Villanova Ranked 4th in FCS Preseason Poll

[Jimmy Serrano]

http://www.footballgeography.com/history-of-fbs-i-a-vs-fcs-i-aa/

Lots of good data here on that.

FYI - North Dakota St. is 7-3 against FBS schools.

Villanova is 3-15 (they beat Temple in 2009)

Youngstown State is 20-27-1 (beat Pitt in 2012)

Delaware is 15-12

Nice link.

In 2013, you had an AP Top 25 team (Oregon State), Temple, Florida, USF, KState, Iowa St, and UConn all go down to FCS schools.

But according to FS, this never happens.

 

[huskymedic]

KevinOnCFB 9:48am via TweetDeck
#Villanova QB John Robertson and LB Don Cherry named @CAAFootball preseason offensive/defensive players of the year.

 

[SonsOfNutmeg]

Here's my thoughts:

1.) If nothing else, us fans need to show up on Sept. 3rd and be loud at The Rent (or PAWS-ARF, whatever we're calling the home of the Huskies in East Hartford these days...) Fans in the seats that night will be key in helping to give this team a true home field advantage, and support around the program this year. It will set the stage for the rest of our, fairly weak, home schedule, wheather we win or lose to Villanova. Casual UConn Football fans need to take this FCS game seriously too, and realize how significant of a power 'Nova really is. Its my fear that most causal fans willl sleep on this game b/c its a small, non FBS school.

2.) Whatever happens this year, if we win or lose this opener, we can quit on Diaco, or this program... I think its easy to forget, but the Pasquloni-era really drove this entire program so far backwards and into the ground, that when HCBD and his staff came here last year it really has been a re-build job from the ground up. And that work continues. What we can all take soltice in is that Diaco is a great motivator of young men, and a tremendous recruiter. He's already shown he can recruit with and against the best of them, taking P5 conference school talent away and bringing them here. We need to continue that growth and support this program. Key example of this: Memphis and Justin Fuente down there. He went a combined 7 wins his first 2 seasons in Memphis. They won the conference and 9 games last year. It can happen, we can get out of this rut, expand our stadium, and continue the hope that we'll get a P5 conference invite to the B1G, Big XII or ACC sooner than later. I've siad it before, and I'll continue to say it this year, I honestly believe Bob Diaco is the best person to be leading that change here at UConn. He's smart, energetic (a little crazy maybe, but that's what you need), and is a proven winner at the biggest stage in this sport with Notre Dame, and going to a National Championship game. Its my opinion that WE all need to believe in and support this man if we ever want this program to be taken seriously and on the map nationally yet again.

 

[pepband99]

I doubt your analysis of Villanova is correct. Maybe the win a game in the ACC. Maybe they beat Eastern Michigan and Miami in the MAC. But none of those are gimmes. They play those teams in weeks 7-9 I doubt they win. Since 2000 fbs teams have won over 80% of the games agains Fcs opponents every year but 2. There have been some years they've won them all. So figuring we should win is hardly rocket science. It's mostly based on the fact that the 1a team, well, wins more than 80 times out of 100. Even bad fbs teams win mostly.

Villanova came within a botched PAT of getting a win, on the road, in the ACC last year, forget the AAC. I doubt your analysis is correct.

 

[freescooter]

It was 1 game. They lost. To what to be charitable was a mediocre Syracuse team. Now imagine they had to take on Clemson @ Florida state, @ Georgia Tech, BC, North Carolina @ Duke @ Pitt. Just for jollies throw in 3 more 1A games, let's say @ BYU Rutgers and Temple plus Delaware. Now tell me how many they win? The fallacy in ranking 1AAs above 1As ignores the fact that over a 12 game season the AAs couldn't hold up . Not enough depth.

 

[mets1090]

The best 1AA team would probably win 3 games against a mediocre 1A schedule. Maybe they steal one conference game and a couple weak OOC games. I can't imagine them winning more than that simply because by the time injuries start to mount after 2 or 3 weeks, they just aren't deep enough.

 

[freescooter]

The best 1AA team would probably win 3 games against a mediocre 1A schedule. Maybe they steal one conference game and a couple weak OOC games. I can't imagine them winning more than that simply because by the time injuries start to mount after 2 or 3 weeks, they just aren't deep enough.

Exactly! One game early in the season which is a big deal for them against an opponent who views it as a tune-up they have a chance, but still lose most of the time. Week in week out I think 3 is generous.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

A win here would indicate a step in the right direction.

 

[Carl Spackler]

A win here would indicate a step in the right direction.

All hail Captain Obvious!!!

Lol. Sorry Duncan. It stinks to be legitimately concerned about losing the season opener at home against Villanova. No amount of small victories starts a team in the right direction. The actual W's do.

Proper preparation prevents poor performance and Diaco's supervision of the preparation of this program to play needs to progress positively.

 

[RedSoloCup]

Proper preparation prevents poor performance and Diaco's supervision of the preparation of this program to play needs to progress positively.

Aww man, now I have to clean the screen!

 

[Carl Spackler]

Aww man, now I have to clean the screen!

Say it out loud in your best Daffy Duck voice.

 

[gioff23]

A couple of stories on Nova

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...g_Robertson_healthy_a_Villanova_priority.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...d_on_playing_well__not_preseason_ranking.html