The Virginia football team has lost 10 straight games, a streak dating back to last September’s romp against VMI. In order to pick up their first win in nearly a calendar year, the Cavaliers have to deal with the Richmond Spiders on Saturday at Scott Stadium. Here are some things to expect in the contest.

Spider Spread

Like so many teams across the college football landscape these days, Richmond runs its own variation of a spread offense. The majority of the time, there are multiple receivers in the game with a single running back. The formations vary, but the Spiders use a lot of shotgun (running back beside the QB) and Pistol (running back behind the QB in a shallow shotgun) looks. The staples of most spread offenses are there: read option, receiver screens, and quick hitters.

With that basic introduction, here are two plays from the opener against Morehead State that feature concepts you could see against Virginia’s aggressive defense. The first is a play near the end zone featuring former UVa quarterback Michael Rocco and Seth Fisher, who is one of the Spiders’ favorite red zone weapons. Fisher scored on this play and had six touchdowns last season as a running back option. You can see it here from field level or at the 1:56 mark in the embedded video below. First, the screen shot of the alignment and patterns:

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