Have you heard there’s a QB battle at Richmond? This position group will be talked about more than any other this fall, so I’ll start with these guys before camp gets going. We’re thankful to have two QBs with experience as options, and despite the starting QB not being named entering camp we are by no means in an uncertain spot.

Rollspides.com

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Player Profiles

Kyle Wickersham – Kyle Wickersham – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Camden Coleman – Camden Coleman – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Ashten Snelsire – Ashten Snelsire – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Joe McCauley – Joe McCauley – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Matthew Layman – Matthew Layman – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Incoming freshmen

A rare Two freshman QB class for the Spiders in 2024, so let’s start with the newest scholarship Spider, Joe McCauley. McCauley joins UR from Massachusetts, leading Dexter Southfield to a 15-2 record in his two seasons as a starter. During that stretch he threw for over 3,500 yards, 35 TDs, and only 3 INTs. His big frame and even bigger arm, along with a low turnover %, will remind Richmond fans of Kyle Wickersham. We likely won’t see McCauley in game action this season, but it will be fun to watch him in the early weeks of fall camp.

The other new Spider is Matthew Layman, a local product from Powhatan, Virginia. Powhatan put the ball in the air plenty last season, with Layman throwing for nearly 250 yards/game and 29 TDs, so he’ll fit right into this offense. We won’t add two QBs most seasons but these two freshmen round out an excellent QB room for the Spiders in 2024.

Kyle Wickersham

Now for the QBs we’ll see plenty of in 2024. Wickersham began the 2023 season as the starter, lost his spot after a freak September injury, then regained it with strong November play. He didn’t have his best showing up at Albany, however for a first-year starter he ended up with good numbers.

Not much to argue with based on Wickersham’s stat sheet. High completion percentage, low INTs, and obviously a fantastic runner. Things really took off (below) once Wickersham resumed as the starter in November and we opened up the playbook for him.

In the above three game stretch (Elon, W&M, NC Central) Wickersham threw it better, ran it better, and scored 38 PPG, all while keeping his completion percentage above 70%.

What we saw in November carried over into the spring, with Wickersham continuing to display his accuracy and arm talent. He’ll carry the late-2023 and spring-2024 momentum into fall camp, where he’ll need to continue to develop as a downfield passer while continuing his physicality on the ground.

Cam Coleman

Then there’s the surprise middle part of 2023, which saw Cam Coleman burst onto the scene with a strong 2nd half against Hampton, a record setting performance against Maine, and explosive QB play until his injury against Campbell.

#14 offered some great downfield passing, and really connected with DeGennaro well. The hard part of looking at Coleman’s stats is how many partial games he played in, which skew his averages. Of the six games he played in, he only played in all four quarters in two of them. Because of that, I took Coleman’s numbers and totaled them by quarter – here’s where he stands based on a 4-quarter average:

He’ll never offer the same running abilities as Wickersham, but nearly 300 yards/game in the air with a 2/1 TD/INT ratio is hard to argue with for a true freshman. Were there some bad INTs? Sure – but on 37 attempts/game that’s going to happen early on. All in all he absolutely played his way into this QB battle and made the next few weeks interesting for Spiders fans.

Entering 2024

It’s amazing to think about what 2023 looks like if Wickersham never suffers an abdominal injury before the Stony Brook game. Do we open up the playbook for Wickersham earlier on? Do we beat Hampton and have a much more comfortable regular season? Do we ever see what Cam Coleman can do? No matter what would’ve happened, the results of 2023 have greatly shaped where we stand entering 2024.

With an official starter yet to be announced, the spring was focused on equal and comparable reps from both Wickersham & Coleman, something we didn’t see during the season.

Now obviously the games will be called to their respective skillsets, so I never expect things to be equal, however there was a clear difference in how they thought these two guys could attack defenses. Nearly 2/3 of all attempts for Wickersham were within 5-yards of the LOS, while Coleman had much more balance between near and downfield attempts. The differences might not seem drastic but when you spread it out over 400+ attempts in a season, it’s pretty clear.

I thought both did well in the spring managing similar playbooks, something I expect to see the first weeks of August. There’s no doubt we’ve got differing game plans in place depending on who wins, but for now the focus is mirrored reps.

Who wins?

We saw enough of both QBs last season that everyone likely knows who they want to see start.

On one hand, Wickersham didn’t do anything to lose the job. He was fine early on, then really started clicking when we let him loose. His ability to run puts an even bigger strain on defenses, and he helps to solve our short-yardage issues.

The Spiders weren’t great running the ball in short yardage last year, but things looked a lot different with #16 in the game. With Wickersham, the Spiders converted 3rd & 3 (or less) more than 85% of the time when they ran it. Without him, their rushing success dropped below 40%. Richmond made up for that gap by converting at a high clip through the air with Coleman, however we all know you’ve got to be able to run it in those situations. I’m sure this number with Coleman improves in 2024, but you can’t deny the luxury Wickersham offers in a critical area.

On the other hand, the spark Coleman ignited was unprecedented. Richmond does not remain in the playoff picture in Wickersham’s absence without the play from our freshman QB. Yes, the freshman mistakes were there – some INTs were tough to swallow, and he got away with a few others. The overall flow of the offense was different when #14 was in there though, as our downfield and early down passing brought a different level than what we had seen earlier in the season. I outlined it above, but nearly 300 yards/game isn’t something you typically have afforded to you early in a career.

At the end of the day it’d be crazy for me to pick someone before camp even starts, however I also can’t run a UR football website and not predict how the QB battle plays out. I’ll post my prediction roughly two weeks into camp, once I get to see some early practices.

Next Post

1st Fall Camp update – Tuesday, August 6th