Two tricky road games await Richmond in November, starting with our first ever trip to Buies Creek, North Carolina this weekend. Campbell isn’t in playoff contention but has the weapons necessary to catch the Spiders looking ahead.

Campbell Camels

An extremely up and down year from the Camels. They had their chances early, defeating Western Carolina in non-conference play, but then dropped winnable games against Rhode Island and Stony Brook. Defense has been their big issue, allowing 31 PPG and nearly 400 yards of offense. The offense will pose a lot of problems for the Spiders, led by dynamic quarterbacks and a star wide receiver.

Betting

Spiders look to be 10.5 point favorites. Total will be in the low 50s, for a projected score of 31-20. This is a game we should be scoring in the 30s in once again, but I think we’ll need another strong performance to keep Campbell below 20.

Spiders on Offense

Fast starts, slow finishes – The slow starting Spiders may be a thing of the past. Richmond has scored on our opening drive in three straight games, along with leading at the end of the 1st quarter three straight weeks. Conversely, Campbell has struggled out of the gate, allowing touchdowns on five of nine opening drives. Their 1st quarter scoring difference is their worst (-35), so jumping out to another strong start remains important.

The 2nd half hasn’t been as kind to the Spiders. In five CAA games we have just two 2nd half offensive touchdowns. Games like Bryant are difficult to put too much stock in, but not scoring a 2nd half TD against Delaware or Towson, along with just one TD against Elon and A&T, highlights this team not clicking in the 2nd half. I’ll spare everyone another section on our redzone execution, which no doubt plays a factor, however no matter the cause you can only hang onto 1st half leads with great defense for so long. The explosiveness from our offense early on has been fantastic in recent weeks, now we need to see that same level of assertiveness and execution to continue for 60 minutes.

Run/pass balance – Campbell has the worst run defense in the CAA, allowing 209 yards/game and over 5 YPC. Opponents have run for 200+ yards in five of their last six contests. Zach Palmer-Smith has 20+ carries in five of our past six games, so expect a heavy dose of #9 in this one. ZPS needs 73 yards to eclipse 1,000 for the year, so I’m fully expecting him to get that done tomorrow.

The strength of Campbell’s defense is in their secondary – the Camels allow the third lowest YPA from opposing QBs and the fourth lowest completion percentage. They’ve held solid offenses below 200 yards passing and will test the Spiders’ ability to move the ball downfield through the air.

I’m very interested in Coach October’s approach to this game. The other two poor rush defenses Richmond faced were A&T and Bryant. Against A&T, we ran it 35 times for 286 yards, while passing for just 124 yards. Great numbers, but just 20 points. Bryant saw the opposite approach – throwing it early and often, nearly surpassing 300 yards through the air in the 1st half, and scoring 41 points. The Spiders have excelled when they’ve maintained their balance, so I’m curious if we see a concerted effort to keep that balance or if we let the running game take over.

2nd & short – With Campbell’s strong pass defense I’m hoping we capitalize on advantageous spots. 2nd & short is something I’ve mentioned before, with UR facing this situation five times last weekend. Similar to earlier games, Richmond ran it all five times. This might’ve been a product of a not-so-great rushing day, with UR averaging just 2.7 yards/carry, however we’ve been super run heavy in these spots for a team that has multiple downfield threats. Curious if this trend continues or if we use these spots to try and create chunk plays.

Spiders on Defense

Jeremiah Grant – Grant has unofficially wrapped up a 1st team All-CAA season, with his sights now set on All-American honors. The nation’s leader in sacks (11.5) is on pace to surpass the UR single season record (14), and he’s also just one away from joining Richmond’s top 5 in career sacks. When you pull up the Richmond Football Records from the official website, you’ll see plenty of All-Americans right away. Tristan Wheeler takes up half the page, along with names like Aaron Trusler, Kobie Turner, and Kyle Lauletta. Plenty of interior defensive linemen on the list, however what you don’t see very often is All-American defensive ends.

The last time Richmond had an All-American defensive end? Lawrence Sidbury Jr., who had 11.5 sacks during the Spiders’ championship season in 2008. What number did Sidbury Jr. wear that same season? Also #2. The main focus is a CAA title and a playoff berth, however seeing Grant solidify himself as an all-time UR pass rusher will be a tremendous storyline at the same time.

Secondary – Fourth straight week we’ve played a top 5 CAA passing offense, and we couldn’t be playing much better heading into it. Lots of questions about this group early on, yet despite injuries and our roster shrinking these guys have balled out. Campbell will test the Spiders with an offense that emphasizes big plays. The Camels have the highest YPA in the CAA, as last weekend against Elon they completed five passes in the 16+ yard zone that totaled 227 yards. Our ability to limit big plays will be top priority, starting with how we defend Sincere Brown.

Brown enters Week 10 with 49 receptions (2nd in CAA), 889 yards (1st), 18.1 yards/catch (2nd), and 98.8 YPG (2nd). Campbell doesn’t shy away from getting their top target the football, something we got a glimpse of against Delaware. Phil Lutz had 11 targets, six catches, 93 yards, and one TD for the Blue Hens, and we didn’t see Coach Wood give him a ton of special attention. I’d imagine we’ll see a similar approach tomorrow, so it’s up to the secondary as a whole to limit Campbell’s top weapon and keep their offense in check.

Quarterback – Dynamic QBs for Campbell. Mike Chandler II took the place of an injured Chad Mascoe Jr. against Elon, however both have played throughout the season. Chander II is the more running QB of the two, with 54 rushing attempts at 6.5 YPC. His completion percentage is notably lower than Mascoe Jr. (57% vs 68%) but mobile QBs that can hit big plays are never easy to defend. Chandler II had the most rushing attempts and yards for the Camels last week, a glimpse of what their offense looks like with him as QB1. This game has some Delaware State vibes to – Richmond struggled to contain Marqui Adams in that matchup, allowing him to run for 92 yards while throwing for 196. Maintaining our rush lanes and forcing Chandler II to beat us with his arm is Richmond’s #1 priority to winning this game.

Freshmen – Got a few questions on the redshirting situation. Players can play in four games while still maintaining a redshirt, excluding the playoffs. Here’s where our true freshman participation stands right now for guys on the “bubble.”

• Kyree Richardson [corner] – 2 games played (needs to sit one of final three to maintain redshirt)
• Lee Bruner IV [safety] – 2 games
• Braxton Lassiter [D-line] – 3 games (official site has 2 but I count 3, I’ll get that clarified)
• Amir Haskett [safety] – 1 game (can play the rest of the season while keeping his redshirt)

Special Teams

Penalties – A stark contrast between the two teams regarding penalties. This applies to all three sections but came up plenty in special teams last weekend. Campbell is last in the CAA by committing 82.8 penalty yards/game, however they force their opponents to commit 72.6 yards worth of penalties (2nd in CAA). UR is the opposite – averaging just 43.6 penalty yards/game (3rd in CAA) yet rarely forcing our opponents into penalties (32.6 yards/game, last in CAA). Hoping the Spiders have things cleaned up after a sloppy outing against Towson.

A huge struggle for the Camels has been kickoffs. On KOR, they return kicks for under 16 yards/return, which is 9th worst in the FCS. On KOC, they allow nearly 27 yards/return (6th worst). Would love for Jerry to put the Towson game behind him and break a big one.

Zero field goal attempts for the Camels the past four weeks. At 3-6 they don’t have much to play for, so I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw them get aggressive on 4th down and continue to leave the FG unit on the sidelines. Coach Huesman did say that Brandon Peskin remains our kicker. With Sean O’Haire having played two games in 2024, we’ll need him to sit out one of the remaining three to keep his redshirt.

FCS Preview

Games of importance

CAA

I haven’t spent too much time on Rhode Island because I’ve been waiting for this game. The Rams travel to Delaware to take on the Blue Hens. Delaware is coming off of a bye and we need a Rhody loss here. Not only does it keep UD power ranked as a top 10 team, it puts Rhody below us in the FCS standings. Hard to see UR getting a first-round bye if Rhody goes 8-0 in CAA play.

Villanova isn’t losing to A&T, however W&M beating Elon to stay ranked would be nice. Richmond needs another ranked win, so the Tribe taking care of business the next two weeks would positively impact our resume.

FCS top 10

Here’s the top 10 released by the committee:

Spiders need to keep winning for this to matter. If you see a top 10 team playing, root against them, as we’re going to need at least one upset to make the top 8.

Next Post

Game 10 – 2024: Campbell recap – Monday, November 11th