The “Red team” Spiders defeated the “Blue team” Spiders 10-3 to put a bow on spring practice and send us into the summer.

Spring Game setup

The Spring Game gets harder to manage each season. Between 22 incoming freshmen not participating and another 10+ Spiders sideline with injuries (mostly offseason surgeries, some precautionary), we did the best to create two “teams” but it was a very one-sided contest. Coach Huesman spoke to that afterwards:

It’s probably hard to assess, we were so watered down offensively – there were some mismatches out there.”

Our overall roster construction is great but given the numbers we had this weekend, the Spring Game isn’t much more than a glorified practice. That’s no one’s fault, it’s just the situation we’re in. Watching live football always makes for a good day but what you saw on Saturday is not a good picture of what the team will look like in four months.

One small thing that wasn’t announced was having position coaches call the plays. It didn’t look like defensive coordinator Justin Wood or offensive coordinator Jacob Huesman were calling the plays (at least not the entire time). On the near sideline I saw cornerbacks coach Jameson Zacharias and safeties coach Drew Anthony calling defensive plays with tight ends coach Kyle Edwards calling the offense. I’m sure others were involved throughout the day, as Coach Huesman prioritized getting our staff some work in the coordinator seats. That’s a great thing to do during the spring and given that we’ve seen internal promotions the past few years it’s a great way to get our coaches added experience.

Spring Game thoughts

Penalties – A fairly clean game across the board. A holding up front plus two pass interference flags on the secondary. We won’t know if we’ve solved the issues of 2025 until real games begin but it was refreshing to see an overall well-played game from both sides of the ball.

Offense

I won’t do full breakdown since we were missing so many guys but it’s worth highlighting two spots:

A much better Spring Game for Joe McCauley this time around. Showed off his ability to run on the only TD of the game and threw the ball on the run with precision. His mobility continues to be his biggest asset and we played into that. That said, it’s clear that Ashten Snelsire will be QB1 when the Spiders take the field against Bucknell on August 29th. 5th-year senior, voted captain by his teammates, and operated the offense well throughout the spring. Excited to see what he can do this fall after going through a full spring/summer as our starting QB.

O-line will be the focus once we enter fall camp. Bo Fowler, a candidate to start at guard, was out on Saturday but I think we’re closer to establishing the starting 5. I was pleased the centers had no bad snaps. JT Sowell mainly worked with the 1s with Luke Surrett running with the 2s. Feels like Jason Smith will slide back to right guard, making that one of our strongest positions. Overall there’s still plenty of shuffling going on – while that’s fine in the spring we don’t want a repeat of last season where this bleeds into September. How quickly we can establish a starting 5 and how much progress they make will likely determine our offense’s ceiling.

Defense

“We’re probably almost too deep with guys that are game ready.” – Coach Huesman

If the lack of numbers wasn’t hurting our offense enough, going against a game ready defense didn’t help either. Rare to hear a coach say we almost have too much depth, especially this early. Three graduate returners help but it highlights how well our younger guys are developing. Eight of 11 projected starters have multiple years of eligibility, with some younger Spiders ready to step into bigger roles in 2026.

Pressure off the edge has been a staple in recent years and that’s not going away in 2026. Cam Byrd recorded a sack in his limited action, with Gus Lee Winter Warrior Award recipient Daniel Sellers also showing he’s ready for a starting role.

There’s been plenty of talk about Blake Houser in recent weeks. Both Coach Huesman and Coach Wood have discussed him at length, along with the Athletic Department putting out a video regarding his offseason strides. Every team likes to generate “internal hype” surrounding their own players, so let me go on record as a fan from the stands – they simply are NOT overhyping Blake Houser. I don’t want to diminish the loss of Peyton Seelmann however Houser is more than ready to fill his place.

The best part was we didn’t even see the full versatility of our personnel. I hinted at this before but we have some packages with Houser rushing the passer, Jordan Allen sliding down to linebacker (where he played early in his UR career), and sophomore Devin Geronomi stepping onto the field as a 6th DB. I’m expecting 15+ guys to play meaningful defensive roles – both to capitalize on unique skillsets and to keep everyone fresh. Versatility looks to be the 2026 Spiders calling card.

Special Teams

Ned Gray punted plenty and sat between 40-45 yards. His directional punting has improved so we’re in a good spot there. Jackson Bonser missed a FG from 41 but hit from 47. Gavin Winterhalter connected from 26 yards and added a touchback. Kicking feels wide open entering August.

Next Post

Per Coach Huesman, there will be zero transfer portal additions between now and August. Our roster is full so the 87 listed online are who we have for this fall.

With that, my May update will be a final roster breakdown including the recruiting map for current/potential players, highlighting where our roster is comprised of and any recent trends. I hope everyone enjoys their summer and please let me know of any stats/details you’d like me to dive into more!