When All-American senior tackle Ryan Coll announced his return to UR for a final season there was plenty of reason for optimism, and with fellow seniors Cade Salyers, Tom Elia, and Gavin Lamp all finally getting the chance to play a season together it’s easy to get excited about this year’s Boss Hawgs up front.

Player Profiles

Ryan Coll – https://richmondspiders.com/sports/football/roster/ryan-coll/5715

Tom Elia – https://richmondspiders.com/sports/football/roster/tom-elia/5720

Cade Salyers – https://richmondspiders.com/sports/football/roster/cade-salyers/5751

Gavin Lamp – https://richmondspiders.com/sports/football/roster/gavin-lamp/5736

Keith Gouveia – https://richmondspiders.com/sports/football/roster/keith-gouveia/5725

UR All-Americans

Richmond hasn’t had a two time All-American on the offensive line since Matt McCracken (Three time AA from 2007-2009), but Ryan Coll has a chance to end that drought in 2023 as he returns for his final year to anchor this UR O-line. Coming off a 2nd team All-American and 1st team All-CAA junior year, Coll has drawn NFL interest and currently projects as a preferred free agent (signing after the 7 rounds) entering the 2024 NFL draft.

Coll only allowed 13 hurries in 12 FCS games during 2022, and had six games with a 99.0 or 100.0 pass-block efficiency (per PFF rankings). That consistency at a premium offensive line position helped this UR passing attack take the next step, and will be critical this upcoming year when a new QB takes over for the Spiders.

Coll’s versatility shouldn’t be overlooked when discussing his skillset, as he wasn’t even supposed to be playing tackle during 2022. Gavin Lamp won the LT job in August of 2022 with Coll ready to play LG again, yet the late change due to injury barely impacted him and allowed UR to fill a critical position up front. Scouts will love his ability to play both guard and tackle, and with right tackle being the third position he makes collegiate starts at I would expect his stock to rise further the deeper we get into the 2023 schedule.

Center

Forget trying to remember the last time UR had a bad year at center, when’s the last time we had an AVERAGE center? Here’s the past four primary UR centers and their highest CAA honors in their career:

• 2012 – 2014 | Austin Gund (1st team All-CAA, *twice*)
• 2015 – 2016 | Nick Vergos (2nd team All-CAA)
• 2017 – 2018 | John Yarbrough (2nd team All-CAA)
• 2018 – 2021 | Clayton McConnell (1st team All-CAA, *twice*)

It’s been TWELVE years since we had worse than a 2nd team All-CAA caliber center – just mind boggling to think about the recent run of UR centers, but even more impressive when you realize that streak isn’t about to end.

The way things developed make this even more impressive, as Vergos came into UR as a defensive tackle and eventually made the switch to OL. Yarbrough had a great 2017 but was dealt a tough hand in 2018, as the Spiders asked him to start at three different positions throughout the season. He still played incredibly well and that move made way for McConnell, who three years and 36 career starts later had racked up two 1st team All-CAA honors himself.

Now we arrive at Tom Elia, who played nearly every snap in 2022 and is set to be the centerpiece on the offensive line again in 2023. They say that the best ability is availability, and there’s no better way to describe Elia than that. Towards the end of the year there wasn’t a game where #56 wasn’t banged up or bloodied on the sideline, however the Spiders’ center kept himself on the field for nearly 1,000 snaps in 2022. Most teams try and give their center a break on field goals and PATs, yet Elia played 63 snaps on those units, further proving his toughness and heart when it comes to leading this group. It looks like we’ll finally get him a break during FGs & PATs, but it’s great knowing he’ll be the first guy running out there no matter what role the Spiders need him in.

Everyone else

The “everyone else” ain’t too bad themselves and really ends up getting overlooked with so much focus on other players/positions. The return of Gavin Lamp at tackle likely isn’t being discussed enough, as UR has the potential to lose a right tackle starter to FBS Syracuse but then immediately fill that spot with a guy who beat out an FBS transfer for a left tackle position last year. My optimism is cautious, as the return from a season-ending injury is never easy, but getting your old left tackle back while filling Joe More’s spot with All-American Ryan Coll isn’t something most teams are in a position to do. Keith Gouveia will have another spring & fall camp under his belt at left guard, and there’s no reason to think he won’t have a large jump from freshman to sophomore year. He was ready when the Spiders called on him early in 2022 and while he won’t get much attention with four seniors around him he played his spot well.

Then we get to Cade Salyers, who just keeps flying under the radar despite performing at an All-CAA level. No recognition in 2022 or in the 2023 preseason polls but the numbers show his lack of recognition didn’t match his level of play. There isn’t much data out there for FCS players, however PFF does do end of the year rankings for all FCS teams. Here’s how the highest three UR offensive linemen graded out during 2022:

Overall Cade Salyers was the #1 Richmond offensive lineman in 2022, and Tom Elia had a top-25 pass block grade amongst all eligible centers. Now, how much should we rely on PFF (who have some known flaws), especially when it comes to FCS football? Who knows. But what it does show is that this is by no means a one man show up front. Coll gets a lot of attention due to his NFL potential, and rightfully so, but you don’t have one of the top lines in the CAA without great play at all five positions.

What I’m watching for

Number one focus so far has been Gavin Lamp’s health and if he’ll be ready to go for Morgan St – which is a resounding yes.

With no real position battles going on a lot of my O-line focus during fall camp has been the development of the younger/newer Spiders. Four seniors starting up front so the questions for 2024 will be 1) who starts at center and 2) who are our tackles? I mentioned this in fall camp update #2 but Parker Mitchell seems to have taken the lead at center. Scott Hummel (transfer from JMU) has worked at guard, with Trey Gray continuing to work at tackle. I think the second guard and tackle spots are very up in the air right now but we’re too far out to get into all that. It’s clear that the coaches are very high on a few of these guys so while 2024 will have significant turnover we’ve built a good core to ensure this success is maintained.

The thing to watch with the starting five specifically will be how they manage snaps early in the season. Huesman has talked about wanting to get some older guys some breaks, something we should have plenty of opportunities for during Morgan St & Delaware St. However these five haven’t played together very often so while they know each other well, more snaps early on could really benefit everyone. Curious to see how quick we are to pull our O-line if/when the non-conference games get out of hand.

One goal for 2023

Looking back the past three seasons in the CAA the 180 rushing yards-per-game mark tends to define the great running teams from the good ones.

Difficult to pick an exact target without knowing too much about the run/pass distribution on offense but exceeding that 180 ypg is a fair number for this group. We won’t be going full William & Mary on offense but with the QB running more, three senior backs, and more balanced play-calling there’s a chance that number ends up being too low in the end. It’s been a while since UR ended with a “statistically great” running team but this experienced offensive line can absolutely vault us into that group.

Next Post

Position Group Overview – Specialists