Villanova quarterback competition has grown since spring practice

Villanova will need to bring some extra chairs into its quarterback room.

Since spring practice, the Wildcats’ competition at the position has expanded from a three-player race to seven. At the Colonial Athletic Association’s media day on Tuesday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Villanova coach Mark Ferrante said the job is anyone’s for the taking, but he also mentioned that incumbent backups Jack Shetelich and Qadir Ismail were leading in the pack with JJ Scarpello also in the mix.

“Competition should make everybody better," he said. “It’s really Jack and Qadir starting it off, just how we finished spring practice.”

But Villanova added graduate transfers Daniel Smith (from Campbell University) and JP Petricca (Howard). Because the two graduated from their previous colleges, they are not required to sit out a season by the NCAA. Smith will be a junior this season and Petricca will be a senior.

The competition is rounded out by incoming freshmen Matt O’Connor, from Lower Merion, and Connor Watkins, who played for Loyalsock Township in Williamsport, Pa.

O’Connor became the all-time leading passer in Aces history last season, surpassing the 3,484-yard mark set by Sam Stabert in 2004.

Ferrante said the players who have worked out with a few of the new signal-callers have given him positive reports on Smith, but the staff won’t see him until training camp.

“From what I’m hearing, mostly from the players when they go out there and organize some seven-on-sevens on their own, some guys are liking what he’s doing on the field,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes when we’re able to evaluate those guys in person as a coaching staff.”

The newcomers’ disadvantage of not knowing terminology might have been softened a bit with Villanova’s bringing in Chris Boden as its new offensive coordinator after last year’s offensive czar, Sam Venuto, retired. Boden was a standout quarterback for Villanova in the late 1990s, and was inducted into the university varsity club’s Hall of Fame in 2015.

Boden left his head-coaching gig at Advanced Software Analysis College, a JUCO based in Miami, to return to his alma mater, but Ferrante doesn’t expect the offense to change drastically.

“There will be some tweaks here and there. You’re always going to stay current with things, take a few things out, add a couple wrinkles," Ferrante said. “You’ll always have tweaks, but it’s not like we’re going on offense from shotgun zone-read stuff to an under-center, power-I fullback [scheme] or anything like that.”

Ismail and Shetelich should have an edge in game experience, though. Shetelich, heading into his redshirt junior season, started two games last year and played in a total of five. He completed 26 of 49 passes, throwing one touchdown pass and two interceptions.

Ismail played in three games in his freshman season, including a start against Richmond in which he went 8-for-17, throwing one TD pass and an interception. Because of NCAA rules allowing players to redshirt even if they play in up to four games, this will be his redshirt freshman season.