Villanova Readies For Final Season Under Andy Talley
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Villanova Wildcats will open their 2016 college football season on Saturday when they visit the University of Pittsburgh.
This will be the final season opener for Andy Talley as Villanova head coach. He is retiring after this campaign, his 32nd at the helm of the Wildcats. He is the only head coach the program has known since it was restored in the mid-80's after being dropped following the 1980 season.
"Everything here is very positive about my last year," Talley tells KYW Newsradio. "I really haven't given it a lot of thought. I look into the end zone and see the new football operations building that's built and going to be open this September. Mark Ferrante is our coach-in-waiting and our staff is tremendous, they're going to be back. So nothing changes (at the end of the season) except I move from head coach to Assistant to the AD and the beat goes on."
Villanova went 6-5 in 2015. Three games into that season, the Wildcats lost their outstanding senior quarterback John Robertson to injury. That opened the door for Zach Bednarczyk and the now redshirt sophomore did a solid job in his first shot as the starter, completing 58% of his passes for 1,396 yards and ten touchdowns. He also rushed for a team-best 515 yards and five scores.
Talley says Bednarczyk is ready to build on last year's experience.
Listen to the entire interview with Villanova head coach Andy Talley
"You can see the difference here in preseason with Zach," Talley says. "He's much more judicious throwing the football, he knows where he is going. He's always had the run-pass threat because he's a really good runner, he has a great arm. I think he's going to be one of the top quarterbacks in our league and certainly our leader right now."
On the other side of the football, Villanova's defense was very good last season. Linebacker Don Cherry, one of the best defensive players in program history has graduated, he's trying to make the Eagles, but Talley is confident that unit will be a force again.
"I like our defense," Talley says. "Headed up by (senior defensive lineman) Tanoh Kpassagnon, who is probably one of the best defensive players in the country really, at any level. We just feel like this group is going to pick up where they left off last year. We gave up 18 points a game, I think we're going to be somewhere around 16, 17 or 18 points a game. We can run and I like the enthusiasm and the speed that this defense has."
Kpassagnon had a team high 6.5 sacks last season for the Wildcats.
Villanova and Pittsburgh will kick off at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh.
