Homecoming 2025 at the Brick House. The Spiders finally play our first Patriot League home game, looking to get to 2-2 in conference play.

Holy Cross Crusaders

Is there such thing as a “best” 0-6 team in the country? Holy Cross limps down to Richmond after a much needed bye week, sitting at 0-6. Their season filled with high hopes came crashing down quickly – facing FBS Northern Illinois, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island in the first three weeks, Holy Cross lost all three by a combined seven points. What was nearly a top 10 resume instead resulted in a free fall. Coming off their bye week, I imagine they aimed to hit the full reset button. This is a proud program that will not be content with mailing the season in, so I’d expect one of their better efforts tomorrow.

Looking ahead, things really open up for us with a win. We’d move to 5-3 entering a well-timed bye week. Our next two opponents are the lowest rated Patriot League teams so all the sudden we could be sitting at 7-3 a month from now. That’s the fan in me peeking ahead…

Second half travel

The team will enjoy a less demanding travel schedule for the remainder of the regular season. In the first seven weeks we played five road games, totaling over 1,600 miles worth of planes/buses. Our final six weeks feature a bye, three home contests, and two local road games. That amounts to just 500 miles of travel and will surely be appreciated by both players and staff.

Odds

Line opened at Richmond -5.5 with a total of 44.5. Projected score is Spiders 25-19.

Spiders on Offense

The Holy Cross defense started out great, allowing just 47 points the first three weeks. In the following three games they allowed 110, unable to stop the run or the pass. They’ve remained steady in a few areas but overall this should be an opponent we have success against for 60 minutes.

Fast start – The Crusaders are getting killed in the 1st quarter, with a 55-16 scoring deficit. They allowed scores on opponent’s opening drives in three of their last four games so it’s a good opportunity for us to strike early. Richmond has been good here, with a 49-21 1st quarter advantage in FCS games. We need to get this 0-6 team trailing quickly – put them in a familiar hole and don’t give them a reason to think things have turned their way.

Wide receivers – Plenty of opportunities for the UR wideouts against this secondary. The Crusaders rank in the bottom 1/4 of FCS schools in yards/completion allowed, giving up just over 13 yards each catch. They’ve gotten worse as the season has gone along, with Fordham & Harvard continually spreading the ball around to pick apart their coverage. The Rams/Crimson each had five receivers record a reception of 15+ yards, totaling 570 yards and five TDs.

I don’t think we necessarily need that many UR receivers involved but it does show the value of everyone chipping in. In seven games we’ve only had two 50+ yard receivers once (Bucknell). A lot of that has been Isaiah Dawson, so keeping him involved while also utilizing Griffin/Hill on the outside would further develop things.

Kyle Wickersham – Wickersham returns tomorrow, which is perfect timing alongside Snelsire’s knee injury. Everything about tomorrow revolves around what we let Kyle do. If we revert to early season play calling I’ll be nervous – if we approach the game like Bucknell/some of Colgate I’ll be anxious to see him run the full offense. I highlighted our advantages at receiver because I’m hoping we flip the usual approach. Not knowing how much we’ll run #16 with his injury, using the passing game to setup the rushing attack will help our rhythm and lead to sustained drives. The UR offense can really build on the last two weeks and it starts with keeping that assertiveness throughout four quarters.

Offensive line – Gabe Carbajal is back, a huge boost up front for the Richmond O-line. Interesting to hear Coach Huesman say that Gray will slide back to center with Gabe playing right tackle. That shows just how well Ron Anderson has held up at left tackle, an encouraging sign that we’ve built depth there. This is a good game for Carbajal to return to – Holy Cross only has five sacks and allows 4.2 YPC on the ground. Our O-line has rounded into form, allowing just four sacks the past three games, so this is a great spot for #52 to make his season debut and keep the momentum going.

Spiders on Defense

It’s hard to find many positives in Holy Cross’ offense. Less than 16 PPG, not great at running the ball, low completion %, bad on 3rd down, and not great in the redzone. 24 points is their highest total in a single game, scoring 17 points or less in four of six contests. We got a little traction back on defense last week and it has to continue tomorrow. The Spiders are simply better across the board and need to prove it.

Offensive struggles – Every stat I look at for the Crusaders’ offense is ugly. Up front they run for only 3 YPC, ranking 115th in the FCS in total rushing/game. They don’t have a mobile QB, so if we can stop their inside running game everything else should fall into place. Pass protection is well below average, with 20 sacks allowed (119th in FCS). We’ve seen the Spiders turn up the pressure in recent weeks however our front-4 may be able to control things themselves.

This is also a much better matchup for our secondary. Both Bucknell and Colgate moved the ball well through the air, something Holy Cross has not yet done. Throwing for just 180 YPG the Crusaders haven’t been able to balance out their poor rushing with any better luck throwing the ball. Their biggest issue is completion percentage – QB Cal Swanson completes just 53% of his passes, a big factor in their poor 3rd down offense. Whether or not Stocker is back at corner, we need to see a much better game from our cover guys. A strong effort heading into the bye would be a nice step, especially with some great passing offenses on our November schedule.

Time of possession – I talked about this in the Colgate recap and wanted to expand on it here. Our defense has been out on the field plenty the last three weeks, playing WAY more snaps than the offense (Snap Δ) and causing a huge discrepancy in time of possession (TOP Δ).

Things have technically improved the past couple games but we’re still making things hard on ourselves. The fact we’ve allowed just 21 PPG during this three-game stretch is pretty impressive and speaks to our depth/consistent effort. Still, we need to flip this script and avoid allowing 400+ yards in three consecutive games. The last time we did was Hampton-Maine-Rhody in 2023.

Turnovers – Turnovers tend to fix most problems and they certainly would help our defense. Last season we forced multiple turnovers in 8/13 games – this year we’ve done that in just 2/7. No better way to get off the field and let our offense dictate the game than by generating a couple of takeaways.

Blake Houser – Houser gets the start at Sam linebacker with Glassmyer sidelined 2-3 weeks. Thankfully Houser has played a lot so I’m expecting him to fill in well. #26 has 141 defensive snaps this year, with 83 of those coming the last three weeks. We will undoubtedly miss Glassmyer’s toughness and leadership but it feels like Houser is ready to take over this role for however long we need him to.

Special Teams

Holy Cross features excellent return units. They took one kickoff back for a TD and average over 24 yards/return, good for top 25 in the FCS. On punt returns they average 16 yards/return (top 10 in FCS), so both coverage units for the Spiders will need to be crisp tomorrow.

Their best unit is on punt – they’ve only allowed four punt returns for a total of nine yards. With Ja’Vion Griffin set to return punts again we’ll see if he has more magic against one of the nation’s best cover groups.

Next Post

Game 8 – 2025: Holy Cross recap – Monday, October 20th