The first flight game of 2025 lands Richmond in Hamilton, NY to face Colgate.

Colgate Raiders

Colgate is a very deceptive 2-3. They have an FBS loss to Syracuse and one-score losses to Villanova and Monmouth, both CAA playoff contenders. Being just a few plays away from a top 25 team, I think the Raiders are a Patriot League sleeper. They host both Lehigh and Bucknell to end the year, as the Patriot League title could go through Hamilton, NY this November.

Colgate’s strength is in their offense – 33 PPG, 445 YPG, and great 3rd down & redzone success. Their defense is lagging behind but is still a step ahead of Bucknell’s. On paper this looks to be another game where the Spiders need plenty of touchdowns to fly home with the victory.

Mid-week interviews

“Our backs are against the wall.  One more (loss) and we’re not in… at 9-3, we’ll see.” Coach Huesman gave a playoff outlook given three early losses.  Normally 9-3 might be enough, however his “we’ll see” makes sense in our current situation.  Unfortunately, our schedule has done us no favors in terms of an at-large path. Wofford, Holy Cross, and William & Mary (three of our better games based on preseason ratings) have combined for 14 losses already, really dragging down our Strength of Schedule and Strength of Record metrics. That being said, the final six games are still very important.

The 2021 team showed just how impactful a strong finish can be. Four straight wins against CAA rivals set the table for restarting our playoff streak in 2022. This year’s Spiders have an extremely important back half of the schedule because of our youth. There’s nothing more valuable than game snaps and this young group should make big strides in October/ November. FCS football is shifting to a permanent 12-game schedule beginning in 2026 – that means teams with higher volume and higher quality of experience will separate themselves further.

Coach also highlighted some injuries – after the bye week he expects to have Veney, Fair, Carbajal, and Wickersham back. Not sure if we could see any of them sooner however the offense will have plenty of pieces returning in the near future.

Odds

Early line shows Colgate -2.5. O/U is 54.5 for a projected score of Colgate 29-26.

Spiders on Offense

Colgate’s defense ranks low in key statistical areas:

Offensive philosophy – The Spiders really found something last weekend via a much more balanced attack, and how well we can maintain that is the thing I’m most interested in. We wanted to attack Bucknell’s secondary and I imagine the mindset will be the same tomorrow. The Raiders allow FCS opponents to throw for 310 yards/game. We had four receptions for 25+ yards against Bucknell and could have similar success tomorrow. Their secondary has forced four INTs twice this year, so Snelsire’s ability to hit big plays while still protecting the football will be tested.

Ja’Vion Griffin – Quanye Veney is out and I have to imagine teams are going to start keying on Isaiah Dawson. That’s going to put J5 in a bigger role and that’s to our advantage. Griffin flashed his value last weekend – all three receptions were for 10+ yards and resulted in either a TD or a 1st down. He’s a great outside target to keep the chains moving and I’m hopeful we see #5’s targets increase moving forward.

Offensive line – Another week of this starting five together facing another D-line that hasn’t caused too much trouble. Just five sacks on the year for Colgate’s 3-4 defense, who have only two seniors in their front-7. Their inexperience has them 109th in the FCS in sacks forced and 122nd in TFLs forced. This should be a game we handle things up front, allowing the offense to find a good run/pass mix. We’ve faced a few 3 down linemen defenses in 2025 and ran the ball wide with great success each time. Colgate allowed 108 yards rushing (7.2 YPC) last week to Cornell on runs outside the tackles, so the Spiders have a great chance to continue our positive trend in this matchup.

Moving the pocket – We got Snelsire on the move early and often, changing the launch point on plenty of passes. Below was just one of many examples, with Snelsire faking the stretch right and booting back left (first TD pass to Dawson).

This helped our O-line maintain protection while forcing Bucknell to cover sideline-to-sideline. #18 still made plenty of the throws from the pocket but being able to adjust your offense in a variety of ways keeps defenses guessing. Nice to see us using more wrinkles like play actions and designed throws outside of the pocket to further expand our passing game.

Spiders on Defense

Colgate has great balance on offense, led by a strong offensive line. The Raiders run for 156 YPG and throw for nearly 300, while converting 49% of 3rd downs (10th in FCS). It was an uncharacteristic performance from the Spiders last weekend and you know our guys are looking to bounce back in a big way.

1st half statement – The Spiders need to make a statement in the 1st half, especially in defending the run.

We’ve been gashed on the ground the past two 1st halves, and while the 2nd half was better in each game it’s still far behind what we’ve come to expect. The last time Richmond allowed consecutive opponents in the same season to run for 200+ yards was November 2019 (Villanova and JMU).

Re-establishing our pass rush will be just as important. Colgate has only allowed five sacks this season (9th in FCS) and we’re coming off our first game of 2025 that didn’t see a defensive lineman record a sack. We’ve won plenty of games with great run defense & pressure, something we need to return to tomorrow. A healthier Matei Fitz will surely help and I’m interested to see if Coach Wood makes any noticeable tweaks.

Colgate QBs – Zach Osborne likely remains out, as he did not play last weekend and is not on this week’s two-deep. Osborne started early in the season however Jake Stearney has plenty of experience, totaling over 500 snaps in 2024. He threw 206 yards and four TDs against Cornell so it will be a battle of more than capable back-up QBs.

Treyvhon Saunders – Saunders is an elite receiver. PFF has him as the #2 WR in the FCS and he’s got the numbers to back it up. The all-time leader in receptions at Colgate (229 catches), Saunders is a veteran All-American that surely has the focus of our secondary. He gets 15 targets/game, hauling in nearly 10 receptions for 136 yards on average. With six touchdowns on the year there’s no one player more important to slow down than #9.

This season he aligns in the slot 91% of the time. Another big matchup for Tayshaun Burney, who did well guarding Lehigh’s Geoffrey Jamiel (another elite Patriot League slot receiver) in week 1. What makes Saunders exceptionally difficult to defend is his ability to create with the ball in his hands. Exactly 1/2 of his 682 yards this season have come after the catch. Burney will need to be sticky when defending Saunders in order to slow down Colgate’s passing attack and excellent 3rd down offense.

Special Teams

Statistically the Spiders have slight advantages in most areas, so a clean day from all units would put us in a great spot to win. Ja’Vion Griffin will return punts with Veney out.

Isaiah Dawson now has three returns of 35+ yards against three different teams. We saw Bucknell pooch kick away from him and it begs the question of if other teams will follow. Colgate only has four touchbacks the last four games, so it will be interesting to see how they attempt to maneuver around #10.

Next Post

Game 7 – 2025: Colgate recap – Monday, October 13th