterback,
no matter who you're playing, and no matter you know
(09:59):
who we're playing at that position, that's where it all starts.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
They got to be able to manage the game and
you know, make good decisions with the ball and you know,
keep things going in a timely fashion, you know, make
sure the tempos what the coaches want and all that.
So and Drew's been around a long time, so you know,
and he's a big guy that can sit in the
pocket and get the ball downfield, and he gets it
out quick at times, and you know, then we got
to tackle those guys in space when he hits the
backs out of the backfield and all that stuff. So
(10:23):
there's a lot to prepare for, and you know, the
offensive coordinator coach does a great job. I mean there's
a lot of moving parts. There's a lot of shifts
and motions. There's three tight end sets, there's no tight
end sets and everything in between, and you know, and
he moves them. He moves them around a lot. So
we got to work it out for us. You know,
we just got to have good eye discipline is what
(10:43):
we talk to our guys about, especially our linebackers and
our secondary.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
You know, we got to be gap sound and we
got to tackle well.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
And hopefully if we can create a few turnovers and
you know, steal a couple of possessions, that would help
as well.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
I'd like to chime in on kind of the offensive
line part that you were talking about. With five guys
or returning when you're going up against a front seven
that's littered with potential NFL prospects with Penn State, how
much confidence would that give you if you know, you
guys are able to actually go out there kind of
hold their own execute for going forward and cia play
when you're kind of going up against defense like Penn State.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, no, it'd be great.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I mean if our guys could could move the ball
and get the ball in the end zone a little
bit on offense and we can, you know, like I said,
play our gaps and you know, get them off schedule
when we're on defense and they're on offense. That gives
us great confidence. I think twenty twenty one we ended
up being CAA champs. We ended up going to the playoffs,
and that game really helped us because our defense really
did a good job stopping the run that day.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
I know they're a different team now.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
And I know, you know, twenty one and twenty five,
you really can't compare it because there's so many different
people on the roster.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
We only have a couple guys that were here before.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
In twenty one, our linebacker coach now, Forrest Ryan was
our All American linebacker who played in that game and
he had a great game. But it gives you confidence
if you can hang in there and you know, make
some good plays and you know, it gives the guys
confidence for when they do get to that next in
league opponent or you know, another FCS opponent, and it
helped us that year. The key is for us to
(12:07):
come in here, play well, perform well, and stay healthy.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
And to your point about it starting at the quarterback
to bring it back right to the Villanova circles. I
thought that was an incredibly impressive start by Pat mcwad there.
And this is a guy with experience the Nickel State transfer.
What is it about him that he brings to the
offens or that people have not quite seen that he
will still bring to the table this season that makes
an impact.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, he's a coach's kid, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
His dad coached high school football in Ohio for three
different schools. I believe obviously coached him at Solon High
School when he was there. His dad's in the Ohio
Hall of Fame for high school Coaches and you know,
so he's been around it his whole life. So we're
really impressed. He was a midyear guy. We only brought
in one midyear guy. We only lost one midyear guy,
so we only had room to bring in one guy.
(12:50):
So we brought in Pat and we were really impressed
with how in three months he was able to pick
up just from the fifteen spring practices. And then obviously
we carried the competition into the summer and into preseason
with him in Tanner Maddocks because Tanner has been Connor's
backup for three years. Tanner's a senior, uh, but a
red tam and he does punt returns and all that stuff.
(13:11):
So we went head to head with those guys for
as long as we felt we had to look at it,
and then Pat came out on top. So that's pretty
impressive for a guy to be with us, you know,
basically seven months and there in the starting spot.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But he's been around his whole life. Like I said,
he's a coach's kid.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
You know, he makes good decisions, he gets the ball
out quick, he protects the ball, and he does have
more game experience under his belt than Tanner because as
you mentioned, he not only started two years at Nicols
stap but he also started at junior college.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
He brought up sham Banard brought up special teams, and
I apologize, I had to think of Luke Larson and
I'm saying coach first of all what an impact he
had in Game one.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Oh, no doubt he's the real no doubt. He can
do a lot of good things.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yes, and I think, you know, if we want to
get attendance up just a little bit, I believe if
you put him out there on billboards, I have honestly
believe that might have a bit impact, especially if we
can hear his voice some way somehow.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
He is the real deal. He brings it.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
But yeah, we heard his name on the broadcast a
ton and he was penning them deep. He's a weapon
for you guys.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yes, I'd like to have you hear his name less
mean punting less. Yeah, he is going to be our holder.
He is going to be our holder. But he's really accurate.
He can kick it a lot of different ways. He
played Australian rules football when he was in Australia before
he came over to East Carolina on scholarship as a punter.
And he's East Carolina's second leading punter in net yardage.
(14:33):
So he doesn't have the leg that's going to go
forty seven on average.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
He'll go you know, forty one, forty two on average.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
But the way he kicks the ball, there's not a
lot of return yards because he can aim it. In
the one hundred and seventy five kicks punts he had
at East Carolina, he only had seven touchbacks, so he
does not you know, he puts the ball in play
or can angle it out of bounds where.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
You wanted to go.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
So if you say, hey, put it at the five
yard line, out of bounds so there is no return.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
He can do those types of lasts and he can
you know, he can.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Do the rugby style, the roll out right would still
kick it to the left, which is not easy to do,
just because he's used to, you know, running and kicking
the ball. He calls it from growing up in Australia.
He doesn't call it punting. He calls it passing. He says,
that's how they passed the ball in Australian rules football.
Yeah that makes sense, Yeah, that makes sense. He's a
very special player, very unique in that sense. Is he
(15:26):
the more unique punter that you've had?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
When you can, like a serious question, because I've seen
coaches say, hey, it just.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Happened the other night. What was the game? It was
like kicking out of bounds and the guy didn't have
the leg with the Bears. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So if you have a punter like this and you're saying, hey,
pin them on this side, we want you to kick
it to the left sideline and do it. I imagine
that's pretty easy for most punters, but he's unique in
that sense.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah. No, he kicks it. Like I said, he holds
it differently some of them. You know. He can do
the traditional punch, sure, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
So it's got the spiral and hopefully it turns over
so it goes a little further, and then he can
do the one that has more of the kickoff look
to it, the backspin, you know, like the skypunt, you
try to get inside the ten yard line and have it,
you know, more of a dead drop than he can
line drive of it to.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Get the role if you want the role.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And then he kicks one that kind of where the
ball spins sideways and it just boomerangs out of bounds,
you know what I mean, And he goes I've only
done that maybe three or four times in the game.
But they can't field that one. They can't field that one.
And he's a good athlete. He's actually our holder on
field goals and extra points now as well. He's done
one hundred and fifty three of those snaps when he
was in These Carolina. So he's got good hands and
(16:29):
he can throw it and he can catch it. And
he ran a few fakes, so he now he ran
a few fakes in his career at East Carolina, so
he can can run a little bit too at thirty
three years old.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, any three. You gotta love it, head coach, builing
over a football, Mark Farront. They joined us here live
from the Fieldburger and Tap. Can't thank you enough coach
for stopping by a busy, busy weekend for you. Obviously,
just a quick one on the way out. You brought
you peaked manchest. When we were talking about scouting players
over the years, and you've been in this game for
a long time. Who's the one guy that you that
you knocked you out of the ballpark? He went saw
(17:02):
the tape, maybe caught him live. Is there one that
jumps to you or right off the jump in your mind? Yeah,
you know what, here's what I'm gonna say about that.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
The ones that jump off the film, we can't get,
like I said, Like I said, those guys in tenth grade,
the names I mentioned they're gonna go to the the
ones that we look at and see potential. We've had
guys that have been drafted in the second round, and
obviously we got Christian Benford up there with the Bills
right now, who has been a four year starter for them.
(17:35):
Some of those guys, Tono Passo still with the Bears
in that ninth year he got a stacked.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
The other night he was a second rounder with the Chiefs.
They had no other offers.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
So it's those guys, those diamonds and the rough that
you know we are able to work them out live.
When Tona came to our camp in the summer, he
measured just under six seven, He was just under two
hundred and forty pounds and ran a four seven four forty,
So we took a shout at him and sure enough
he developed into a really good football player.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
So it's more of those guys that we try.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
To find in the in the recruiting cycle than the
ones that jump off film, because the ones that jump
off film, you know they're usually gonna go on to
the to the higher level for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Back of a program you have built over the years,
coach double digit victories and a lot of these years
playoff appearances. Of course, he got the championship and continued
success this season. Another game here coming up tomorrow. We
wish you nothing but the best, but thank you for
stopping by. Of course, live here on the Gambler The
Daily Ticket, head coach Villanova Football, Mark Ferrante, Do not
(18:37):
go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
We're hanging out here. A beautiful day and happy valley.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
More Daily Ticket as we're getting ready for Penn's date
and Villanova back after this
Live from the Fieldburger and Tap and Happy Valley. This
is the daily Ticket with Sean.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Brains once again getting you ready for all things Villanova
and Penn State. Let's go live from the Fieldburger and Tap,
Sean Brace, Ryan Beefcoyle and Sean Bernard. Ladies and gentlemen
joining us a special guest given a few minutes of
his time. Extremely busy weekend for this man. Head coach
(00:27):
of Bulldingepah Football, Mark Ferrante joining us.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Coach. Great to have you, Hi, you Ben, I'm doing well.
I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Normally when you go to the opposing teams venue, they
don't usually want to talk.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
To me that much.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Over here on a day of course, you know, with
our partners here at Playfly and teaming up with the
great folks over here, just rolling out the red carpet
for us here at the Fieldburger and Tap, and they
host a few coaches shows throughout the course of the year,
so they said, please, we'd love to have you. Can't
thank them enough and of course the Lord above for
giving us today we're have in here today.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Unbelievable. Yeah, there's beautiful out here. We just finished our walkthrough.
We actually did it at State College High School. We
actually have a freshman on our team from there, Mike Gahl.
And then we did go by the stadium, you know,
kind of getting us and os out of the way.
We don't play in venues that look anything like this one,
so just had an opportunity to walk the guys through
there and then done our walk through. Get the bus
(01:21):
trip out of their legs a little bit. But this
is beautiful over here. And my neighbor has a son
who's a junior up here, Doug Tyrrell and his son
Cole is up here, and they were talking at this
place here, This Fieldsberglan.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Tap place is pretty awesome. They say they really like
the burgers we need.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, the burger is number one apparently. And I want
to see the course. So we need to set up
a time to come back up here in the offseason. Coach,
get up here and play eighteen.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Sounds good to me. We got a lot to talk
to you about.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Of course, a big game coming up tomorrow, but I
do want to hit the rewind button about Saturday open
up the season with a victory at home.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Colegate seven point win.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
It's week one, though, I'm interested from a coach's perspective,
and you know, look, I know it's apples and oranges,
but you look at what the Eagles do and the
NFL side of things, and we can look at some
other programs at the college level. Just week one, it's
so tough. You guys don't scrimmage all offseasons, so your
thoughts and the performance. Although you got the victory right right,
we don't have preseason games. We don't have a large roster,
(02:16):
so we don't do a lot of eleven out of
eleven live during preseason. We don't even do a ton
of eleven out of eleven live in the spring, you know,
because we're always fear of injury. We need our guys
in the fall, sure, so we try to, you know,
get as much live work as we can, in more
you know, conditioned drill type work and those type of things.
But the first game was pretty clean game. I really
liked the team's effort. I like the way they hustle
(02:37):
to the ball. There was a lot of crisp hitting
out there on both sides. Actually, Colgate did have a
game under their belt, which helped us because they had
a new staff. They have a new head coach, a
new defensive coordinator, a new offensive coordinator, So it gave
us an opportunity to see them in week one and
we didn't open up till week two. So but as
far as the first game's concerned, like you said, you
never know what you're gonna get when you don't have
(02:58):
preseason games or you know, a lot of live work.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So pretty clean game.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
We only had three penalties total, We didn't have any turnovers,
so we're pretty pleased with that. We can work, you
know with those positives. Some things to clean up though,
some correctables we share, some blocks, missed some tackles, took
some bad angles at times, so you know, need to
play out the ball in the air a little better
on defense, but we did well. They did a good
job stoping our run. You know, we have a pretty
(03:23):
good running back room right now. All the guys that
we had last year are back, and all five offensive
linemen that started last year back, So they were probably
concerned about our run because they played us a little
differently than they played mama. Mama's gonna throw the ball
forty times a game, We're gonna be a little more
balanced than that. So their safeties were close in the
line of scrimmage and we were able to get some
big plays over the top. So but as far as
(03:45):
the first game, whenever you get the win, that's a
big thing, that's the most important thing. But there's some things.
Hopefully we'll have that improvement that people talk about from
week one to week two.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, I think Ryan was talking about Matt Caesar. Fantastic
to have Matt in the booth for game one. Unbelievable insight.
But it was interesting to hear him say, look, when
it comes to November, you're not going to look at
that scoreboard. It goes in as a victory and that's it.
So one in the win column when you talk about
how they were playing you. As far as defensively, McQuaid
quarterback Southpa out there slanging it.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I want to say.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Two ninety nine is what he had, which breaks the
record for most yardage passing in a debut game for
a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Do you give game balls? We do not know. We
do not.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
We give gate We we have players of the Game
and those types of things that we announced in our
Sunday meeting, but we don't really give out game balls.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I want to be in a speech for raw ROWI coach,
I do I want to be in that locker room
for that.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
But Pat broke Connor Watkins record by one yard. Connor
debut was to ninety eight and Pat went for two
ninety nine. So and he had his career high run.
His career longest run was that twenty eight yarder he
had for a touchdown.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So trickery, yeah for everybody.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Really just his own read. It really wasn't a trick play,
but they obviously were. It was a short yard of situation.
They were gearing to stop our running back David Abbott,
and the end collapsed, linebacker overlapped, everyone was going to
the David Abbott handoff and Pat came around the end
and there he went in untouched from twenty eight yards.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So we want to know on the season.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And now we get into this weekend here which you
and I were talking at Ocean City, New Jersey. Another
great event that you guys had. Fro Villa of the
football getting ready for the season, and he said, this
is a game that everybody wants to talk about.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I don't know why, just.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
The discussion with your team leading into this game, and
I know, look, you're gonna be honest with us and
it might be coach peak, but you have to make
this just another game, but it really isn't.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Though, correct, Yeah, correct.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I mean when you walk in there, and like I
said earlier, you see the size of the stadium, second
largest stadium in the country behind Michigan. We just don't
play in these type of venues. And you know, they
have one hundred and twenty seven man roster to our
ninety three man roster, so that's a big difference. And
you know, our guys would love for Penn State and
(06:04):
Notre Dame and those type of schools to have recruited them.
And maybe we have some guys that could play at
this level, whether they could do it now after development,
or maybe they could have come out of high school
if they got here and developed over time. But they
have a lot more of those guys. They have a
lot more of those guys, and they're going to rotate
a lot of those guys. But this is a great
opportunity for our guys because that we have guys that
(06:25):
want to play beyond college. We have guys that want
to play in the NFL. So this gives them opportunity
to play against some guys that I know. There's some
guys on the other team's roster that we're playing tomorrow
that will be playing on Sunday, so it gives them
an opportunity to showcase their abilities against really top level competition.
This game here was scheduled way back when, you know,
(06:46):
so when we played them in twenty twenty one, this
game was part of that agreement, so we knew they
were going to be on the schedule in twenty to
twenty five, all the way back when that game was scheduled,
So we didn't know we were playing number two in
the country at the time.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Had we known that and they said, would you like
to sign a contract for two games, I might have
said no. But it is what it is, and we're
here and everyone's excited about it. Nationally televised game FS one.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
You know, we were joking on the way up and
we're not looking for any bulletin board material and I
don't think you know that anybody needs that. We understand
what the expectations for Penn State, but coach, just knowing
what of course these odds makers are saying all that,
and the expectation for Penn State coming into the season
where we're at right now, just you know, comparing it
to some of the upsets we've seen, like you're in
(07:34):
a position to make history. Is that something that even
enters your mind? Just as a fan perspective? You love
the game, you eat, sleep, and drink the game of football.
Do you even like allow that to seep in the
back of your mind?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Not? Really, not really. I don't know what point spreads are.
I don't look at that stuff. You know, I'm not
saying my neighbor who I mentioned earlier doesn't talk about this,
but you know, and I don't look at predictions by
whomever's making those, you know, whatever newspaper writer or whoever
you know, announcers or anything like that. We we say
(08:07):
the same thing. I pretty much go into every week
the same way I go into every week, the same
way James does. Really, we're trying to go one and
O this week, regardless of we're playing Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday practice.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yes, we are preparing for what we're.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Gonna see schematically against the opposition, but we're more concerned
with what we're doing, how we're doing, what we're trying
to do, you know, our execution on our fundamentals and
our plan, you know, and then when we get in there,
there's always gonna be game day adjustments.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
So we try to go one and oh.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Every week we talk about nameless, faceless opponent and you know,
we're just coming up here and gonna give it our
best shot.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And that's a message that was carrying through the Coaches
Show on Tuesday. Yeah, and don't allow me to hog
the microphone. You guys got a question for head coach
Mark far Anti joining us, but just again leading into
this game and what Penn State brings to the table
on the offensive side. What is something that you are
looking at right now when it comes to game planning
for and stay Unoff.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Said, we have five linemen coming back. They have the
pretty much the nucleus of their linemen all coming back
from a year ago. The running backs pretty well, we
we I don't know what you.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Want me to say about their running backs, you know
what I mean. You know they're there.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
We have good running backs, but we don't have all
guys that are that size.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
David Abbott's our biggest guy, and he's about six foot
and he's two twenty four. All their guys are all
of that big boys, you know what I mean. I
remember Singleton when he was at Governor Mifflin in tenth grade.
You know, I saw his film in tenth grade. I'm like, okay,
well we got to go recruit somewhere else because we'll
have no When you looked at him, you knew he
was going.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, I saw sa Quan in tenth grade at Whitehall
High School. I saw you know, Singleton over here Governor
Mifflin in tenth grade, and it's like, okay, they're going elsewhere,
and we'll try to go find it running back somewhere else.
And fortunately we're able to find some good running back.
Oh yeah, you know, I know, there got some new whiteouts,
you know. And then it all starts with the quarterback,
no matter who you're playing, and no matter you know
(09:59):
who we're playing at that position, that's where it all starts.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
They got to be able to manage the game and
you know, make good decisions with the ball and you know,
keep things going in a timely fashion, you know, make
sure the tempos what the coaches want and all that.
So and Drew's been around a long time, so you know,
and he's a big guy that can sit in the
pocket and get the ball downfield, and he gets it
out quick at times, and you know, then we got
to tackle those guys in space when he hits the
backs out of the backfield and all that stuff. So
(10:23):
there's a lot to prepare for, and you know, the
offensive coordinator coach does a great job. I mean there's
a lot of moving parts. There's a lot of shifts
and motions. There's three tight end sets, there's no tight
end sets and everything in between, and you know, and
he moves them. He moves them around a lot. So
we got to work it out for us. You know,
we just got to have good eye discipline is what
(10:43):
we talk to our guys about, especially our linebackers and
our secondary.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
You know, we got to be gap sound and we
got to tackle well.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
And hopefully if we can create a few turnovers and
you know, steal a couple of possessions, that would help
as well.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
I'd like to chime in on kind of the offensive
line part that you were talking about. With five guys
or returning when you're going up against a front seven
that's littered with potential NFL prospects with Penn State, how
much confidence would that give you if you know, you
guys are able to actually go out there kind of
hold their own execute for going forward and cia play
when you're kind of going up against defense like Penn State.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, no, it'd be great.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I mean if our guys could could move the ball
and get the ball in the end zone a little
bit on offense and we can, you know, like I said,
play our gaps and you know, get them off schedule
when we're on defense and they're on offense. That gives
us great confidence. I think twenty twenty one we ended
up being CAA champs. We ended up going to the playoffs,
and that game really helped us because our defense really
did a good job stopping the run that day.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
I know they're a different team now.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
And I know, you know, twenty one and twenty five,
you really can't compare it because there's so many different
people on the roster.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
We only have a couple guys that were here before.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
In twenty one, our linebacker coach now, Forrest Ryan was
our All American linebacker who played in that game and
he had a great game. But it gives you confidence
if you can hang in there and you know, make
some good plays and you know, it gives the guys
confidence for when they do get to that next in
league opponent or you know, another FCS opponent, and it
helped us that year. The key is for us to
(12:07):
come in here, play well, perform well, and stay healthy.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
And to your point about it starting at the quarterback
to bring it back right to the Villanova circles. I
thought that was an incredibly impressive start by Pat mcwad there.
And this is a guy with experience the Nickel State transfer.
What is it about him that he brings to the
offens or that people have not quite seen that he
will still bring to the table this season that makes
an impact.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, he's a coach's kid, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
His dad coached high school football in Ohio for three
different schools. I believe obviously coached him at Solon High
School when he was there. His dad's in the Ohio
Hall of Fame for high school Coaches and you know,
so he's been around it his whole life. So we're
really impressed. He was a midyear guy. We only brought
in one midyear guy. We only lost one midyear guy,
so we only had room to bring in one guy.
(12:50):
So we brought in Pat and we were really impressed
with how in three months he was able to pick
up just from the fifteen spring practices. And then obviously
we carried the competition into the summer and into preseason
with him in Tanner Maddocks because Tanner has been Connor's
backup for three years. Tanner's a senior, uh, but a
red tam and he does punt returns and all that stuff.
(13:11):
So we went head to head with those guys for
as long as we felt we had to look at it,
and then Pat came out on top. So that's pretty
impressive for a guy to be with us, you know,
basically seven months and there in the starting spot.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But he's been around his whole life. Like I said,
he's a coach's kid.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
You know, he makes good decisions, he gets the ball
out quick, he protects the ball, and he does have
more game experience under his belt than Tanner because as
you mentioned, he not only started two years at Nicols
stap but he also started at junior college.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
He brought up sham Banard brought up special teams, and
I apologize, I had to think of Luke Larson and
I'm saying coach first of all what an impact he
had in Game one.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Oh, no doubt he's the real no doubt. He can
do a lot of good things.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yes, and I think, you know, if we want to
get attendance up just a little bit, I believe if
you put him out there on billboards, I have honestly
believe that might have a bit impact, especially if we
can hear his voice some way somehow.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
He is the real deal. He brings it.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
But yeah, we heard his name on the broadcast a
ton and he was penning them deep. He's a weapon
for you guys.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yes, I'd like to have you hear his name less
mean punting less. Yeah, he is going to be our holder.
He is going to be our holder. But he's really accurate.
He can kick it a lot of different ways. He
played Australian rules football when he was in Australia before
he came over to East Carolina on scholarship as a punter.
And he's East Carolina's second leading punter in net yardage.
(14:33):
So he doesn't have the leg that's going to go
forty seven on average.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
He'll go you know, forty one, forty two on average.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
But the way he kicks the ball, there's not a
lot of return yards because he can aim it. In
the one hundred and seventy five kicks punts he had
at East Carolina, he only had seven touchbacks, so he
does not you know, he puts the ball in play
or can angle it out of bounds where.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
You wanted to go.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
So if you say, hey, put it at the five
yard line, out of bounds so there is no return.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
He can do those types of lasts and he can
you know, he can.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Do the rugby style, the roll out right would still
kick it to the left, which is not easy to do,
just because he's used to, you know, running and kicking
the ball. He calls it from growing up in Australia.
He doesn't call it punting. He calls it passing. He says,
that's how they passed the ball in Australian rules football.
Yeah that makes sense, Yeah, that makes sense. He's a
very special player, very unique in that sense. Is he
(15:26):
the more unique punter that you've had?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
When you can, like a serious question, because I've seen
coaches say, hey, it just.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Happened the other night. What was the game? It was
like kicking out of bounds and the guy didn't have
the leg with the Bears. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So if you have a punter like this and you're saying, hey,
pin them on this side, we want you to kick
it to the left sideline and do it. I imagine
that's pretty easy for most punters, but he's unique in
that sense.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah. No, he kicks it. Like I said, he holds
it differently some of them. You know. He can do
the traditional punch, sure, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
So it's got the spiral and hopefully it turns over
so it goes a little further, and then he can
do the one that has more of the kickoff look
to it, the backspin, you know, like the skypunt, you
try to get inside the ten yard line and have it,
you know, more of a dead drop than he can
line drive of it to.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Get the role if you want the role.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And then he kicks one that kind of where the
ball spins sideways and it just boomerangs out of bounds,
you know what I mean, And he goes I've only
done that maybe three or four times in the game.
But they can't field that one. They can't field that one.
And he's a good athlete. He's actually our holder on
field goals and extra points now as well. He's done
one hundred and fifty three of those snaps when he
was in These Carolina. So he's got good hands and
(16:29):
he can throw it and he can catch it. And
he ran a few fakes, so he now he ran
a few fakes in his career at East Carolina, so
he can can run a little bit too at thirty
three years old.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, any three. You gotta love it, head coach, builing
over a football, Mark Farront. They joined us here live
from the Fieldburger and Tap. Can't thank you enough coach
for stopping by a busy, busy weekend for you. Obviously,
just a quick one on the way out. You brought
you peaked manchest. When we were talking about scouting players
over the years, and you've been in this game for
a long time. Who's the one guy that you that
you knocked you out of the ballpark? He went saw
(17:02):
the tape, maybe caught him live. Is there one that
jumps to you or right off the jump in your mind? Yeah,
you know what, here's what I'm gonna say about that.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
The ones that jump off the film, we can't get,
like I said, Like I said, those guys in tenth grade,
the names I mentioned they're gonna go to the the
ones that we look at and see potential. We've had
guys that have been drafted in the second round, and
obviously we got Christian Benford up there with the Bills
right now, who has been a four year starter for them.
(17:35):
Some of those guys, Tono Passo still with the Bears
in that ninth year he got a stacked.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
The other night he was a second rounder with the Chiefs.
They had no other offers.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
So it's those guys, those diamonds and the rough that
you know we are able to work them out live.
When Tona came to our camp in the summer, he
measured just under six seven, He was just under two
hundred and forty pounds and ran a four seven four forty,
So we took a shout at him and sure enough
he developed into a really good football player.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
So it's more of those guys that we try.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
To find in the in the recruiting cycle than the
ones that jump off film, because the ones that jump
off film, you know they're usually gonna go on to
the to the higher level for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Back of a program you have built over the years,
coach double digit victories and a lot of these years
playoff appearances. Of course, he got the championship and continued
success this season. Another game here coming up tomorrow. We
wish you nothing but the best, but thank you for
stopping by. Of course, live here on the Gambler The
Daily Ticket, head coach Villanova Football, Mark Ferrante, Do not
(18:37):
go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
We're hanging out here. A beautiful day and happy valley.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
More Daily Ticket as we're getting ready for Penn's date
and Villanova back after this
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