NP’s Thomas, La Salle’s Zobel among 12 to sign with Villanova

Christmas came a few days early for Villanova football coach Mark Ferrante, thanks to the new three-day early signing period that began Wednesday.

All 12 of the recruits Ferrante expected to sign letters of intent did so by noon.

“It worked out as we anticipated,” Ferrante said by telephone. “This allows us to go into the holiday season with a lot less stress.”

Before this year, high school plyers had to wait until the first Wednesday in February to sign a national letter of intent. But with athletes making verbal commitments earlier and earlier, the American Football Coaches Association requested that the signing date be moved up. Last April, the Division I Council passed recruiting reform that added the threeday early signing period in December.

“This is something we’ve wanted at our level,” Ferrante said. “We were curious to see how it was going to go and by all indications it went well. We were looking to bring in 15 players overall and 12 told us they were going to sign early and did so 12-for-12 is a good start.”

Heading the Class of 2022 is defensive lineman Garrett Zobel out of La Salle College High School. The 6-3, 280-pounder earned Al-state honors and was a two-way All-Catholic selection for the Explorers.

Another key recruit is linebacker Qwahsin Townsel of St. Joseph High School in New Jersey. He was the Atlantic City Press Player of the Year and guided the Wildcats to a 12-0 record and the New Jersey NonPublic Group 2 championship. A two-way standout, the 6-0, 205-pound Townsel ran for 1,16 yards and 30 touchdowns on offense and made 52 tackles on defense.

They are part of a recruiting class that is heavy on defense. Of the 12 players Villanova signed, eight are expected to play defense for the Wildcats. The other defensive players are: backs Christian Benford (Randallstown, Md), Darius Pickett (McDonogh School, Nottingham, Md.) and Elijah Trent (Thomas Wooden, Rockville, Md.); linebacker Owen Thomas (North Penn) and lineman Michael Taylor (Holy Cross, Rockville Center, N.Y.).

Maybe the most intriguing player is 6-7, 205-pound quarterback Qadir Ismail out of John Carroll High School in Bel Air, Md. He is the son of former son of former NFL receiver Qadry “Missle” Ismail and the nephew of Raghib “Rocket” Ismail.

The Wildcats also signed Jalen Jackson, a running back from Thomas Jefferson High School in Richmond, Va., linemen Matthew Mazza (Manalapan, N.J.) and James Petrovcik (Seton Hall Prep, Westfield, N.J.) and kicker picker Nathan Fondacaro (St Augustine Prep, Sewell, N.J.).

“Through graduation we need a little more numbers on defense,” Ferrante said. “It’s an athletic group with some good size. Zobel is 280 pounds and is an all-state player. Townsel was the South Jersey Player of the Year and has good size. A couple of the offensive linemen will add depth, and the guys in the secondary have good size and are athletic.

Villanova was hit hard by injuries in 2017. Of the 13 scholarship freshman on the team last season, 10 saw action for a team that finished 5-6 overall and 3-5 in the CAA.

“We hope that trend doesn’t continue,” Ferrante said. “We’d like to redshirt all of them, but we know it’s not going to happen. We feel very good about this class and coupled with the class we brought in last year we feel we have solid backto-back recruiting classes.”