2025 Richmond Football Preview

Richmond received votes in HERO Sports’ FCS Preseason Top 25.

The Spiders finished 10-3 last year, losing 20-16 to Lehigh in the FCS first round.

Here’s a look at the 2025 Richmond football squad.

Returning 2024 FCS All-Conference Players (2)

2nd Team 
DL Camden Byrd
LB Carter Glassmyer

D1 Transfer Portal Movement

Transfers Coming In From The FBS (5)
JT Sowell (OL), Appalachian State
Aidan Steinfeldt (TE), Marshall
Jaiden Fair (WR), Maryland
Jason Smith II (OL), North Carolina
Tayshaun Burney (DB), Wake Forest

Transfers Coming In From The FCS (1)
Joey Duggan (WR), Fordham

Transfers Lost To The FBS (10)
Landon Ellis (WR) to James Madison
Camden Coleman (QB) to James Madison
Nick DeGennaro (WR) to James Madison
Trae Tomlinson (DB) to Louisiana
Parker Mitchell (OL) to Memphis
Keith Gouveia (OL) to Pitt
Zach Palmer-Smith (RB) to ULM
Matthew Traynor (DB) to Wisconsin
Carsen Stocklinski (DL) to Hawai’i
Chance Graves (DB) to East Carolina

Transfers Lost To The FCS (0)

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Offensive Outlook

Richmond’s offense required offseason reshuffling as it lost top names that included the Spiders’ primary starting quarterback, their lead running back, four key pass catchers, and three offensive linemen.

Five of Richmond’s six D1 transfers coming this year are on offense. It’s not all new faces for the unit, though, and to say that UR lost its only starter at QB would be misleading.

Kyle Wickersham and Ashten Snelsire are back at QB after 2024’s leading passer, Camden Coleman, was one of the three offensive Spiders to transfer to JMU. Wickersham started three games last season and was 34-of-59 for 335 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions. Wickersham was the team’s regular more so in 2023 when he led the FCS in completion percentage at 72.6 and had 402 rushing yards to go with 1,405 passing yards.

Snelsire played in four games a year ago, completing seven of seven passes. He also totaled 6-of-14 passing in two games in 2023 following a 2022 redshirt year. Snelsire looks to be first up in the depth after Wickersham. 

Coleman netted 342 rushing yards for the Spiders a season ago to trail only No. 1 rusher Zach Palmer-Smith. “ZPS” ran for almost 1,400 yards as Richmond’s top back before transferring to ULM for his senior season. After the departures of Palmer-Smith and Coleman, a lot of ground production is left in a vacuum for the Richmond roster’s competition to replace it in 2025.

Richmond retained the running backs who lined up after Palmer-Smith — Andrew King and Aziz Foster-Powell. King carried 46 times for 267 yards while Foster-Powell turned in 56 rushing attempts for 230 yards in ’24. Both played 11 games.

The top-line receiving got a bigger personnel makeover for the Spiders this offseason. Both of Richmond’s 500-yard receivers who served as anchors in ’24 (Landon Ellis and Nick DeGennaro) are now with Coleman at James Madison. Wideout Jerry Garcia Jr. and tight end Matt Robbert exhausted their eligibility as starters in the last campaign.

Wickersham still has returnees to watch for in WR Ja’Vion Griffin (22 receptions for 315 yards in 2024) and WR Quanye Veney (11 catches for 109 yards).

Someone or a few someones will step into the scoring, however, as Ellis, DeGennaro, Garcia, and Robbert combined for 11 TD receptions last year, while Griffin recorded one, as did returning TE Sean Clarke.

With two of five starting OL still in place, the left side of the Richmond protection looks to be consistent with 2024 — barring any flips of position, that is. Left tackle Gabriel Carbajal (6-4, 290) and left guard Scott Hummel (6-4, 304) are the incumbents, joined by North Carolina transfer Jason Smith II (6-3, 310) and App State transfer JT Sowell (6-3, 275).

Maryland transfer WR Jaiden Fair and former Fordham receiver Joey Duggan are both entering a third year in college football, but the only career appearance between them is Duggan’s single showing with the Rams last year.   

One more transfer who could start his college career in earnest with the Spiders is TE Aidan Steinfeldt of Marshall. The 6-2, 243-pound Steinfeldt was a freshman who redshirted for the Thundering Herd while not playing a year ago.

Richmond can historically be trusted to figure it out on offense: The Spiders spent their last four seasons in CAA Football finishing no worse than the midpoint of the CAA in points per game. It’s a program that has made three straight playoff appearances in that span. 

Defensive Outlook

Richmond maintains four of its top 11 tacklers from ’24 into ’25.

UR has its greatest carryover in the front seven, which is where reigning No. 1 tackler and LB Carter Glassmyer goes to work. Glassmyer enters his redshirt junior season coming off 87 total tackles. He’s a captain this fall alongside Wickersham, Carbajal, Hummel, and LB/S Jordan Allen. 

Allen made two starts at safety and one at linebacker last season as he was in on 29 tackles in 12 games played. Richmond lists Allen as a linebacker on the roster, but he’s been labeled a DB as well on team social media. The squad’s needs and his playing history might send Allen to strong safety at the starting spot vacated by Matthew Traynor in his move to Wisconsin.

Back up front, defensive tackle Carsen Stocklinski grad transferred to Hawai’i after 34 career Spider starts and 3.5 sacks last year. Richmond keeps a starter at DT in Matei Fitz, the 6-2, 275-pound former JMU transfer who logged 37 tackles and 3.5 sacks a year ago.

At defensive end, the Spiders bid farewell to Jeremiah Grant’s team-leading 13.5 sacks from ’24. With the nationally acclaimed Grant out of eligibility, the DE in the spotlight is Camden Byrd (6-3, 245). Byrd had seven sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and a pass breakup in 2024.

Wake Forest DB transfer Tayshaun Burney did not play in his freshman year of 2024 for the Demon Deacons, but he has a cornerback background at 5-9, 180, and that could be useful for a Richmond team living after the transfer of two-year-starting corner Trae Tomlinson to Louisiana. The need is heightened amid fellow CB Chance Graves’ exit to East Carolina as a grad.

It was a challenging cycle of transfers out for Richmond, but the Spiders have had their wins on inbound transfers, too. Glassmyer was at Saint Francis before coming to UR. Thinking of offense again briefly, Palmer-Smith started his college career at Wagner, and DeGennaro began at Maryland. 

Richmond is 34-16 since fall 2021 and 28-11 since 2022 under head coach Russ Huesman. When a squad sustains winning in the FCS even without the deepest playoff runs, the attention that can come from transfer pluckers is well understood, and maybe that’s especially so in Richmond’s geography as a gateway to the South with its high concentration of FBS G6s — let alone power schools nationwide that are keeping an eye out.  

As Richmond launches its Patriot League era ahead of William & Mary and Villanova doing so in 2026, Spiders fans could look at ’25 as a chance at getting a special head start on rivals. Both sides of the ball have to shake off losses, but the UR defense might hold the keys to the Patriot path if it can reload the secondary to best defend recent conference winners Lehigh and Holy Cross.  

2025 Preseason Preview Central

Richmond Football Schedule

8/30 at No. 17 Lehigh
9/6 at Wofford
9/13 at North Carolina
9/20 vs VMI
9/27 vs Howard
10/4 at Bucknell
10/11 at Colgate
10/18 vs Holy Cross
11/1 vs Fordham
11/8 at Georgetown
11/15 vs Lafayette
11/22 at William & Mary

Bold indicates Patriot League games
HERO Sports’ rankings