Carter Glassmyer returns to lead the Spiders’ defense but how things shake out alongside him remain interesting. Coach Wood has his work cut out for him this season, with multiple younger Spiders set to contribute.

Roster

Additions

Jackson Thorne – Thorne earned 1st team All-State honors at Independence High School in Virginia. He received offers from FBS schools like Maryland and Akron, as well as FCS foes Elon and Monmouth. Thorne is an inside linebacker that looks to be a great fit for Coach Wood’s system.

Christian Soltis – A 3-star linebacker from the Hun School in New Jersey, Soltis was an early Patriot League get in the heart of our new conference. Listed as an athlete coming out of high school, he played a little bit of everything on defense. At 6′ 3″ 215 lbs. he’s got the size to play multiple spots, and has been working at Will linebacker this camp.

Carter Glassmyer

Entering just his second season with Richmond, Glassmyer has already been named a captain by his teammates. The redshirt junior will quarterback this defense coming off two impressive seasons to start his collegiate career. An FCS Freshman All-American in 2023 at St. Francis, Glassmyer followed up that with an All-CAA 2nd team selection in 2024. Starting every game, he led the Spiders with 87 tackles, along with seven TFLs and three sacks. Playing the same position as Tristan Wheeler, there were a lot of eyes on Glassmyer in his first season as a Spider. In reality, the goal was never to replace Wheeler – there is no replacing a 5-time All-American. What we needed was a dependable, every down linebacker that could still play to an All-Conference level, and #10 delivered just that.

I haven’t put my annual disclaimer out there yet, so here it goes. I know PFF isn’t a perfect grading system. It has flaws and sometimes produces some strange grades, but over the course of the season it yields valuable information. Not many sites produce this much FCS data so I’ll continue to work in PFF grades every now and again.

Glassmyer was among the best across the entire FCS, grading extremely well across the board. PFF grades aside it was hard not to notice Glassmyer’s strong play throughout the year. Our defense will surely turn to Glassmyer for leadership and high level play throughout 2025.

Inexperience

Have you noticed a trend in the position group previews so far? Lots of talent but not much experience, with linebacker no exception. The departures of Wayne Galloway (1,535 career snaps) and Quantraill Morris-Walker (2,465) leave us with almost no defensive experience outside of Glassmyer.

Career defensive experience drops off a cliff after Glassmyer. No one else on the roster has 100 career snaps, with six of our 10 linebackers having zero collegiate experience. There are always ebbs and flows with position groups, and after a period of continual multi-year starters it’s the first time in a while that we entered fall camp with little known about two starting linebacker spots.

What to watch for

1st team All-Patriot for Glassmyer – Excellent linebacker play remains a constant under Coach Justin Wood. A handful of players earned All-CAA honors with Coach Wood leading the way, with Richmond having at least one All-Conference linebacker in every season since COVID.

2nd team All-CAA was great for #10 last year but we know he’s looking for more. If Glassmyer can take the next step and earn a 1st team All-Patriot selection, he would be the third linebacker under Coach Wood to earn 1st team honors (both Wheeler and Tyler Dressler did it multiple times).

His numbers show he can do it and the Patriot League is wide open for LB honors in 2025. A few graduations and one transfer mean that three of the four 2024 1st team linebackers DO NOT return in 2025. I’d love our 1st team All-Conference recognition at linebacker to extend into the Patriot League in year 1.

Two new starters

– Peyton Seelmann is set to start as the other inside LB, burning his redshirt last season to be as ready as possible for an increased role. He played in eight games but there’s a big difference between giving Wayne Galloway a break and playing 500+ snaps. That’s the jump he needs to make in 2025 and how he does will set the tone for the next few years.

For as young as we are, there’s more support behind Seelmann than it looks. Our LB corps lacks defensive snaps but having 5th year player Owen Laughlin directly behind Seelmann is no small detail. Both he and other reserve ILB Zach Chambers (4th year) have lots of special teams experience and know exactly what Coach Wood demands from his linebackers. Sure, we’d all like the position to have more experience as a whole, however if you’re going to start a true sophomore at Mike LB having older guys behind him is a big plus.

– Will linebacker – It’s been fun to watch this spot play out. It was a carousel throughout the spring that stopped once fall camp started due mostly to Tayshaun Burney entering the equation. Burney is a defensive back…. I think? He lists himself as a DB, the official site lists him as a DB, yet he continues to work with the Will linebackers. Is have no idea if we view him as a true linebacker, or if he is a DB that gives us a combined 4-3/nickel look. Either way, it’s Burney and Blake Houser taking reps with the 1s, with Houser the more traditional linebacker option. This remains the most interesting position battle for the final two weeks of fall camp.

Next Post

2025 Position Group Preview – Specialists – Wednesday, August 13th