The defensive group with the most freshmen and likely the group Spiders fans will be focused most on this season is the defensive backs. How the secondary does will arguably be the leading indicator of how this season goes. Will 2024 be the year they take a big step forward?

Player Profiles

Cornerbacks

Trae Tomlinson – Trae Tomlinson – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

D’Angelo Stocker – D’Angelo Stocker – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

CJ Fraser – CJ Fraser – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Chance Graves – Chance Graves – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Kyree Richardson – Kyree Richardson – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Kenyez Mungro – Kenyez Mungro – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Safeties

Bryson Parker – Bryson Parker – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Jabril Hayes – Jabril Hayes – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

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

Brendan Laughlin – Brendan Laughlin – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Amir Haskett – Amir Haskett – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Lee Bruner IV – Lee Bruner IV – Football – University of Richmond Athletics (richmondspiders.com)

Roster composition

I was expecting to have 13 Spiders in the player profiles section this season. John Michael DiRoberto, grad transfer from Wofford, left Richmond after one week of fall camp. He is no longer on the official roster online. We hadn’t seen him play in a UR uniform but that’s a hit to the expected depth.

You’ll see experience in the starting secondary, with plenty of familiar names, however after that the experience is nonexistent. I’ll say what I’ve said before – uncertainty at a position leads to opportunities for those involved. Defintiely the position group that will see the most playing time for freshmen & sophomores.

Safeties

For all the talk about youth, it will be two senior Spiders getting the start at the safety positions.

Bryson Parker has played in 36 games for UR since 2021, including 21 starts. Originally a corner his freshman season, Parker moved to safety in 2022 and didn’t miss a beat. The past two seasons he’s defended 13 passes, grabbed 3 INTs, and made over 100 tackles. He earned one of our secondary’s highest coverage ratings from PFF all season in the playoff loss at Albany, and his second half 2023 numbers were as consistent as anyone. We’ll continue to see him in the strong safety role, as well as the dime (5th DB) in the 4-2-5 package. His experience at corner makes him perfect for that role, something Coach Huesman has spoken about multiple times.

Jabril Hayes returns in 2024 after a breakout season last year. Hayes began as a corner and flipped to safety midway through spring practice. He ultimately played in 12 games last season, finishing with 5 passes defended and 3 INTs, including one for a TD. He also was a 1st team All-CAA selection on special teams, impacting the Spiders in numerous ways throughout the season. He takes over the free safety spot looking to continue his rise into his senior year.

The energy has been extremely high from both throughout camp, and with Aaron Banks gone you can feel some older guys making sure the standard previously set remains high. They’ll be impactful in guiding some of the younger players this season, but also leading this secondary in a pivotal year. No one has more career starts on this UR defense than Parker, so expect him to be one of the vocal leaders throughout the season.

Cornerbacks

Two more familiar faces at these spots.

Trae Tomlinson returns as the likely field corner (wide side of the field). He’s played in 25 games the past two seasons, starting all 13 games in 2023 at corner. He did the inverse of Jabril Hayes in the spring of 2023, flipping from safety to corner. The fact he started every game after switching positions shows the staff thinks highly of him, and with the experience we now have at safety the move really makes sense. We saw what having a strong field corner could do for this defense in 2022 (Tyrek Funderburk), and Tomlinson being more comfortable in his role will only help things return to that level.

I said TJ Baldwin was the most talked about underclassman by Coach Huesman – if that’s true, D’Angelo Stocker is second. Stocker enters 2024 having played all 13 games last season, recording three INTs and 51 tackles from his boundary corner spot. He was running with the 2s since his freshman season, so we got a pretty good idea early on he would be an impactful player, and Coach Huesman’s comments further support that. Boundary corner is a key spot on this defense, and we saw Coach Wood be more aggressive with his blitzes and disguises as Stocker gained more experience.

Although he didn’t change positions, he’s in a similar spot to Tomlinson – and quite frankly you could add Jabril Hayes to that list as well. 2023 was the first season for all three where they played/started numerous games at their new position. Tomlinson and Hayes were coming off position changes, whereas Stocker was just a redshirt freshman. To me, the biggest point of optimism from this group is the potential jump from year 1 to year 2. It was “year 1” in 2023 for Tomlinson/Stocker/Hayes in their new roles, so I’m hopeful all three can show the progress they’ve made with a full year under their belts.

Inexperience

Once you get past the four projected starters, game experience becomes sparce.

• Chance Graves – 24 games, 0 starts
• Matthew Traynor – 6 games (mostly special teams), 0 starts
• CJ Fraser – 4 games, 0 starts
• Brendan Laughlin – redshirted in 2023
• Kyree Richardson, Kenyez Mungro, Amir Haskett, Lee Bruner IV – all true freshmen

Only Chance Graves from the list above is older than a R-Fr., and while the special teams contributions from Traynor were significant it still leaves us in a strange spot.

It wouldn’t shock me if we end up burning a redshirt from this group. There’s a chance that the four starters and the non-true freshmen above can handle the full season, but between special teams and the grind of a 12-game season I think we’ll see some time from at least one unfamiliar Spider. Ideally we keep everyone under the 4-game limit to maintain redshirts. That will be something to monitor throughout the season as guys approach their fourth game.

If we do see a freshman get significant time, Amir Haskett would be my best guess. He started working at corner this camp but moved to safety in DiRoberto’s absence. Having a little experience at both, along with some special teams work as well, makes him as ready as any freshman would be. Again, I’m hoping we don’t end up in this spot, but we recently saw Trae Tomlinson play as a freshman which ultimately worked out for him.

2024 expectations

This season is about taking the pass defense to a level beyond good. Statistically we’ve been fine in most categories, but there’s a gap between our run defense and pass defense the past three seasons.

First off, I want to make sure everyone understands these are really good numbers. Really good. Always top half of the conference in major categories, and nearly top 3 in run defense for three straight seasons (missed it by 2 yards in 2021). This doesn’t even include our sack rankings, TFLs, turnovers forced, etc. Until you’re #1 in everything you’ll always want more, so don’t let me lose sight of how steady this group has been under Coach Wood.

The numbers do show what many have seen, which is a pass defense that feels a step behind our run defense. I included YPA since this is partially self-inflicted, as a team with a good run defense will face more pass attempts, and thus allow more passing YPG. Either way, both of those stats lag behind our play on the D-line. That’s easy to have happen when you’ve been a top 2 run defense the past two seasons, but I think the biggest key to this team reaching December for a third straight year will be the progression of this secondary.

I won’t throw out an unrealistic goal of finishing at the top of the CAA across the board, but seeing the passing YPG and YPA allowed finish in the top 5 is very fair. Having our pass defense join the top 5 of the CAA is the next step for this defense, and it’s unsurprisingly a good indicator for success. Albany, Delaware, W&M, and Villanova have all done this once the past few seasons, so it’s our turn to join the ranks. Very hopefully that this secondary takes that step early in the season and establishes themselves among the best come CAA play.

Next Post

If you didn’t see the announcement, the scrimmage tomorrow is now closed to the public. Weird move considering it tends to get fairly good turnout, but such is life. Not getting to see that will delay my next fall camp update.

2024 Position Group Preview: Offensive Line – Monday, August 19th