Patriot League play resumes with a road game against the Bucknell Bison for their Homecoming weekend. Playing a Bison mascot for the second straight week, the Spiders have a chance to string three wins together and secure our first Patriot League regular season victory.

Bucknell Bison

These Bison are the inverse of the Spiders – high powered offense and very lost on defense. They feature the preseason Player of the Year in quarterback Ralph Rucker IV, along with multiple weapons at wide receiver. Defensively there hasn’t been much improvement from last season, lacking pressure on opposing QBs and giving up a ton of yards.

This game could not come at a more perfect time. We need to win all our remaining Patriot games to keep the playoff hopes alive and this is a great place to start. Bucknell is much more like VMI than Howard – pass oriented and nowhere near as physical. We got significant pushback from Howard and having a “lighter” game after that could help the O-line settle in. With D’Angelo Stocker active, the secondary has all four starters available and we’ll need them against Rucker’s skill. This is a great spot for the team to build on the successes against VMI and the lessons learned against Howard.

Odds

Line is down to Richmond -3.5 with an O/U of 47.5. Projected score is 26-22 in favor of the Spiders.

Spiders on Offense

Not much has worked for Bucknell’s 3-3-5 defense. In four FCS games they’re allowing nearly 30 PPG and over 450 YPG. They struggle on 3rd down, they struggle in the redzone, basically they struggled everywhere. Against a good Bucknell offense we can’t expect to keep winning low scoring games. We need to score and we need to find sustained scoring. Having only scored more than two offensive TDs once, I’m hopeful the staff can find a more consistent formula against a vulnerable Bison defense.

Offensive line – Feels like we’ve found our best 5 up front (until Carbajal returns) after this group was able to wear down Howard. It wasn’t pretty at times however over 60 minutes we wore Howard down and physically owned the 4th quarter. Bucknell’s D-line doesn’t generate much pressure or disruption, forcing just six sacks through five games. We easily got wide in our running game against VMI’s three man front and we should do the same tomorrow. Against FCS opponents Bucknell is allowing 6 YPC on rushes outside the tackles and 165 YPG on the ground overall. A lot of the focus will be on if the passing game can get going but we need the rushing attack to return to its form – if the Spiders can win on the edge it should mean big things for Brown & King.

Personnel – I love tracking what tweaks the staff makes during each season. The biggest one this year has been using more 20 personnel (2 RBs, 0 TEs) sets. It’s helped our horizontal run game and helped get the RBs more involved in the passing game. The downside of that has been the removal of tight ends. I completely understand Sean Clarke’s injury is the driving factor here. He’s an excellent TE who was playing to a high level and asking younger guys behind him to fill that role isn’t easy. I’m still shocked at the drop off in production. In the first two weeks our TEs saw 10 targets – in the last three they’ve seen just two. Given our struggles utilizing the middle of the field, incorporating TEs more would be an easy way to get Snelsire easy throws and open up the entire field.

Chunk plays – The Bucknell secondary is ripe for big plays. The Bison allow nearly 300 YPG through the air, plus they let up six passes of 25+ yards against Marist last weekend. Consistent downfield coverage is not their strength and we simply have to exploit that.

Aside from VMI (six plays of 25+ yards) the Spiders have just one chunk play each game [there’s a nice graphic about this in the game notes]. No surprise that three of these come from our slot receivers (Fair & Dawson 2x). We have to find ways to generate more of these and it starts with getting Dawson more involved in the passing game. The pop-passes, jet sweeps, reverses, etc. are all great and we should continue to use them. But he’s also a good wide receiver. Through five games, 68% of his targets are within five yards of the LOS. He burned VMI deep and there’s no reason to not target him more downfield.

Ashten Snelsire – Career start #2 for Snelsire with Wickersham sidelined for at least a couple of weeks. I have nothing new to add because my thoughts remain the same no matter who we have at QB – we have to let these guys go play. Give Ashten a chance to make plays even if that means some errors along the way. I maintain the first quarter against Wofford was one of our best this season, yet we shut things down the minute Kyle made a mistake. It was unfair when it happened to #16 and it will be just as unfair if we do the same to #18. I’m anxious to see how Snelsire looks after a full week of QB1 reps and if he’s ready to lead the Spiders in Wickersham’s absence.

Spiders on Defense

Bucknell’s offense puts up fantastic numbers. They average 400 YPG against FCS competition, with most of that coming through the air (275 YPG). They convert 42% of 3rd downs, don’t turn the ball over, and generate plenty of redzone opportunities. They’ll remind you of VMI in their approach but the talent is far beyond the Keydets. We need another stellar outing from Justin Wood’s group to leave Pennsylvania with a win.

Richmond defense – Bucknell has not played a defense like ours. Their average opponent ranks 57th in points allowed and 59th in yards allowed. Not horrible competition but nothing like what they’ll face tomorrow.

Richmond is top 20 is just about every category so far. Obviously the pass defense numbers are heavily aided by our competition but I think that’s helped ease this young group into the season. The Bucknell offense vs the Richmond defense looks to be a fun battle and both sides will get an idea of just how good they are after this one.

Ralph Rucker IV – Everything Bucknell does revolves around NFL prospect Ralph Rucker IV. If we stop Rucker, we win – easy to write, difficult to do. The senior quarterback threw for 25 TDs and 2,800 yards last season, winning Patriot League POTY and finishing as a Walter Payton finalist. He’s on a similar pace this season with 1,200+ yards and 9 TDs. He averages 28 attempts/game and can make all the necessary throws. You know they watched the early parts of the VMI game and won’t hesitate to continually fire downfield, something they’ve done all year.

Insane numbers on Bucknell’s passing chart. Clearly they find big plays and put a strain on opposing secondaries for 60 minutes. Our outside corners will be tested by Sam Milligan (#84). The 6′ 3″ receiver has nearly 500 yards and five TDs, with four of those TDs coming on passes 20+ yards down the field. In the slot Tayshaun Burney will see plenty of TJ Cadden (#21). Cadden aligns in the slot 97% of time and leads Bucknell in both receptions and YAC. The entire unit must defend against the deep ball but Burney limiting short receptions to minimal gains could be just as impactful.

Defensive line – The Spiders proved a good pass rush can indeed be your best pass defense against VMI. The Keydets scored TDs on two of their first four possessions but once the pressure turned up their passing attack faded. The good news is that Bucknell’s O-line continues to be a weakness. They’re huge up front, averaging 6′ 4″ 310 lbs., but their 19 sacks allowed this season rank third to last in the FCS. Our D-line needs to feast on this matchup and Lehigh provided a simple gameplan. In their matchup two weeks ago, the Mountain Hawks saw 45 drop backs yet blitzed just once. They still forced six sacks, showing that a solid front-4 can easily take on the Bison O-line. I can’t imagine we’ll see anything different from the Spiders.

As much as we want to get after the QB we’ll need to be disciplined in our rush lanes. Rucker IV averages over 40 scramble yards per game. He is not a pure pocket passer – he throws on the run well, extends plays, and can easily make an overzealous defense pay. It’s important we don’t let him sit in the pocket and pick up apart but we also can’t find ourselves chasing him around the yard all day.

Special Teams

Nothing crazy on special teams. Bucknell has a good punting average and a great field goal kicker. Matt Schearer is 6/6 on FGs this season, hitting a 49 yarder last weekend.

They do have 14 touchbacks so we might not see much from Isaiah Dawson. I do keep watching to see which direction we return kicks. Our two longest returns (99 yards v Lehigh, 38 yards v Howard) have both been left, with our KOR unit not seeing much success going middle/right.

Next Post

Game 6 – 2025: Bucknell recap – Monday, October 6th