Ferrante goes old school for Villanova signings

Recruiting this year was much different than in the past.

In-person recruiting for all Division I sports is suspended until April 15 of next year. That means no official or unofficial visits will be conducted due to the coronavirus pandemic, and coaches were not allowed to go and see a recruit play in person. They can only communicate with recruits through phone calls, text messages, FaceTime, Zoom calls and social media.

In constructing his latest recruiting class, then, Villanova football coach Mark Ferrante went old school.

“Recruiting was like it was 25 years ago, where you’re going strictly off of film,” Ferrante said. He added that method is a challenge, though it did have one unexpected benefit.

“Because of Zoom and platforms like that, I’ve had the chance to talk to this group and their families more than previous classes,” Ferrante said. “I almost feel like I know these guys better from the amount of times we’ve had conversations. It’s just something you learn moving forward and communication is the key and it always is in recruiting, but we did a lot more of it because we couldn’t do any of it in person.”

Ferrante received commitments from 11 players Wednesday, the first day of the three-day early signing period. It is a class that is heavy on linemen, receivers and defensive backs. The recruits hail from seven states, including two from Texas.

The class includes offensive linemen Erik Bockisch of Salisbury School in Connecticut, Ian Erickson from the Marist School in Georgia and Shane Voltaire of Tabor Academy in Massachusetts. The offensive additions also include receivers are Ethan Carr of Penn-Trafford in Western Pennsylvania, Daniel Lopes from

Chester Academy in Connecticut and Irene Ngabonziza out of Nolan Catholic in Texas, and tight end Antonio Johnson out of St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida.

Villanova also added defensive lineman Bryce Ganious from Second Baptist in Texas, linebacker Shane Hartzell of Pennridge, and defensive backs Chantz Harley of Landon, Md., and Christian Sapp from East Stroudsburg South.

Antonio Johnson is one of the big gets. The 6-4, 225-pound tight end is going for his second straight Florida Class 7A state title this weekend

Ethan Carr and Lopes add size to the receiving corps. Both are 6-2. Carr weighs 205 pounds and Lopes 190. Carr is a versatile athlete who played quarterback as a senior and totaled 54 touchdowns in his career. Lopes caught 50 passes for 798 yards and 10 TDs. Ngahonziza is a two-time all-state selection who amassed 1,400 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns.

The Wildcats also added size in the secondary. Harley is 6-1 and Sapp is 6-0. Hartzell was the Reporter/Times-Herald Player of the Year.

“We’re pretty excited about all of them,” Ferrante said. “Carr was the Player of the Year in his area. Hartzell was the Player of the Year in his area. Johnson comes from a nationally known program down there in Florida. Two of the players in Texas are both playing for state championships.

“There’s a lot of athletic-type guys that play both sides of the ball, even in the line group. It’s a good group of young men that play multiple positions and multiple sports. We think it’s a good athletic group that will add some depths to the positions of need.”

Ferrante said it will be a little more challenging for this class to have an immediate impact because of the rule change that grants an extra year of eligibility for spring, fall and winter athletes who lost either all or part of their seasons due to the pandemic. Ferrante expects to have a number of athletes take advantage of that provision.

That will give Ferrante and his staff time to get to know the new recruits.

“Almost half of this class has not met us in person yet and we have not met them in-person,” Ferrante said. “We may not have had a live evaluation of some men we recruited in years past, but they were able to visit campus and we were able to do home visits. That’s the weird part about this year. We weren’t able to do any of that.”

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NOTES » The Colonial Athletic Association moved football to the spring. Ferrante said Villanova’s return is scheduled for Jan. 18 with the first game scheduled for March 6 at Stony Brook. The NCAA has given teams and extra two weeks of return to play protocol which allows teams to do more meetings, training and walk-through practice sessions. Preseason camp will start in February.