This preview could be 30 minutes long given the depth we have up front. Once again the strength of Richmond football lies in the trenches, with the perfect blend of proven experience and exciting freshmen talent.

Roster

Additions

Moses Bailey – Committing to Richmond last summer, Bailey played his high school ball in Maryland and picked Richmond over FBS schools such as Duke and UMass. A disruptive defensive end, Bailey lists himself as a “pass-rush specialist” and is a great complement to the interior defensive linemen in the class.

Jack Reece – Another commit from Virginia, Reece picked Richmond over plenty of FCS rivals, including Furman, William & Mary, Elon, and multiple Patriot League schools. Listed at 6’3″ 280 lbs., Reece played both O-line and D-line in high school and is a solid addition to our interior linemen.

Bryce Lee – Lee joins from Charlotte, NC, opting for Richmond over southern FCS schools Jackson State, Campbell, NC Central, and Wofford. Lee is listed at 6’3″ 260 lbs., and is versatile enough to be an every down defensive lineman.

Tanner Wheeler – Yes folks, there’s another Wheeler. I will do my best to not reference Tristan every time I talk about Tanner because #55 is going to do plenty of his own special things in a UR uniform. Wheeler chose the Spiders over FBS schools Temple, Buffalo, UMass, and UConn. Clearly the weekends visiting the Brick House and tailgating in Lot C61 were enough to sell him.

Matei Fitz

The addition of Matei Fitz back in 2022 has made a long lasting impact on our defense. So much of the transfer focus that season was centered around Reece Udinski that Fitz flew under the radar early on, despite playing in all 13 games. Fast forward a couple of years and Fitz enters his senior season ready to anchor this UR D-line.

Playing defensive tackle isn’t a flashy position. Fans aren’t watching the interior of the D-line most plays, you don’t get a ton of sacks, and the box score rarely reflects your impact to the game. Yet we know our DTs play to a high level given our overall defensive performance, especially our consistent run defense. Since 2022 Richmond hasn’t ranked outside the top-30 in all the FCS in run defense, never giving up more than 130 yards/game in a season. After three season-ending injuries last September the remaining defensive linemen took an even bigger piece of the workload and kept the Spiders on track, led by Fitz.

Fitz missed only eight snaps the entire month of November, and played 87% of all defensive snaps for the season. His five sacks and 24 hurries were each 3rd on the team, a rare feat for a defensive tackle asked to play that often. I’ll touch on why his snap count should decrease some this season, however you can’t overstate the impact of his ability to play entire games while maintaining a high level of play.

Returning from injury

Three Spiders went down last September, so although they aren’t new additions it will feel like we’re adding even more pieces to the puzzle with their return.

TJ Baldwin – Highly touted coming out of local Benedictine high school, Baldwin was set to be our DT #3 last year. Now 100% cleared for game action, he’s a force in the middle, commanding double teams in the running game and clogging the middle.

Donovan Hoilette – I was excited to see Hoilette’s transition from linebacker to fulltime DE, but an injury against Wofford ended that quickly. He’ll enter with the same role as very few guys can offer the quickness Hoilette has on the edge.

Zion Bryson – Bryson showed some skill during his 4-game redshirt season in 2022, but we haven’t gotten to see much from him since. With Jamar Hodges coming on strong last year, along with Hoilette’s return, it will be interesting to see how Bryson slides into the rotation.

What I’m expecting to see

Camden Byrd leads the Spiders in sacks – I can’t go the entire D-line preview and not discuss our best defensive end. With Jeremiah Grant’s graduation, Byrd assumes the role of our premier pass rusher. We’ve seen big jumps from defensive ends in recent seasons when they take on that role, and thanks to the direction of Coach Chris Ellis I’m expecting it once again with Byrd.

Darius Reynolds, Marlem Louis, and Jeremiah Grant all saw their sack count spike in their first season of being “the guy.” After seven sacks in 2024 Byrd is poised to do the same. An every down player, #6 (new number) will draw the focus of opposing O-lines each Saturday.

We use a much bigger rotation – Both Coach Huesman and Coach Wood discussed having more guys to play up front, so it should surprise no one that we’ll have a broader rotation on the D-line this season.

A group that was shrunk to effectively a 4-man rotation (with all starters playing 80%+ of snaps) could see double the support this year. At defensive tackle, Fitz/Baldwin/Lassiter are the main three. At defensive end, Byrd and Hoilette will start with Jamar Hodges and Daniel Sellers options in support.

The question here is really about how many guys see consistent time. Going back to 2021 we saw different patterns in our D-line snap count, mostly based on personnel and injuries. Using those numbers, below is an estimation of what 2025 could look like:

The 6-man rotation would see all four starters playing 65%+ of the time, with Fitz and Byrd maintaining 85% of the snaps. The 8-man rotation is all the same pieces with the starters getting a little more rest, allowing for a fourth DT and DE to play 20-25% of the time. Coach Huesman mentioned Norwid Desir as “kind of in the mix” at defensive tackle but I’ve also seen Zion Bryson there too.

Again, this is purely hypothetical. No one season is the exact blueprint for how the staff wants to play this. Football isn’t played in excel spreadsheets – game by game matchups, injuries, and overall performance mean much more than hitting an exact percentage. The takeaway should be our depth is good enough to allow for more rest while avoiding any drop-off. That’s a luxury most teams don’t have.

Next Post

2025 Position Group Preview – Offensive line – Friday, August 22nd