Villanova to William & Mary: Not your turn yet

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Andy Talley has been here once before. That was 7 years ago, when a Villanova team that had opened with a win at Rutgers but lost three times had to score on the closing drive at Delaware just to make the playoffs.

The Wildcats then won twice at home before going down in the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals at McNeese State, which is mostly remembered for some questionable calls.

That run just happened. This time it's different. Nobody's shocked that 'Nova (12-1) is still playing, least of all the 'Cats themselves. The surprise would have been if they weren't. Tonight, they'll host William & Mary (11-2) for the right to move on to Chattanooga, Tenn., and face either Appalachian State or Montana for the title next Friday.

This one is on ESPN2.

'Nova has beaten the Tribe five consecutive times, including a 28-17 win on the Main Line on Oct. 3. That was a long time ago. In last week's quarterfinals, the 'Cats avenged their lone blemish of the season by toying with visiting New Hampshire in the snow, 46-7.

Talley appreciates the enormity of the circumstances.

"It's in our hands," he said. "This is exactly the way we drew it up. [Being home] is what we've earned. The opportunity doesn't come around that often, because of the toughness of our [Colonial Athletic Association]."

So, is there more pressure being at home?

"I think more so it's the fact of how often can you get to the semifinals, whether it's home or away?" Talley countered. "We need to win this game. We've played in so many big games leading up to this. That's the thing about the tournament. At 11:30 on Friday we're either going to be headed out to recruit, or preparing to go to Chattanooga.

"I think the magnitude of this league makes every coach who's going to be in the playoffs think he has a shot to be the champion, because it's so good. You just know you want to give yourself the best possible chance once you get in there. With three home games, I like our chances a lot better than having three on the road. I think both teams are evenly matched. But I wouldn't want to be getting on a bus and traveling 5 hours to William & Mary. You'd better dig real deep. I hate that trip."

The Tribe hasn't won here since 2000. They lost to James Madison at home in the 2004 semis, the only other time they've made it to this point.

"It's a very interesting equation, actually," Talley noted. "Ordinarily, statistics say they have to win one of these. It just can't be this one. This is the one we have to win.

"I think it's pretty much conceded around the country, at any level of football, that there is such a thing as a homefield advantage. And I think we have it, especially in a shorter week, where you have 1 less day to heal, 1 less day to prepare."

Last year another CAA team, Richmond, won three on the road and then won it all. One of these teams will try to become the fourth CAA team to do that in the last seven seasons. Only James Madison had to play even one team from the CAA.

Appalachian State, meanwhile, is going for its fourth ring in 5 years. Montana lost in last year's final, the third time since 1996 that it's been the runner-up. The Grizzlies went all the way in 1995 and 2001.

This is the second time Villanova has won a dozen times in a year. Maybe it's time to set a new bar.

 

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Football arms race engulfs the CAA

Conference revels in rising stature but costs prompt two of its programs to fold



William & Mary will play Villanova on Friday night in the division I-AA football semifinals, with the winner becoming the sixth Colonial Athletic Association team in seven years to reach the national championship game. The bid will serve as further evidence that the CAA has established itself as the preeminent conference in the country at its level.

Yet the success comes just eight days after Hofstra dropped its football program, becoming the second CAA school to discontinue football in as many weeks (Northeastern dropped football Nov. 23). Although the impetus for the two schools was different, both were byproducts of the increasing costs associated with maintaining college football teams -- even in college football's second tier.

The two contrasting fates come at a critical time for the conference, with the dominance at the top and the desertions at the bottom threatening to create a landscape of haves and have nots.

"That can be a concern; it's a concern in every league, and it's a concern in virtually every sport," CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said. "Can it become a have and a have not [situation]? Yeah. Is there an arms race? I mean, you see it in the ACC and the SEC. Has it trickled down somewhat? I'm sure."

Although Northeastern struggled in the CAA and needed to upgrade its facilities just to square itself with the competition, Hofstra had experienced success, making the division I-AA playoffs five times. The school will save an estimated $4.5 million by eliminating football. The money will be reallocated to non-athletic areas at the university.

"The cost of the football program, now and in the future, far exceeds the return possible from an FCS program, which does not generate significant national interest," Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz said in a statement. FCS stands for Football Championship Subdivision, the official name for division I-AA football.
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The situation counters that of James Madison, which is investing $62 million to upgrade its football facilities. The Dukes won the national championship in 2004, and Coach Mickey Matthews said that the increased interest in the program calls for an upgrade in facilities.

"The reason we're putting up facilities is because of the demand," Matthews said. "There are students who are leaving JMU who were football fans while students here. It's not like what it was 15 years ago."

William & Mary recently built an $11 million, 30,000-square-foot facility for football that has served as a key recruiting tool and allowed to Tribe to keep pace with its competition. Richmond will open a $25 million on-campus stadium next season.

Yeager acknowledged the proliferation of new facilities, although he said it's no different than all facilities at all schools -- both in athletics and academics. It is an issue that concerns New Hampshire Athletic Director Marty Scarano, whose department includes a football program with a rich tradition and strong institutional commitment. Yet the program lacks the facilities of some of the conference's other top teams, and Scarano is engaged in discussions for upgrades.

"I don't think you have to have a $100 million facility to be successful," Scarano said. "But all that being said, it's still important. We need to upgrade our facilities for this reason alone -- we need to sustain what we've accomplished. None of us here are diluted into thinking that we can stay on this trajectory unless we do something with the facilities."

There is another concern for Scarano about the evolving CAA. With Hofstra and Northeastern gone, a conference that had a symmetric geographical divide between North and South has now shifted.

Old Dominion football will join the CAA in 2011 and Georgia State arrives in 2012, additions that will continue to draw the conference toward the south. This affects the cost of travel -- gone are some easy bus trips, in their place are more flights -- and the geographical footprint of the conference.

"That's my biggest concern," Scarano said, who said it's not just Old Dominion and Georgia State, but the potential that exists with schools such as George Mason or Charlotte, neither of which currently play football. "It's more of a demographic and types of schools as it is location. Those schools are all 25,000 enrollments and higher. And they have all that power that comes to bear with student fees."

To that point, Yeager said the disparity in the size of the schools might be the most pressing issue for the CAA's future. And it ties all the issues together -- the economics, the geography and the ability to build facilities.

What remains indisputable, though, is that Yeager will awake Saturday morning with another CAA program in the national championship game. And it will be the fifth different school, which is a testament to the conference's depth during a time when questions could soon emerge about its sustainability.

"We got to find a way to gather up all FCS football to do the best we can and put values on people's commitments that are maybe different, but equally shared," Scarano said. "If the FCS goes the way of the BCS, and you slice off the top 20 percent of FCS, it'll be the demise of it. They'll just cut off their nose to spite their face, I think. If the Delawares, and the Montanas, and the JMUs, the [Appalachian] States -- and you can name maybe seven, eight schools -- if they decide their brand of football is completely different than the UNHs, well, who are they going to play with in the future, then?"

 

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Tribe eager for second shot at Villanova, trip to FCS championship



December 11, 2009


The slow starts that have characterized William and Mary's first two playoff games aren't all that surprising, given the Tribe's lack of familiarity with its opponents.

That won't be the case in tonight's national semifinal. Instead of trying to scout Weber State or Southern Illinois solely off film, the Tribe will go up against Colonial Athletic Association foe Villanova with a trip to its first FCS title game at stake and memories of the Wildcats' 28-17 win Oct. 3 still fresh.

"Watching tape on Weber and Southern Illinois, it was hard because we didn't know the opponents they were playing, whereas now we've got no excuse against Villanova," Tribe junior wide receiver Cam Dohse said. "They're a team we've seen before. We've seen all the teams that they've played before. We know what we're getting into, and against a good team like that, we're going to have to come out of the gates strong."

That didn't happen in last weekend's 24-3 victory at Southern Illinois, when William and Mary (11-2) managed all of 2 yards in the first quarter, or in Nov. 28's 38-0 victory against Weber State, when the Tribe needed two touchdowns off interception returns to spark a slumbering offense.

"You don't want to try to (start slowly) on purpose, that's for sure," Tribe coach Jimmye Laycock said. "Things happen (in) different games. Sometimes you like to start fast, sometimes it doesn't always work that way, but you've got to understand we're playing the whole game."

When William and Mary, then ranked No. 5 in the country, first played at Villanova, then No. 2, in October, it was the Wildcats (12-1) who started fast, scoring a touchdown on a 57-yard flea-flicker on the game's first play.

"We like to be a quick-start team," Villanova coach Andy Talley said. "The one game against New Hampshire during the season (on Oct. 10) when we didn't get a quick start, we ended up losing. (But) I'm not so sure that that's all that important in this game. I think this is going to be a four-quarter battle with two terrific teams getting after it.

"(In October), I don't think they played their best game against us up here, and we played a very, very good game. We're going to have to play even better because of the football team that they are now. I think they're the hottest football team in the country right now."

Laycock stopped short of saying the Tribe, coming off a win over the third-seeded Salukis that tied the school record for victories and gave William and Mary its first road playoff win, is more confident than the team that faced the Wildcats two months ago. But he allowed that there have been some positive changes.

"We've improved in knowing ourselves and knowing what we can do," Laycock said. "I don't think we've changed a whole lot in what we're doing scheme-wise, but I think it's just the players having had more experiences in very tough games, and they've learned from that."

No added motivation is needed for either team today. But W&M, which lost 48-34 to James Madison five years ago in its only other national semifinal, is eager to erase the bitter taste of its last trip to Villanova.

"It's a revenge thing now, I guess," senior wide receiver D.J. McAulay said. "Villanova was really a tough one for a lot of us. It was a game that we kind of dropped the ball. We're anxious. I can't really speak for the whole team, but I know I'm personally anxious to go back up to Villanova and kind of finish what we started. I feel like we left a lot on the field, but the scoreboard didn't represent what we put out there."

The Tribe moved the ball against the Wildcats, but didn't find the end zone until R.J. Archer's 3-yard pass to Chase Hill with 4:18 to play and the outcome decided.

"Personally, I feel like I left a lot of plays out on the field that game," Hill said.

It's a sentiment his teammates share.

"I want to play these guys again," junior offensive lineman Keith Hill said. "(It's) the feeling of not doing what you know you can do. More than proving it to them, you want to prove it to yourself, that you can the play football you know how to play."
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Five keys for William and Mary against Villanova




Five keys for the Tribe


Be alert
1In a 28-17 regular-season loss on Oct. 3, the Tribe gave up a 57-yard touchdown on a flea-flicker on the first play of the game. To beat the Wildcats this time, William and Mary will have to guard against deflating big plays early at a place where it hasn't traditionally played well.

Start quickly
2William and Mary has started slowly against its first two playoff opponents, understandable as it had never faced either Weber State or Southern Illinois. But the Tribe is very familiar with Colonial Athletic Association foe Villanova, and that familiarity will have to translate into a greater level of offensive comfort.

Stop the run
3Well, duh, for a Tribe defense that allows just 53 rushing yards per game, best in the nation. But the Wildcats now have two healthy running backs ? Angelo Babbaro was hurt in the teams' October meeting ? to complement quarterback and leading rusher Chris Whitney and do-everything threat Matt Szczur.

Contain Whitney
4The Wildcats' big, bruising quarterback has thrown for 1,696 yards and 17 touchdowns (and just three interceptions) while rushing for another 848 yards and five TDs. William and Mary's defensive front seven is among the best in the country, and Whitney will make the Tribe prove it.

Keep rolling
5The Tribe tied the school record for victories with a win at Southern Illinois that also gave W&M its first road playoff win. The Salukis were the No. 3 national seed and had won 11 straight games. The confidence gained in that win will have to carry over into William and Mary's second national semifinal appearance.