Monmouth ties for No. 21 in HERO Sports’ FCS Preseason Top 25.
The Hawks finished 6-6 last year, including a win over FBS Florida International 45-42 in September, but they missed the FCS playoffs.
Here’s a look at the 2025 Monmouth football squad.
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Returning 2024 FCS All-Conference Players (5)
1st Team
QB Derek Robertson
2nd Team
WR Josh Derry
OL JT Cornelius
KR TJ Speight
3rd Team
WR TJ Speight
Honorable Mention
TE Jack Neri
D1 Transfer Portal Movement
Transfers Coming In From The FCS (4)
Trey McLeer (DB), Saint Francis
Evan Rutkowski (LB), Towson
Martin Lucas (RB), William & Mary
Zachary Ricci (DB), Wagner
Transfers Coming In From The FBS (2)
Spencer Kishbaugh (LB), Coastal Carolina
Hudson Fiene (K), Eastern Michigan
Transfers Lost To The FCS (3)
Chase Wilkens (TE) to Campbell
Chris King (DL) to Morgan State
Ramin Farzaie (DL) to Rhode Island
Transfers Lost To The FBS (2)
Miles Mitchell (DL) to Purdue
Willy Love (LB) to Temple
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Offensive Outlook
Monmouth is known for its offense, which took off last season with QB Derek Robertson looking right at home upon transferring in from Maine. At Maine, Robertson appeared in 21 games and earned 2023 All-CAA honorable mention. 2024 was Robertson’s senior year and his first at Monmouth, where he joined his older brother, Hawks quarterbacks coach Jimmy Robertson.
Everything clicked for Monmouth with Derek Robertson putting up 328 passing YPG and a 31:6 touchdown-to-interception ratio, which helped the Hawks finish second in the FCS at 39 PPG on offense. Now, Robertson is back as a graduate student, staying in West Long Branch as the defending CAA Offensive Player of the Year.
Though Robertson being in place sets a high bar for the Hawks, life will be different on the ground without RB Sone Ntoh. Ntoh was a First Team All-CAA FB/HB, but he is out of eligibility, clearing the way for Rodney Nelson to get even more chances alongside Makhi Green.
Nelson is a redshirt sophomore who made nine starts out of 12 games played a year ago, leading Monmouth with 809 rushing yards that equated to 6.1 YPC. Ntoh was the scoring bruiser (25 TDs compared to Nelson’s six in ’24), so the Hawks will redistribute short-yardage or goal-line-area carries this season.
Green, the other top returning tailback, also appeared in all 12 games in the last campaign. Now a senior, he turned in 5.1 YPC for 278 yards while catching nine balls for 95 yards in 2024. Green was once an FBS Temple commit for coming out of high school, but these days he remains in Monmouth’s nucleus, especially on special teams.
Former W&M RB Martin Lucas (6-2, 240) may well be the candidate to fit the mold left by Ntoh in tight quarters of the field. Lucas spent four years with the Tribe, two of which were double digits in games played, but ’24 saw Lucas play in just two games. He’s a power back who could be plug-and-play for the Hawks as he continues a college career that started with decommitting from FBS Arizona State.
You can see the group effort of running it back with QB Robertson as Monmouth welcomes back from last year all six top pass-catchers in yards.
The leader is WR Josh Derry. Derry had a team-best 917 receiving yards and caught five touchdowns as a sophomore in 2024. He also paced the CAA in receiving YPG with 91.7 and met that mark on one pass via a 94-yard TD reception against Maine last September.
TJ Speight makes it a major pair of punches for the Hawks at receiver. Speight was right with Derry last season, recording 896 receiving yards and six TD grabs.
Speight and Derry are 5-11 and 5-9, respectively. WR Maxwell James and TE Jack Neri (both 6-3) bring the height, and they combined for 622 receiving yards in ’24. That sum trails WR Gavin Nelson, who amassed 643 yards on 35 catches.
The MU offensive line has four of five starters still in place, headlined by 6-6, 290-pound right tackle JT Cornelius. The Hawks’ guards are experienced with RG Shalik Hubbard (6-4, 325) and LG Chris Moreno (6-1, 300).
Defensive Outlook
The changes for Monmouth in 2025 are on defense, the unit that coughed up 33.5 PPG last season (14th in the CAA and 103rd in the FCS).
2024 Third Team All-CAA LB Ryan Moran played almost 800 snaps last fall (the team high), so replacing a former captain in Moran with his 255 career tackles is a clear project.
Coastal Carolina LB transfer Spencer Kishbaugh is an inside type with the ability to move around. The 6-3, 200-pound redshirt sophomore totaled 15 games in two seasons at Coastal at linebacker and on special teams.
Towson graduate transfer LB Evan Rutkowski has played safety in addition to inside and outside ’backer. Rutkowski went with MU over offers from FBS members Bowling Green and UNLV.
Inumidun Ayo-Durojaiye was announced in December as a Yale grad transfer LB for Monmouth who was second on the Bulldogs in total tackles (58) and sacks (3.5) last year. In a change from that early winter signing period, Ayo-Durojaiye tweeted this month that he will be back at Yale this season. Had he proceeded at MU, he would have had a scoop on the CAA through his brother, TD, who played at Villanova his entire career.
Saint Francis transfer safety Trey McLeer joins veteran Hawk Deuce Lee at the position. Lee finished 2024, his sophomore season, third on the team with 70 total tackles, 46 solo. He was the only defensive Hawk, in addition to Moran, to surpass 700 snaps on the year.
DB Zachary Ricci arrives from Wagner, where he played in 21 games and totaled 50 tackles with six interceptions. He was a 2024 Phil Steele Second Team All-NEC selection after tallying 30 tackles, four TFLs, five pass breakups, and four interceptions.
In a big year overall for the program, 2025 looms large for Monmouth’s defense entirely and the pass coverage in particular. While the Hawks’ offense wants an encore from ’24, it was a cruelly ironic damper on things a year ago that MU was last in the CAA in pass defense. Part of that is attributable to getting in shootouts with a high-powered offense on the Hawks’ side that kept opponents throwing, but a return to the FCS playoffs (which would be their first since 2020-21) will demand achieving the league average or better on pass D. Lee will have another helper to that end with the return of Justin Bennin, a safety and captain who tallied two interceptions and a fumble recovery during 460+ snaps as a senior.
At corner, Israel Clark-White is on hand for his redshirt sophomore run after snatching two interceptions in 10 games as a redshirt freshman.
The Monmouth defensive line could help matters by getting after the QB (the Hawks were near the bottom of the CAA in sacks), but D-end Miles Mitchell transferring to FBS Purdue hurts the cause. Brendan Bigos is a returner for Monmouth coming off 260+ snaps in ’24 who has the size at 6-4, 280 to step up on the defensive front.
On paper, the defense will decide which games Monmouth flips to wins in a year of high expectations — and one that’s a breakthrough candidate in the CAA. The schedule is appetizing: Monmouth will likely be favored in its road nonconference games vs. the Patriot League, favored against Delaware State in the noncon, and a favorite in conference road draws at Bryant and North Carolina A&T. That would pencil in five wins at the disaster-scenario floor while the ceiling is a run at the CAA’s auto-bid pending outcomes in games vs. Villanova, Towson, and Stony Brook.
2025 Preseason Preview Central
Monmouth Football Schedule
8/29 at Colgate
9/6 at Fordham
9/13 at Charlotte
9/20 vs No. 14 Villanova
10/4 vs Delaware State
10/11 at Towson
10/18 vs No. 25 Stony Brook
10/25 at Hampton
11/1 at Bryant
11/8 vs New Hampshire
11/15 at North Carolina A&T
11/22 vs UAlbany
Bold indicates CAA games
HERO Sports’ rankings
