All it took was a flight to New York for the Spiders to secure their first ever Patriot League win. A 24-19 victory puts us at 4-3 with one more game before the bye week.

Drives

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

Game thoughts

One-possession win – We’ve won a couple one score games during non-conference play and I’m glad we finally brought that to the Patriot League. Two close losses put us behind in conference play however this group got over the hump with an exciting 4th quarter. This is a spot we’ve found ourselves in a lot recently and having a young team continually find ways to win is huge. Five of our six FCS games this year have been decided by one possession. Going back to 2024, 10 of our last 18 FCS games were one-possession results. Both sides of the ball still have lots of room to improve however the young Spiders are being forced to grow up fast in these late game situations and we’re better off because of it.

End of 1st half – I hate that we took the ball out of the offense’s hands. Richmond has one timeout, 1st & 10, ball at the Colgate 12 with 22 seconds left. A solid QB run for five yards on 1st down but then we let the clock bleed to 3 seconds and kick the field goal. It seemed like we were trying to have two plays called so that we could quickly get to the ball but there’s not enough time for that to work effectively. Call the timeout after the first play and let Snelsire throw it to the endzone or throw it on 1st down and save your timeout for the next play. I’m glad we went for another 4th down earlier in the game but we have to be taking an endzone shot there.

Offense

9 drives | 51 snaps – 6 punts, 2 TDs, 1 FG

Colgate gave us much more trouble than Bucknell. We started off well, gaining 184 yards in the 1st half, however the 2nd half didn’t see much production. It felt like we played things much closer to the vest and it showed – without Andreas Hill’s 75-yard TD reception we had under 50 yards of offense in the final 30 minutes. A couple sacks and a costly penalty put us behind the sticks and we never found the rhythm we had early in the game. Still, this group took care of the football and did enough to win.

Running game – Not too many rushing lanes for the Spiders. We had some solid gains but for the day we struggled to consistently pick up yardage. UR running backs averaged just 2.6 YPC, with Snelsire slightly better at 3.6 (excluding sacks). Of our 32 rushes, half netted 2 yards or less. That volume of minimal gains led to us being off schedule and facing longer 3rd downs in the 2nd half.

Given the resistance we faced in the run game I was surprised how much we stuck with it:

• 1st down | 57% run, 43% pass
• 2nd down | 71% run, 29% pass

We remained fairly balanced on 1st down but saw our 2nd down rushing really jump. Given the number of short gains we picked up I thought we’d put the ball in Snelsire’s hands more. With Clarke, Fair, and now Veney out we’re definitely missing some key targets but I’m hoping the play of guys like Andreas Hill allow us to open things up more.

Downfield passing – The additional running led to us not getting many downfield shots in. The huge completion to Andreas Hill was our only target in the 16+ bucket as we didn’t take/couldn’t find open receivers downfield.

Maybe this is a product of three turnovers last game, maybe it was due to our lack of receivers. Given Colgate’s secondary and our willingness to work the ball downfield last weekend I did not expect the Spiders to end up with only 199 yards passing.

Andrew King – I loved how we used King throughout the day. He only had two carries but had the highest YPC of our three running backs. Where he really impacted things was the passing game, hauling in five passes for 43 yards. We got him the ball on a mid-screen, a couple times in the flats, and even had him open up the seam. Those early wrinkles helped with our 1st half production and I’d like to see that variety more in the coming weeks.

Andreas Hill – Another position where the Spiders are showing solid, young depth. Hill saw a lot of action with Veney out and made the most of his opportunity. 105 receiving yards, first collegiate touchdown, and a well-rehearsed celebration for the camera. Only a R-Fr., Hill looks to be an outside threat with great size (6′ 4″) for seasons to come.

Defense

10 drives | 70 snaps – 4 punts, 2 TDs, 2 FGs, 2 turnovers [1 on downs]

A lot of yards but not a lot of points. We gave up over 400 yards but got key stops when we needed them, especially in the 4th quarter. Coach Wood wasn’t happy with untimely penalties and a couple of the longer drives allowed but the defense put us in position to win. Colgate had four redzone trips but only managed two TDs, as the Spider D holding them to field goals twice ended up being the difference.

Yards/snaps – The defense has been on the field too often. I think that really sums things up in recent weeks, as we’re seeing extended drives eat away at the clock and increase the snap count. For the second straight game we allowed 400+ yards of offense while playing 70+ snaps. For reference, we only allowed each of those once in 12 FCS games last year. Of Colgate’s 10 drives, five went for 50+ yards. We’ve got to find ways to get off the earlier sooner and swing the possession back in our favor.

Defensive line – The D-line responded to being shutout last week with three sacks (Byrd, Hoilette, Lassiter). Colgate had only allowed five sacks entering the game so for us to finish with four (Glassmyer had one as well) was a big plus. Especially late in the game, our pressure off the edge really disrupted their passing game and it led to Peyton Seelmann’s game clinching INT.

We were also stout in the run game, holding Colgate to 3.2 YPC and under 100 rushing yards. Seelmann and Glassmyer helped a lot here, combining for 20 tackles and two TFLs. Overall that was a good bounce back game from everyone up front.

Big plays – We’re still allowing tons of big yardage against the pass. Treyvhon Saunders was injured early however four different receivers filled his void – each recorded a reception of 20+ yards and it led to another 300-yard day for QB Jake Stearney.

D’Angelo Stocker was out again and right now we haven’t seen the younger secondary slow down a really good passing attack.

Special teams

Great kicking day for the Spiders. Alsheskie made all four kicks plus Gray downed two punts inside the 10 yard line and had the longest punt of his collegiate career (51 yards).

The star was Ja’Vion Griffin – just his second week of handling punt return duties and he did well on both, including an 87 yard TD return that gave the Spiders the lead for good. J5 continues to be a reliable piece and I love that he got his chance on special teams. Even better, the Spiders have used three punt returners this season (Fair, Veney, Griffin) with each guy having success. Lack of depth hurt us last year so that’s a big improvement.

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Game 8 – 2025: Holy Cross preview – Friday, October 17th