After watching sophomore quarterback John Robertson's scintillating offensive display in No. 15 Villanova's 45-35 upset of No. 3 Towson on Saturday night at Johnny Unitas Stadium, Tigers coach Rob Ambrose did not hide his admiration for Robertson's performance.
"How good was John Robertson? Why don't you ask me how good-looking Charlize Theron is?" he quipped. "He's amazing. He's not good, he's amazing. … He extended plays, we couldn't tackle him, and when we boxed him in, he found a way out. If you want to be really good and have a chance to make a run at the playoffs, you've got to have a great signal caller, and he's not good, he's great."
Robertson was indeed at the top of his game against Towson. He completed his first 17 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns before throwing his first and only incompletion with 12:05 left in the fourth quarter. Robertson also rushed a career-high 32 times for 150 yards and three scores.
Robertson, who won the Jerry Rice Award as the top freshman in the Football Championship Subdivision last season, said the last time he'd carried the ball that many times was during his senior year at Paramus High (N.J.).
"We had a great game plan going into the game," Robertson said. "We knew we weren't always going to play great, and they're a good defense. They don't really let you go over the top. So we had to just spread the ball to everyone. I think my offensive line just opened up everything for me."
Coach Andy Talley credited Robertson with helping the Wildcats (4-2, 3-0 Colonial Athletic Association) avoid their third loss this season.
"John's the big factor," Talley said. "He's so quick. When he hits something, he's through the line of scrimmage in a hurry. So you've got a quarterback that rushed for 163 yards [before 13 lost yards], all pretty much up the middle. That tells you that your offensive line is pretty good. They're a fast defensive team. So when you run laterally, they can run you down. We didn't do too much of that. We did just to keep them honest, but it was mostly north-south running."
Last fall, Robertson connected on 17 of 23 throws for 216 yards and a season-high four touchdowns and rushed 21 times for 27 yards and one score in a game that Towson won, 49-35.
Ambrose said Robertson has blended an ability to evade tackles, an explosive first step and a deft passing touch into one dangerous package.
"If you take all three of those things together, you're talking about a Michael Vick-esque style," Ambrose said. "He runs, he's smart. If you watch him, he knows when to get down and not take the hit, unlike last year. He's slippery and he knows his offense extremely well. There's a small pool of guys for Freshman Player of the Year. There's even a smaller pool of guys for National Player of the Year, and if he keeps playing like he did tonight, he's going to be in that pool."