Deja vu against Lehigh and triple deja vu (treja vu?) in FCS season openers. Richmond loses to Lehigh in similar fashion to 2024, finding ourselves in a familiar hole to start the year.

Drives

1st half on the left, 2nd half on the right

Game thoughts

Season opening loss – It’s numbing at this point. Three seasons in and we’re still trying to center everything around the power running/short passing attack philosophy. There’s nothing else to say because we’ve said it all in past years. 10, 19, and 14 points our last three FCS openers. We have convinced ourselves that approach is our best plan despite every metric and result saying otherwise. I’m sure this group will battle back but once again we’ve significantly lowered our ceiling.

Lehigh – That’s a team who knows exactly who they are and how they want to win. Good variety in the run game, got their QB outside of the pocket for a number of passes, and kept the possession count low. That’s not a group that plans on scoring 35+ points/game. Don’t me wrong, that level of execution is a sign of great coaching and it’s clearly a method that works for them. For the second straight game they out-executed us and made adjustments to win the 2nd half.

1st half – That was our game to take in the 1st half (really even the 1st quarter) and we didn’t get it done. We dominated early field position – 27 of our 35 offensive plays were run in Lehigh territory, whereas the Mountain Hawks ran just four plays on our side of the field. We also dominated time of possession, holding the ball for nearly 22 minutes and nearly doubling Lehigh’s number of snaps on offense (35 v 19). Despite all that, the halftime score was 7-7. We wasted a golden opportunity to seize a road game early on.

Momentum – A huge shift in momentum after the bad snap at the 4 yard line. What looked to be a 14-0 lead ended in an empty possession, and it only took them six plays after that to even the score. The lost momentum carried into the 2nd half, with Lehigh immediately going on a 75 yard drive to take their first lead of the game.

Give this team credit – rarely after losing momentum do we not swing things back in our direction and they did it again Saturday. The kickoff return for TD was a quick response to Lehigh’s first lead, and then the defense forced an INT and a turnover on downs the next two trips. “Playing hard” and “competing” isn’t what we’re out there for but the response from this group has to be acknowledged. Very rare that the first punch knocks us out.

Uniforms – Red helmets looked good on the ESPN+ replay and I assure you they looked even better in person. So we’ve got that going for us…

Offense

9 drives | 51 snaps – 6 punts, 1 touchdown, 1 FG attempt, 1 turnover

181 yards (113 passing, 68 rushing) along with one TD is abysmal. For all the talk about addressing early season issues, we looked more unprepared than ever. We never threatened to score in the 2nd half and a one-score deficit felt miles out of reach.

Offensive line – About what I expected from this group. The superior Lehigh D-line got the best of these guys, and although they only let up two sacks the pocket collapsed a bunch and very few holes opened up in the running game. Throw in Capristo’s bad snap and it was easy to remember how spoiled we were with Elia leading the charge the past three years. The left side of the line graded much better than the right, with new starter Ron Anderson one of the brighter spots. All in all this has to be the area we improve the most because right now we’re nowhere near a playoff caliber O-line.

Jaiden Fair/Isaiah Dawson – Our slot receivers played great. Awesome to see that #2 and #10 are as electric as advertised, with both guys contributing in the return game. Not many bright spots on offense but very happy with their production.

By the numbers

Drives – Of our nine drives, none went further than 37 yards. Not being able to move the ball even half of the field just once is alarming. Had the defense not given us a short field we genuinely might not have scored an offensive TD. I don’t care how many people you lost in the offseason, that’s inexcusable.

1st half play calling

Two things plagued the Spiders early on – being run heavy on early downs and predictable in our rushing lanes.

• 1st down – 2 passes, 10 runs [83% runs]
• 2nd down – 2 passes, 9 runs [82% runs]

We want to be a running team but how you’re playing and your personnel must dictate the approach. Nothing about how our O-line was playing warranted us running it at this rate. Our style of running also stood out – we called 15 running plays inside the tackles in the 1st half. 10 of those 15 went for 3 yards or less. Had we been getting steady results I would understand the repetition, but we kept going back to a well that was dry.

2nd half

In the 2nd half things only got worse. The Spiders made only two first downs, running just 14 plays for a total of 48 yards, with only four plays coming in Lehigh territory. Lehigh knew they had our run game figured out and were keying on short passes to the outside. They made adjustments in response to our gameplan and we weren’t able to counter. For me, our lack of adjustments was the scariest part.

2nd/3rd down

The predictability of our drives stood out on 2nd & 3rd down, with 2nd down being the killer. Only one 2nd down play gained more than 4 yards all day (15 attempts). We gained less than 2 yards/play and if it weren’t for that one 20 yard run it would’ve basically netted to 0 yards/play. By the time 3rd down came around we were so far out of position – our average yards to gain was 8.6 and it resulted in just 4/13 conversions.

Passing chart

The slot fade to Jaiden Fair was perfectly executed in the 1st quarter yet we never threw a pass that far again. For the game we finished at 8.1 yards/completion, a number you’d like to be at least 11+. We need to see more from Wickersham moving forward but he did what the staff asked of him for the most part.

Our lack of pass protection factors into how often we stretched the field but again, we aren’t helping our cause. We did nothing to slow down Lehigh’s rush or deter them from blitzing. No RB screens and nothing quick over the middle to keep LBs honest.

Only two passes in the middle of the field meant their front-7 was in attack mode all day. A great example is Sean Clarke – our tight end had four receptions but all were outside the numbers for minimal gains. He would’ve been a great option to exploit the middle and help us find some rhythm.

Defense

10 drives | 69 snaps – 4 punts, 3 touchdowns, 3 turnovers [1 on downs]

I’ll be quick on the defense because that game went to plan. Lehigh found traction in the 2nd half but we were on the field for over 22 minutes. Not perfect however giving up less than 300 yards should’ve been enough to win.

Turnovers – The Richmond defense picked up right where it left off. Another multi-turnover day and a huge 4th down stop in the 3rd quarter. We stole momentum with initial turnover to take the lead and should’ve restarted that momentum after the second pick. Even though Lehigh gashed us on some running plays we still forced them to throw it 24 times and it led to two interceptions. Exactly what this group needed to do.

Snaps – Defensive line snap count went as expected. We stuck with three DTs but got both Sellers and Hodges time at DE. This group seemed fresh all game.

The secondary rotations, or lack thereof, really surprised me. Both corners played the entire game, with Kyree Richardson only playing special teams. Tayshaun Burney practically never left the field, yielding a few plays to Harrison Wood but otherwise playing both early and late downs.

Geoffrey Jamiel – #9 burned us again, just not nearly as bad as last time. Only four catches for 68 yards however another TD to give Lehigh their first lead. The Mountain Hawks used Jamiel differently this time around. Only 53% of his snaps were in the slot, compared to 93% last season. This got him matched up on our corners outside and he beat Fraser badly on that TD. Still, his impact was contained and we did enough to hold them to under 150 yards passing.

Newer Spiders – Tayshaun Burney played really well. He faced seven targets, allowing just four receptions for 25 yards. He made some nice plays out wide in run support, kept up with Jamiel when he was in the slot, and even snagged his first collegiate interception. The move to put Burney at Will linebacker was a huge plus in game one.

Peyton Seelmann led the Spiders in tackles, while TJ Baldwin recorded our only sack. Both looked comfortable in their first collegiate starts.

Special Teams

I already mentioned Fair & Dawson but I want to reiterate how exciting it is to have two dynamic return guys. A lot of our special team focus has been on kicking but it looks like these two are going to ensure we talk about the return aspect throughout the season.

Ned Gray punted well. He had more time than he realized on a few punts, something we saw Trusler excel at and something he’s sure to improve on as the season progresses.

And then comes field goal kicking. I cannot believe we put Will McManus in that spot. He didn’t kick all spring or fall camp, solely working as a kickoff specialist (which he had a great day doing). To put him out there for the first field goal helped no one. Jayden Alsheskie’s PAT looked great as he was more than ready to handle short kicks. I’m stunned we didn’t put one of our dedicated kickers out there first, no matter how bad they looked the week before.

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Game 2 – 2025: Wofford preview – Friday, September 5th