Roll Spides Season Recap

[Gallipoli]

This is another excellent piece of analysis by Roll Spides.

December 2025 update

It’s been two weeks since the season ended, and with the FCS playoffs now in the quarterfinals I want to quickly put a bow on the 2025 season and start looking towards high school and transfe…

rollspides.com

 

[Gallipoli]

This is a significant point made by Roll Spides:

What’s alarming are the number of players that burst onto the scene and then immediately depart the following offseason to destinations where money wasn’t the primary reason.

 

[PittFieldDreams]

This is a very good article with lots of comments and questions about the vision of football at the University of Richmond. The Portal “is what it is.” The UVA QB was at 4 different schools. When I watched the posted video from the other thread on the post game of Lehigh vs Nova it was impressive to see their players talk about when they arrived and played Nova they were beaten soundly and had few fans on their side except parents. They also talked about not wearing their gear around campus. Now, they are proud to rep the gear but also proud of graduating as Lehigh Men. Are we recruiting “Richmond Men”?

 

[Spiderjpo]

I think the question for our staff becomes do you recruit kids that may have the ability and skill set to potentially get FBS interest or do you focus on the developmental prospects that improve each year and stay the course to play four years at the FCS level.

I think we are also overlooking the fact that football athletes at UR interact with basketball athletes who are getting paid and receive far more budget benefits based on the focus on their team as a higher revenue sport. Combine that with bigger football programs now being able to lure them with money and we are going to always lose some players if we keep recruiting at a high talent level. The easy thing to do is blame the coach and say its an internal culture issue but the real culprit is the NCAA and the current environment that kids control where they play each year.

 

[RichmondNative]

This is a significant point made by Roll Spides:

What’s alarming are the number of players that burst onto the scene and then immediately depart the following offseason to destinations where money wasn’t the primary reason.

Agreed. In addition, I don’t think money is the answer. What UR wants is student athletes and that should be who is recruited. If you can’t keep players that are academically focused, then there is another issue.

 

[whampas]

Agreed. In addition, I don’t think money is the answer. What UR wants is student athletes and that should be who is recruited. If you can’t keep players that are academically focused, then there is another issue.

If you follow where they go you will discover it's football first and academics down there somewhere.

 

[SpiderFanatic]

This is a very good article with lots of comments and questions about the vision of football at the University of Richmond. The Portal “is what it is.” The UVA QB was at 4 different schools. When I watched the posted video from the other thread on the post game of Lehigh vs Nova it was impressive to see their players talk about when they arrived and played Nova they were beaten soundly and had few fans on their side except parents. They also talked about not wearing their gear around campus. Now, they are proud to rep the gear but also proud of graduating as Lehigh Men. Are we recruiting “Richmond Men”?

Great point about nova. When it comes to our program, I would add that all college football recruits are kids. So we will never be recruiting Richmond men. They are 16-17 years old. We need to build them into being Richmond men like they’re doing at nova.

 

[RichmondNative]

If you follow where they go you will discover it's football first and academics down there somewhere.

Then that to me is a recruiting miss. Have to check off both boxes. I realize that makes it harder as you are looking for the best students who also happen to be good at playing football. Also, these are the same players that the rest of the Patriot league is trying to get. Have to win the recruiting battle before you can win the games.

 

[32counter]

To be honest the admin should consider to downgarade to the Pioneer League.

Continually losing 10-12 returning starters every season to the transfer portal is a waste
of everyone’s time..Let’s get rid of the overpaid head coach and most of his assistants.Lets hire a 25 year old D2/3 coach with enthusiasm and charisma.

Let’s play D1 football but without the delusion that we are or will be” world beaters.”

 

[Gallipoli]

To be honest the admin should consider to downgarade to the Pioneer League.

Continually losing 10-12 returning starters every season to the transfer portal is a waste
of everyone’s time..Let’s get rid of the overpaid head coach and most of his assistants.Lets hire a 25 year old D2/3 coach with enthusiasm and charisma.

Let’s play D1 football but without the delusion that we are or will be” world beaters.”

You can't be serious.

 

[Spider17]

To be honest the admin should consider to downgarade to the Pioneer League.

Couldn’t disagree with a statement more

Continually losing 10-12 returning starters every season to the transfer portal is a waste
of everyone’s time.

Not a waste of time, just something we have to adapt to. The fact many of these players are transferring up means we’re doing something right in recruiting/development

Let’s get rid of the overpaid head coach and most of his assistants.Lets hire a 25 year old D2/3 coach with enthusiasm and charisma

I agree

Let’s play D1 football but without the delusion that we are or will be” world beaters.”

We won an FCS national championship. Something us fans, administration, and university should never forget. We are a top 25 FCS program of all time.

 

[Spiderjpo]

I believe we are in the right place at this point regarding our league affiliation. We also appear to be adapting to losing players in the portal by bringing in the FBS guys like Jaiden Fair and Tayshaun Burney who wanted to get playing time and each came with sophomore eligibility. We also appear to be leaving more slots open for transfers. Hopefully our recruiting classes will remain solid and we can keep those players for at least three years instead of two if they don't stay to get a degree and then mix in some guys transferring that are looking to get on the field and get a degree from UR.