’Nova tightens its pass defense

Villanova coach Andy Talley made it known through the week that his defense would blitz — a lot — Friday night in the NCAA FCS championship game.

The Wildcats defense played true to form.

But they couldn’t get to Montana quarterback Andrew Selle, who picked apart Villanova’s secondary.

However, the Wildcats are accustomed to allowing impressive passing yardage. They entered the game ranked 103rd in the country in pass defense.

Selle took advantage. In the first half alone, he passed for 232 yards and completed 17 of his 23 attempts.

Receiver Marc Mariani also found fortune against ’Nova. He caught nine passes for 178 yards and a touchdown in the first half.

Something changed in the second half. Selle passed for only 17 yards in the third quarter, and with the Grizzlies trailing 23-14 with 11 minutes to play, they had to take to the air for the rest of the game.

Selle connected with Jabin Sambrano for a 53-yard touchdown with 1:07 to play, which pulled the Griz within 23-21.

Selle finished with 351 yards on 27-of-35 passing with three touchdowns. Mariani did not have a catch in the second half.

“They did a great job in the first half, and we really had trouble catching up to them in the first half,” Villanova coach Andy Talley said. “I was just hoping (Selle) would come back to earth. We really didn’t change anything.”

All-American hero

Villanova senior defensive end Tim Kukucka, a third-team All-American, broke his thumb in the first half. But he didn’t want his last collegiate game to end with him just watching on the sideline.

Doctors put a cast on it at halftime, and he played the entire second half.

Slick track OK for Cats

Villanova right tackle Jonathan Bugli didn’t bother putting a towel on the turf for his pregame stretching routine. He rolled around on his belly and on his back in a Tshirt, just soaking up water from Friday’s rain.

The lack of precipitation at game time pleased Coach Talley.

“We have played in a lot of rain this year; we are probably weatherproof,” Talley had saidThursday. “We would not want to play in the rain. We’d like a day like today, where both teams would have equal opportunity to move the ball, not a lot of slippery turnovers and things of that nature.

“We prefer a clean, hard, fast track and not a sloppy day in the rain.”

Help from Huesman

Talley caught up with University of Tennessee at Chattanooga head coach Russ Huesman earlier in the week.

Huesman was Richmond’s defensive coordinator during its championship run last season, which ended with a 24-7 win over Montana.

“He didn’t give me a lot of hope,” Talley said. “He just said, ‘They are big, good, very physical, and you are going to have a rough game with them.’”

As it turned out, though, Villanova became the second Colonial Athletic Association team in as many years to defeat Montana in the FCS final.

Montana mashers

Montana reached the championship game last year despite allowing 52 sacks.

The Grizzlies trimmed that number to 18 over their first 14 games this season.

“Our offensive line has tremendous discipline individually,” Montana coach Bobby Hauck said Thursday. “They have good eyes and feet, discipline in their assignments, and thus we haven’t given up the number of sacks we did last year.”

FRIDAY’S STAT

Villanova scored 20 points in a row after getting behind 14-3 early in the second quarter. Montana scored a late touchdown, but the Wildcats dominated the final 33 minutes of the game.

FRIDAY’S STAR

Villanova’s Matt Szczur was nearly unstoppable. The junior all-purpose All-American rushed for 159 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, just the second 100-yard game of his career, and had four catches for 68 yards.