Villanova prepares for Montana mystique

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Villanova football coach Andy Talley sometimes wears his national championship ring while on recruiting trips – his basketball national championship ring, that is.

The ring was a gift from the school’s basketball team when he was hired in 1985 to rebuild the football program. Twenty-five seasons later, Talley and the Wildcats finally have their first shot at winning the school’s first Football Championship Subdivision title when they face Montana tonight at Finley Stadium.

The second-ranked Wildcats (13-1) couldn’t have picked a more dominant opponent.

“I think they’ve won something like 3,000 conference championships in a row,” Talley joked about Montana on Thursday. “They are the only show in town in Montana, and people rally around it much like people do in Pennsylvania with Penn State. We suffer from being in the suburbs in Philadelphia. I think this could have a bigger impact on the Villanova nation.”

The Grizzlies (14-0) have actually won just 12 Big Sky Conference titles in a row, but they’re undefeated for the second time in three seasons after losing last year’s title game to Richmond.

They’re making their fifth appearance in the national championship game this decade and seventh overall. Despite the regular appearances, Montana has only won the title twice and hasn’t won since 2001, two seasons before coach Bobby Hauck took over.

“You can’t try to win it any harder than we have in the past,” Hauck said. “We’re 14-0, we’re undefeated, we’re No. 1 in the nation, and we’d like to cap that with our 15th win (tonight), but we can’t work any harder. We can’t turn over any more rocks than we have in the past.”