Richmond returns from its bye week looking to kick off a late-season push with a Homecoming victory over fellow playoff hopeful Colgate.
Colgate Raiders
Colgate looked like an at-large playoff sleeper for a while, getting off to a 4-1 start with three Patriot League wins and a close loss to an FBS opponent. The past two games have nearly derailed their season, with losses to Harvard on a Hail Mary and lowly Georgetown last weekend. They’re still our strongest FCS opponent to date, but the past few weeks for both teams have turned this into a de facto FCS playoff elimination game.
After our upset loss at Fordham, I’m particularly interested in how the Spiders respond out of the gate. Colgate has been a completely different team depending on the half, with a +72-point differential in the 1st half and a -33-point differential in the 2nd. Last week, the Raiders jumped out to a 17-0 lead against Georgetown before allowing 27 unanswered points. The last thing Richmond needs is another Saturday spent digging out of an early hole. If we’ve truly put Fordham behind us, this is the kind of opponent we’ll need to prove it against from the opening whistle.
We’re also coming off our bye week, which is well-timed given our success following the break in recent years. Since 2022, Richmond is 4-0 in its first game after the bye. Extend that another week, and we’re 8-0 across the two games following our bye. The Spiders have consistently made the most of the extra week of preparation, and we desperately need that trend to continue. If we can put together another 2-0 stretch, our three November games will have plenty of significance.
Odds
The line opened at Richmond -3.5 and the total is down to 41.5. Projected score is 23-19 Spiders.
Playoff Outlook
The Patriot League is STRUGGLING. Right now, it’s looking like a one-bid league, far from the boost we expected with the additions of Villanova and W&M. On one hand, we still control our own destiny, as winning out would secure the Patriot League title. On the other, losing to a 2-6 Fordham team has left us with very little margin for error. But I’m not convinced we’ve completely lost our chance at an at-large bid.
The biggest reason is how weak the FCS playoff bubble looks right now. Nine ranked teams lost last weekend alone, and somehow the Spiders continue to hold a spot in the polls despite a lackluster resume. We can rule out any chance of making the playoffs at 8-4, but there are still scenarios where a 9-3 Richmond squad could sneak in. We’re too far out to get into the specifics of what that might look like. For now, we need to hit the reset button and keep ourselves in the conversation by beating a solid Colgate team.
Two-Deep
Lots of movement on the defensive side of the ball. Carter Glassmyer is set to make his season debut, returning to his SAM linebacker role. Tayshaun Burney also returns to his Nickel spot after missing the Lafayette and Fordham games, while Jordan Allen is listed as Devin Geronomi’s backup at strong safety. Allen may be listed as a backup, but after recovering a fumble and picking off a pass against Fordham, I can’t imagine the staff won’t find ways to get #9 on the field.
Spiders on Offense
The Raiders’ defense presents a serious challenge for the Spiders coming off the bye week. Colgate ranks #1 in the Patriot League in scoring defense, #2 in pass defense, #2 in run defense, #2 in sacks, and has been excellent on 3rd down and in the red zone. The strength of our schedule has finally arrived, and we’ll need a significantly better offensive performance to move the ball consistently against a Colgate defense that Coach Huesman described as “having no weaknesses.”
Running Game – All the focus has rightly been on our passing game, but success on the ground is far from a given in this matchup. Colgate allows just 110 rushing YPG (2nd in the Patriot League) at 3.7 YPC (also #2). They’ve allowed only six rushing TDs all season, the fewest in the conference and tied for the 11th fewest in the FCS. Aziz Foster-Powell, the Patriot League’s third-leading rusher, has six rushing TDs himself this year and will look to keep the Spiders’ ground game productive. It may be tough sledding, but our offense simply isn’t in a position to become one-dimensional. Aside from a couple of fumbles, Aziz continues to earn tough yards and break tackles, exactly what we’ll need to stay on schedule against this defense.
Passing Game – Certainly the most anticipated matchup is how Ashten Snelsire and the UR passing game respond against an excellent Colgate secondary. The Raiders boast three of the Patriot League’s interception leaders (Christian Magliacano – 3, Tymir Wynn – 2, Reece Allan – 2) and are tied for the FCS lead with 11 team interceptions. They’ve picked off a pass in six straight games. Meanwhile, Snelsire has thrown six INTs over his past three games, something I’m sure got plenty of attention during the bye week. We have to do a better job protecting the football, but arguably just as important is getting more production out of all the passes we’re throwing.
Richmond ranks 121st nationally in yards per attempt (5.33) (for reference, a good number would be around 7.5–8) and 118th in yards per completion (9.75) (good = 12). Colgate, meanwhile, allows just 6 yards per attempt, the best mark in the Patriot League and 13th best nationally. For a team throwing the ball on more than 65% of its plays, the Spiders have far too many incompletions and short gains to consistently put scoring drives together.
Our low yards per completion highlights a troubling decline in chunk plays. Using the graphic from the Athletic Department’s game notes, we had five passing plays of 25+ yards in the first two weeks of the season. Over the following five weeks, we’ve had just two. Fordham was also the first game all year in which we failed to complete a pass in the Deep bucket (16+ yards downfield). It’s hard to see this offense turning the corner without finding a way to generate more explosive plays.
If you’re looking for a positive, Colgate has allowed seven completions on throws of 16+ yards over the past three weeks, along with committing two pass interference penalties on downfield attempts. The Raiders are strong across the board, but they’ve shown some vulnerability to the deep ball recently. For an offense desperately needing more production through the air, those are opportunities we have to take advantage of.
Spiders on Defense
The Raiders scored 20+ points in their first four FCS games but have been held to 17 in each of their past two contests. Some of that decline can be attributed to personnel issues, and a Colgate offense back at full strength would present a much tougher test for the Spiders.
Senior QB Jake Stearney missed last weekend’s game against Georgetown, which was likely the deciding factor in Colgate’s upset loss. With backup Joey Tomasso at the helm, the offense looked drastically different.
It was just one game, but the shift in Colgate’s offensive approach was clear. They couldn’t push the ball downfield the way they wanted to, the passing game lost its consistency, and they relied much more heavily on Tomasso’s legs. If he gets the nod tomorrow, expect the UR defense to key in on quick hitters and a variety of looks in the QB run game.
Regardless of who’s playing QB, stopping WR Matt Fogler remains priority #1. Fogler, a 2025 Jerry Rice Award Semifinalist, leads the Patriot League in receiving yards/game (94.7), receptions/game (6), and receiving TDs (6). The 6’4″ sophomore presents a serious challenge for the #1-ranked Richmond pass defense. Our numbers have been excellent, but we’ve already allowed three receivers to eclipse 100 yards this season, and Fogler is talented enough to make it four.
Personnel – With Burney and all of our graduate captains set to play, the Spiders’ defense finally has a chance to show its full versatility. I’m not sure how often we’ll see Allen at linebacker or safety, but there are plenty of different personnel packages now available to us. One I’d particularly like to see is Blake Houser getting opportunities to rush off the edge on 3rd down. With the Geronomis holding down the safety spots, Allen can slide into a linebacker role, freeing up Houser to rush the passer. Not only would that give one of our DEs a breather, but Houser has already shown the quickness to be disruptive coming off the edge. We toyed with this during the spring but haven’t had the chance to see it this fall. I’ll be paying close attention to if and when Justin Wood uses these different personnel groupings tomorrow.
Special Teams
Richmond remains in the top 25 nationally in punt return defense, thanks to Ned Gray averaging over 43 yards per punt. Colgate’s Tymir Wynn leads the Patriot League in punt return average at 12.6 yards per return, giving us a legitimate challenge in a phase of the game we’ve consistently won this season.
After the Fordham game, Coach Huesman called our special teams “soft.” No unit has looked softer than kickoff return, where Richmond ranks 104th in the FCS in return average and hasn’t had a single return longer than 23 yards all season. I’m interested to see if we’ve made any adjustments over the bye week, because if we can’t start getting more out of our returns, we might as well just fair catch everything.
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2026 — Game 8: Colgate Recap – Monday, October 26th
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