The transfer portal is officially closed for new entrants, however the Patriot League remains open for business. Between William & Mary joining us in 2026 and the Spiders busy in the portal, it sure doesn’t feel like football season is four months away.

Departures

Between message boards, social media, and the official roster online, I did not see any new Spiders enter the portal. I didn’t expect any after an anti-climatic spring, so thankful our attention can turn towards potential additions.

I didn’t previously mention this, but Carsen Stocklinski did commit to Hawai’i and Bryson Parker will play for Stony Brook. That means most of our departures made the jump to the FBS level, with a few going to the NFL and one staying in the CAA.

Additions

JT Sowell | Appalachian State | OL/DL/TE | 4 years of eligibility – Sowell follows Coach Mike Cummings from App State. He’s listed at OL/DL/TE on his Twitter page and I have no official word on where he’ll play. My guess would be O-line.

Jason Smith | North Carolina | Offensive line | 4 years of eligibility – two solid pickups for Richmond up front. Smith was recruited by the Spiders out of high school, before he chose Air Force but then de-committed to UNC.

I had offensive line as one of the three positions we would target post-spring, and landing (potentially) two FBS linemen with tons of eligibility sure checks that box. It’s clear that the lack of O-line depth stood out even more than I thought this spring, as two quick additions helps sure things up moving forward. Unlikely we see either start in 2025, although Sowell’s ability to play TE may get him on the field sooner. Either way, both help our depth with the 2s and put us in a much better spot for 2026.

Offers

Other official offers I’ve seen posted:

Brayden Ramey | Florida Atlantic | Offensive line | 3 years of eligibility

Evan Spivey | James Madison | Defensive back | 3 years of eligibility

Caleb Chamberlin | Air Force | Defensive back | 4 years of eligibility

Targets/Interest

Any rumored interest without an offer is speculative and mostly comes from interactions/follows I can find on social media. Aside from O-line, tight end and secondary are the two position groups I’m seeing us interact with the most. Adding one for each spot seems to be how we’ll look to round out the roster. Just as interesting is where I’m not seeing much activity. Our recruiting efforts go far beyond following someone online, however it can shed light on where we may not be focused as well.

After bringing in Jaiden Fair, the Spiders still had another receiver on an official visit this winter. That’s the last we’ve heard about another wide receiver target, so we may be done here. Not much activity I can find online, meaning it will likely be Ja’Vion Griffin and a bunch of young/new UR wideouts in 2025. The same goes for running back, one of our youngest position groups entering the fall.

Adding a defensive tackle was discussed online, and while the numbers don’t suggest it I do see how the rotations could work with a 1-year transfer. Assuming Fitz plays 85%+ of the snaps, you need two other pieces to play 55%+ each. TJ Baldwin is on track to return in August, Braxton Lassiter had a very nice spring, and I maintain one of the true freshmen (or some combination) will see time this year to increase this to a four-man rotation. That doesn’t leave room for another body, but it does rely on some very inexperienced pieces for a majority of the snaps. Baldwin and Lassiter combined for under 150 snaps last season, and obviously the true freshmen have no collegiate experience. Between another proven option up front, and the ability to give Fitz more of a rest, a 1-year pickup wouldn’t be the worst thing at DT. Richmond has 14 defensive linemen heading into the fall, so I’d bet against us adding another, but it’s a valid point and definitely could happen.

Patriot League

How drastically things can change in a short period of time. When Richmond made the announcement this time last year, it was met with resistance, skepticism, and outright distrust from many. On its own I understood everyone’s perspective and shared in some of those thoughts. A move in isolation felt like the administration finally got their dream destination, as the Patriot League debate had been ongoing for decades, with no concern for the drop in level of competition. I questioned the SoCon option, I questioned why we had to leave, I questioned plenty of things. All optimism was rooted in this being the first step of many – which meant other teams following our lead and the Patriot League increasing their commit across the board. Until any other dominos fell, it felt like wishful thinking at best.

Last week’s announcement changes everything. The Tribe is officially on board starting 2026, which now signals the beginning of a power shift on the FCS East Coast. The CAA loses another high-level team, the SoCon loses out on what many thought was an eventual addition, all while the Patriot gains a recent CAA champ and a program with multiple semi-final appearances. Instead of the SoCon winning in all of this, the Patriot League now holds the card. The conversation is no longer “why would Richmond join the Patriot?” – it’s now “who’s going to join next?”

I wrote this last year in the May 2024 update:

“What this comes down to is UR’s true motivation for this move. If we really were unhappy in the CAA and are set on finding a stable conference that we can shift towards the top of the FCS, then it’s encouraging to see us making strides towards that. If we’re more than happy just having a “good” football program in a conference that will never produce more than two bids in a season, then things look bleak.“

11 months later, one thing seems clear – UR’s decision to move to the Patriot League was a serious football move. You can absolutely still disagree with the decision, but I think the Athletic Department’s motivation is aimed in the right direction. We had a vision, executed it, and now find ourselves in a much better spot than every CAA team. The UR administration took a proactive step, clearly knowing others were following, and have now paved the way to create a powerful FCS conference on the East Coast that won’t make the same mistakes the CAA made.

I’m quick to jump on them for their shortcomings but will be just as quick to praise them for this. We didn’t wait around for someone else to make a move – instead we forced the issue, got the ball rolling in the right direction, and have now set ourselves up for future success. I personally love seeing our administration put that much weight behind a football-focused decision. Once Villanova joins (they almost have to at this point) the real fun begins, as the Patriot League becomes a 3+ bid league overnight.

There were so many unknowns that I don’t fault anyone for hating the move when it was originally announced. I clearly had my doubts and fully believe we should always question a decision of that magnitude, but we also have to give it a chance to play out. I do hope those who thought this was the “end” will realize we are far from it. Excited for future developments regarding our new conference and how this impacts the recruiting/scheduling approach along the East Coast.

Scheduling

Nothing changes in terms of scheduling for now. Instead of 7 Patriot League games and 3 non-conference FCS foes, we’ll now play 8 Patriot League games and 2 non-conference matchups due to increased membership. W&M merely slides from non-conference in 2025 back to a conference game in 2026. Better single game opponents (SoCon, CAA, Ivy) remain paramount, as does getting rid of some lesser games we have coming up (Norfolk State, Howard, VMI, etc.). If/when Villanova joins we’ll have more flexibility, however we’ll still need one really solid non-conference opponent each year.

Next Post

It ended up being an exciting April for the Spiders, and a few more portal additions in May would only add to that. Hopeful that we have a full roster by Memorial Day, as that would allow me to do one final roster overview and turn the attention to our 2025 opponents.