Villanova

we did a lot more of it because we couldn’t do any of it in person.”

Ferrante received commitments from 11 players on the first day of the threeday 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 PennTrafford, 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 vying for a second straight Florida Class 7A state title this weekend with national powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas.

Ethan Carr and Lopes add size to the receiving corps. Both are 6-2. Carr is a versatile athlete who played quarterback as a senior and totaled 54 career touchdowns. 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 TDs.

The Wildcats also added size in the secondary. Harley is 6-1 and Sapp is 6-0. Linebacker 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 athletictype 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 extra year of eligibility for athletes who lost either all or part of their seasons to the COVID-19 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.”

• • •

With the Colonial Athletic Association having moved football to the spring, Ferrante said Villanova will return to practice Jan. 18. The first game, at Stony Brook, is March 6. The NCAA has given teams an extra two weeks of return-to-play protocol for meetings, training and walk-through practice sessions. Preseason camp starts in February.