No Nick DeGennaro, no Landon Ellis, no Jerry Garcia Jr. Who the Spiders don’t have back in 2025 will draw much of the conversation, with the current roster focused on finding guys to make up for the lost production.

Roster

Additions

Jaiden Fair – The transfer from Maryland has a chance to make an immediate impact on this UR offense, hopefully boosting our production from slot receivers (more below). Fair didn’t play at Maryland but is set to contribute on offense and as a returner on special teams.

Joey Duggan – A summer portal addition that flew under the radar, Duggan joins from Fordham after having opportunities to play at Wake Forest, UConn, and Cornell. He’s played both WR and DB but will play WR for us. With three years of eligibility remaining, Duggan is a solid addition from a Patriot League foe.

Donovan Higgins – Higgins was a huge get from the state of Tennessee, choosing the Spiders over a bunch of FBS schools (Indiana, Liberty, Memphis). Another receiver who can work in the slot, Higgins is also expected to contribute in the return game.

Matthew Martin – a local product from Atlee High School, Martin received lots of East Coast FCS offers before deciding on the Spiders. At 6′ 4″, the Spiders will look for Martin to be a big target on the outside.

Justin Rice – Rice committed to Richmond back in January, deciding on the Spiders over Miami (OH), UMass, and Gardner-Webb. I got to watch Rice play in the North-South game in December and he plays even bigger/more physical than his 6′ 185 lb. frame.

Lost production

The early season story lines will be who Richmond no longer has in 2025. It’s nearly a full reset given the graduation of Garcia Jr. and transfers out of DeGennaro/Ellis.

I think we all knew these three were impactful, but losing nearly 80% of your WR receptions & yards and 90% of your TDs is pretty staggering. The point of this is to show that we need multiple receivers to go levels beyond where they’ve been at previously. This isn’t about filling one role – this is about two or three guys going from role players to featured and reliable targets.

Ja’Vion Griffin & Quanye Veney

The two receivers returning with significant playing time are Ja’Vion Griffin and Quanye Veney.

Griffin has 13 career starts and should be an option that Wickersham turns to often. Griffin put up respectable numbers in both 2023 and 2024, combining for 38 receptions and 598 yards. 94% of Griffin’s snaps came as an outside receiver last year, something we’ll see again in 2025. It’s a big task to fill the voids left behind so I’m glad we have an experienced Spider to turn to.

Veney saw his playing time decrease last season, totaling 40 less snaps and 15 less targets compared to 2023. PFF graded Veney with four drops on just 20 targets last year, likely a factor in his reduced playing time. I thought his bounce back has been tremendous, putting together a great spring and fall camp so far. If #1 (new number) can return to the form we saw from him early in his UR career I’m expecting him to get a healthy dose of targets.

Questions for 2025

1. Will Ja’Vion Griffin get more downfield targets?

A huge hang-up for our offense down the stretch was the inability to stretch the field. In 2023, UR wide receivers had 25 receptions on passes 20+ yards downfield. In 2024, that number dropped to just 16 receptions. Griffin showed he can be a big play threat, hauling in nine passes 20+ yards downfield since 2023 (second most only to DeGennaro). If DeGennaro’s absence last November taught us anything it’s that we need multiple downfield threats to ensure our offense doesn’t live near the LOS. Ja’Vion will still be crucial in our short/mid-range passing game, but I think he needs to be more involved in creating chunk plays.

2. Will we see a spike in slot receiver production?

The numbers from our typical slot/inside receivers are trending in the wrong direction.

Since Jasiah Williams’ stellar 2022 our slot production has steeply declined, with slot receivers recording less than 40 YPG last year. There’s going to be a lot more variety to our offense, and to get the most out of what Huesman/ Cummings call we need a lot more from this group. No doubt Jaiden Fair plays a big role here – he’s shown the quickness to create separation early and the speed to burn you deep – but I think Isaiah Dawson gets opportunities as well. We didn’t get to see much of Dawson last camp so it’s great he’s taking advantage of it this season. As a group, getting our slot production back near 60 receptions and 600+ yards would be a big boost.

3. Can this group be more consistent?

Drops, drops, drops. If you forgot that we dropped 16% of all pass attempts in the Lehigh playoff game, well, sorry for the reminder. That one game was an extreme example, however the issues occurred all season.

Simply not good enough across the board last year. We had three receivers finish with 4+ drops, whereas the most for a receiver in 2023 was two. Not much else to say on this – if you want to win big games, you can’t give away yards and 1st downs by not catching the football. I’m sure new wide receivers coach Jerry Taylor Jr. has this as a priority.

Next Post

2025 Position Group Preview – Linebackers – Monday, August 11th