No more important position on the roster than QB and we have a veteran leading the way in 2026. After seeing substantially more time in 2025, Ashten Snelsire gets his chance to lead the Spiders as the clear cut QB1.

Roster

#6 | Jack Callaghan | Sophomore

#10 | Calum O’Shea | Freshman

#12 | Joe McCauley | Junior

#17 | Jack Levin | Sophomore

#18 | Ashten Snelsire | Graduate

Additions

Calum O’Shea – O’Shea arrives at Richmond from Battlefield High School (Haymarket, VA) after turning down offers from Navy, Lafayette, Campbell, and Elon. O’Shea is a true dual threat QB, throwing for 1,255 yards & 16 TDs along with rushing for 912 yards & 15 TDs during his junior season. Those are the last stats we have on O’Shea, who unfortunately has dealt with multiple knee injuries. His junior year was abrupted ended by a torn ACL in November 2024 and after a long rehab to return for his senior year, he re-tore it in August of 2025. His freshman year will be focused on returning to full health and getting a feel for Jacob Huesman’s offense.

QB2

Spring ball didn’t do much to sort out the options we have behind Snelsire. Jack Callaghan was limited early on and sat out the second half, with Joe McCauley getting most of the reps with the 2s.

Thankfully, McCauley single-handedly saved what would have been an otherwise boring Spring Game. His 57-yard TD run highlighted the running ability we’ve all heard about, something that I don’t think is leaving this offense anytime soon. Even with Kyle Wickersham out, we ran the QB a fair amount down the stretch. Snelsire had three rushing TDs in his final four games played, showing that a dual threat QB is what Huesman wants to see. I’m always quick to point out McCauley’s mobility but he’s much more than that as a QB. He was very accurate in the Spring Game so I want to see how he builds on that in competing for the QB2 spot this camp.

On the other side, I was glad to hear Coach Huesman confirm that Callaghan was 100% for the opening practice of fall camp. Most of what we’ve seen from Jack is the big arm he displayed at Collegiate, so this is an extremely important camp to work his way through the playbook and develop timing with his receivers.

The focus of these two guys has been who can be the next man up on the depth chart, however the competition extends far beyond that. Assuming the Spiders don’t dip into the portal next season, this battle for QB2 is really about who has the early lead for the starting QB in 2027. That’s why it felt extra important to have both competing and why I think we need to find a way to get at least one some game action this fall. With neither having any collegiate snaps, it’d be nice for us to get an early lead in one of these September games to ensure they see the field.

Ashten Snelsire

As much as I’m excited about the younger guys, the Spiders need to stop the QB carousel. For the past three years we’ve had multiple QBs make 3+ starts. Most of that was Wickersham & Coleman rotating in 2023 + 2024, with Snelsire joining the mix by adding three starts last year. Too often our offense has lacked an identity and solidifying your starting QB is a big step in solving that.

We all saw enough of Snelsire last year to have a good idea of where we stand. The graduate student is always mentioned as one of the smartest guys on the team and the fact his teammates voted him captain for his final year speaks to his leadership. Coach Huesman said “I’m sure there’s a lot of people throughout the country that’d like to have Ashten,” praising his experience and development over the last four years. Given his experience and high football IQ always getting mentioned, that should lead to him taking more command at the line of scrimmage and in the huddle. We didn’t have as many checks/audibles as we’ve seen previously so we may lean into that more with #18 under center.

As I look back on 2025, there’s a glaring weakness that Snelsire must improve on but also a big positive that could help reshape our attack.

Must improve

In eight appearances, Snelsire threw 10+ passes in five games. In those five games, three times his completion percentage was at or below 50%. While I expect the consistency to improve with more reps, this is an area #18 must make big strides in.

The lack of completion % really stands out in intermediate passing.

PFF uses three buckets for tracking passes and the “medium” throws from Ashten were the weakest part of his game. Extremely low completion % and too many INTs meant our passing game was too hit or miss. If Huesman’s offense wants to expand beyond throws near the line of scrimmage, we have to be levels better when it comes to intermediate throws. Without that, this offense can’t take the next step.

Must build on

You can be pessimistic about the intermediate passing game however there’s just as much optimism about what Snelsire can do throwing the ball deep. Using the same buckets, Ashten was nearly flawless when throwing the ball downfield.

50% completion was above the FCS average on throws of 20+ yards, plus the yards/attempt and TD/INT ratio were superb. This is a level the Richmond offense hasn’t consistently had and it’s an area of Snelsire’s game we must capitalize on. Continually stretching the defense leads to big plays but also makes those windows for intermediate throws wider. How well Jacob Huesman can use our weapons outside to capitalize on Snelsire’s ability to throw the ball downfield, while also using that to improve his overall accuracy, will define the offense’s ceiling.

Next Post

2026 Position Group preview: Defensive line – Wednesday, August 5th