What did Villanova coach Mark Ferrante, Penn State players, say about the Lions' 52-6 win over the Wildcats?

STATE COLLEGE — Longtime Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante knew his team needed to play perfectly to come in and upset No. 2 Penn State on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. He was disappointed that it did not reach that level. But, he was still happy with his team’s effort in a 52-6 setback to the Nittany Lions.

“When you play a team like that, where you’re pretty much overmatched in every position, you have to play nearly perfect — and we didn’t do that today,” Ferrante said. “So, just like every other game, regardless of the score, we’ll try to pick up on the positive plays we made today, correct the negatives, and then put this behind us after tomorrow and move on to our next game. We’ll try to go 1–0 next week. I’m proud of the guys’ effort. I think it was a very physical game; you just have to play better when you’re competing at that level. You talk about some of the positives. For me, the positives were in this game and especially the first half, when we got some three-and-outs against that team.”

Speaking of his defense, Ferrante was asked next about the Wildcats forcing Penn State to force field goals twice deep in his team’s own end.

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“They had short fields on both of those field goals,” Ferrante said. “After they took the opening drive and kind of did what they wanted, I think our guys settled in and got used to what they were seeing. We forced some three-and-outs after that and then held them to field goals on less-than-50-yard drives. That was huge. That’s something we can build on. What I told the team afterwards was, yes, it stings now. It’s terrible in the moment, but it’ll help us. Facing that level of opponent, being able to go in there and play as physical as we did, will have a cumulative effect on us in a positive way down the road.”

What did the Nittany Lions players say after the win?

Each week, Blue-White Illustrated provides highlights from the Penn State players’ postgame news conference. Here are this week’s offerings:

“I felt pretty good overall. Obviously, got to watch the film to really, like, recap the good and bad and that sort of thing. But overall, I felt better about my performance. We just got to string together a couple things more on the offensive side of the ball. And, finish some drives in the end zone instead of settling for three all the time. There’s a lot of things to clean up. But I’m glad there are things to clean up.”

PSU QB Drew Allar on his performance.

“I think we’ve just got to execute better. We’ve got to get in rhythm and make the plays when they come to us, it’s really that simple. We’ve got to execute as receivers, everybody on the team has to execute and eliminate bad ball.”

Penn State WR Trebor Pena on the play of the offense in the first half.

“Good, I feel completely healthy. I mean obviously, there’s bruises. But at the end of the day, I feel very healthy. I think all of us, they take care of us, and the rotation we have is good. So, I think it’s going to be good for the long run.”

PSU LB Tony Rojas on how he feels after the first three games of 2025 compared to 2024.