I did the majority of this article in the preseason, and I feel justified in the players (i.e. backups at the time) I chose to highlight— they’ve almost all moved to the single digit jersey numbers, which I am guessing has some significance. There are also some new transfers with single digit numbers who I am guessing will play/start: DB Wes Johnston (#2), LB Ryan Sissel (#7). Of course, revisiting this article the day before Wagner’s season starts (8/29), I see I also missed some late departures from the team (LB Armani Itote, LB Daren Omoregie). I used the 2026 roster at the time of watching the games to check who I should take clips of, e.g. no point in taking clips of graduating seniors or transfers, etc.
I’m back with the defensive preview, because in for a penny, in for a pound. It’s hard to write to distinct introductions for the same opponent, so I will instead start with some interesting facts: Cal’s opponent in a few weeks, UNLV’s head coach Dan Mullen, got his master’s degree at Wagner while he was a WR coach there (at the start of his coaching career). The Wagner QB coach, Quincy Guy-Barnes, is the brother of the starting defensive tackle and team captain, Logan Barnes.
Former Wagner coaches Jason Houghtaling (Wagner offensive coordinator 2012 and head coach 2015-19, New England Patriots assistant offensive line coach 2025-present) and former assistant coach Justin Hinds (Wagner DL/OLB coach 2012-13, Seattle Seahawks defensive line coach 2024-present) faced each other as assistant coaches in the 2026 NFL Super Bowl. Current Steelers defensive coordinator Patrick Graham got his start as a Wagner grad assistant back in 2002-2003. Wagner has also had 7 players appear in NFL games, with 4 players being drafted (Allan Ferrie, 1961; Rich Kotite, 1965; Greg Senat, 2018; Titus Leo, 2023). I believe their 3 most recent NFL signees (LB Cam Gill, Panthers; DT Chris Williams, Falcons/Browns; DE Titus Leo, 49ers) have unfortunately all been released from their NFL squads at the time of this writing. OT Greg Senat won a Super Bowl ring with the KC Chiefs in 2020, and LB Cam McGill won one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021.
The only other fun facts I can think of to preempt whatever fun facts appear on the TV broadcast is how proud Wagner is of their Staten Island connections, with most coaches either Staten Island natives or Wagner alums themselves. There’s HC Tom Masella (Staten Island native, Wagner grad), OC Terence Sino (Wagner MBA), DT/LB coach Jim Munson (Staten Island native), QB coach Quincy Guy-Barnes (Staten Island native, Wagner grad), WR Coach Joseph Czelusniak (Staten Island native), DL coach BJ Buckle (Wagner grad), LB coach Ross Ragonesi (neither), TE coach Chris Anarumo (Staten Island native), asst. LB coach Keyon Means-Bowman (Wagner grad), asst. WR coach Tommy Brown (Wagner grad), defensive asst. Christopher Evans (Staten Island native), and OLB coach Josh McClurg (neither). Best as I can tell, that’s 10 of their 12 coaches having some ties to either Staten Island or Wagner. Ross Ragonesi appears to be from Long Island, NY while Josh McClurg is the truly odd duck hailing from Lexington, KY.
Head coach Tom Masella was a defensive back at Wagner (and in the school’s hall of fame) and served as defensive coordinator at a number of stops prior to rejoining his alma mater as head coach, including stops at UConn, Louisiana Tech, and UMass. With no defensive coordinator on staff, I assume Masella has a hand in coaching the defense.
Wagner was generally a 3-4 defense in 2025, but did show multiple sets with e.g. 4-man fronts (e.g. running the 4-2-5), as Wagner has a lot of defensive backs. This season, the appear to run a 4-2-5 much more often.
This is a team that likes to utilize hybrid positions and players (DE/OLB, DB/LB, etc), perhaps because a lot of these players fall into “tweener” roles.
I created a rough depth chart for 2025 from watching the games (please note that many players lined up at multiple positions, this evolved over the course of the season and was where it ended up):
As you can probably see from all the red, Wagner lost almost their entire starting lineup, and so they’ll be looking to younger players to fill those gaps.
Although Wagner’s pass defense was often serviceable, the run defense struggled at times. This is likely a result of the Wagner defense’s tackling issues:
Although Wagner’s defense wasn’t particularly strong on a play-by-play basis, they made their biggest impact in forcing turnovers—they lead their conference in fumbles forced and were second in the conference in interceptions.
However, there is one thing I have to point out after seeing a few of Wagner’s FBS matchups now. While they typically like to bring a lot of pressure on defense (aggressive front seven, DB blitzes, etc), they don’t generally do this against FBS squads (where they ran a lot more rush-3/drop-8 type coverages). It’s like they concede that they’re likely to lose individual matchups rushing the passer, and they’d instead prefer to drop more players into coverage (and playing significantly off the line) to try and avoid getting beat deep or with speed; generally trying to keep the play in front of them and avoid giving up huge plays. “Bend and not break” and all that. So take all of this with a grain of salt.
Defensive line
The defensive line will likely be a relative strength for Wagner this season. Wagner lost a lot of last year’s defensive standouts to graduation, but their most impactful defender is returning: defensive end Ethan Appolon. Appolon found more playing time later in the season and ended the year strong, leading the team in sacks (5.0) and forced fumbles (4):
Here Appolon stays engaged with his blocker until the QB tries to break outside:
Here Appolon is too quick for the puller:
It is pretty impressive that almost every time Appolon got a sack, he also forced a fumble. Something about the way he’s chopping the hand of the quarterback; he just doesn’t miss.
Even when he didn’t get to the quarterback, he still had a way of making his presence felt:
Here Appolon just gets a hand on the QB and it’s enough to take him down:
Appolon also led the team in QB hurries, and came up big in clutch moments:
While Appolon showed a lot of speed on his pass rushes, the defensive end on the other side, Olanrewaju (or “Lanry”) Adeyemi showed a bit more power on his pass rush:
Although Adeyemi was also able to win with speed to the outside:
Here Adeyemi manages to get a hand on the running back for the strip:
There aren’t a ton of defensive highlights from the FBS matchups, but Adeyemi managed to beat the tackle here for a QB hurry:
This play won’t show up on the stat sheet, but Adeyemi disrupts this pass at the line which results in an interception for Wagner:
On the interior of the defensive line is the 6’0” 300 lbs. true sophomore defensive tackle Kahmari Valentine, who I expect will have a much bigger role this season. Here he blasts into the backfield as the left guard pulls to meet the handoff:
Here Valentine shoots the A gap (between the center and right guard), knocks the RG back on his heels, and again finds himself in the backfield for a TFL against Central Michigan:
The big guy also showed he can throw a spin move or two in there as well:
This year, Kahmari Valentine is playing more of a nose tackle role, but he’s still effective in rushing the quarterback:
The other defensive tackle is the 6’1” 280 lbs DT Logan Barnes. In the following play, Valentine is again attacking the A gap (OC/RG) while Barnes is at the D gap (around the TE, offense’s right side, defense’s left) and they both get through to combine for the TFL:
The following play shows 4-down linemen, with DT Logan Barnes on the left side (next to #6 LDE Olanrewaju Adeyemi). You can see just how fast Barnes gets off the snap and beats the opposing offensive lineman with good leverage:
Barnes definitely has a bit more quickness than you’d expect at a nose tackle position:
Another player getting snaps this season at the nose tackle position is Jordan Gaston, and he has been effective plugging the run gaps upfront:
And here is with a nice play against JMU last week:
With Wagner’s defensive line departures, DE Abdoul Idriss should find himself a bit higher on the depth chart this season (worth mentioning is that Wagner lists him on the roster as a linebacker). Idriss is quick:
Again just a pure speed rush:
Also seeing some limited action was DT Nathan Moorehead, who had this nice play:
Although I think the defensive line will be a strength of this team (particularly for their ability to force turnovers), it’s hard to say how much of an impact they will have here against P4 competition. Against a mediocre Kansas squad (12th of 16 in the Big 12, 5-7 overall), Wagner managed 0 sacks and 0 TFLs.
Linebackers
Linebacker Jordan Johnson was the heart of this defense last year, but he grad transferred to FBS North Texas (Wagner’s only FCS to FBS transfer). Wagner will need some of their younger players to step up and fill the void he leaves behind. Relatedly, Armani Itote (Chicago St) and Daren Omoregie (CCSU) have transferred out, both of whom were rotational starters last season.
To me, the most likely candidate to fill that void is LB Cam Haynes at inside linebacker. Haynes stood out to me for his ability to beeline towards the football:
Haynes showed the ability to lay the lumber on hits:
Although Haynes can also be over-aggressive at times:
Another player that stood out in limited playing time was LB Brendan Leal. Here he is finding his way to the football and forcing a fumble:
And here he finds his way into the backfield for a TFL:
Here Leal shows some nice speed in not letting the quarterback escape:
Although Wagner likes to play a lot of defensive backs, the players officially listed as linebackers were generally underwhelming in pass coverage, like this play by LB Armani Itote:
And again:
Another player that can fly to the football is outside linebacker Eli Hiscock (he’s been listed as both a DE/LB by Wagner, but I can’t recall seeing him lining up as a down lineman/defensive end):
This next guy was the bane of my existence as a non-Wagner fan trying to figure things out. I was watching Wagner games with their official 2025 roster pulled up to the side. It makes no mention of the fact that the linebacker Acear Cornish changed his number three times during the season (#3 to #10 to #5). With no names on the backs of jerseys, I only figured out later that a DB and LB sharing the same number were actually different people (compared to another case in which the same player played both DB and LB, Daren Omoregie). The only guy(s) harder to figure out were Wagner’s backup QBs, both of whom shared the number 12 at one time. I had to look up the players’ Instagram accounts and photos to figure out I was looking at a different QB with the same number. I don’t know what Wagner’s jersey switching policy is, but I hate it. Anyway, Cornish had a lot of play time earlier in the season last year:
Worth noting that Cornish has cycled back to #3 again this year, at least at the time of this writing:
I’d expect some aggressive run-crashing linebackers who may struggle to keep up in coverage situations.
Defensive backs
Wagner has also seen some significant turnover at the defensive back position as well. They lost defensive team captain (and last year’s tackling leader) CB Sam Martin, as well as CB Jayden Brown (last year’s interception leader), who I would probably regard as the star of last year’s secondary. Stepping into more prominent roles this season are sophomore CB Dashawn Long (not listed on the roster last year and starting corner this year), junior CB Julio Tatis (who played limited snaps in 4 games last year, and redshirt freshman and Lafayette transfer S Wes Johnston, all of whom have worked their ways into the starting lineup. Sophomores CBs Evan Dukes and Austin Bailey will join them in the 2-deep after seeing limited snaps last year as well.
Wagner likes their defensive backs, and we will likely see a lot of them. One of the most talented players I saw for Wagner was the corner, Shamar Williams—although this season he is now the starting safety. This move makes a lot of sense, as Williams had a knack for putting himself in the right place at the right time to come up with big plays:
Here Williams again puts himself in a better position than the receiver:
And here you can see how he’s naturally transitioned into that deep safety role, still fielding overthrows out deep:
The next clip is probably unfair to use at this point, but it was one of my first clips from the first game of the season (Shamar Williams improved a lot last season, and worked his way into the starting lineup by the end of it), not to mention that he’s lining up against an NFL 6th round draft pick here:
Although I think tackling was a problem for some of the DBs, Williams did come up with this one where he literally ripped the ball away from the running back:
But here’s some of that tackling I am talking about:
Wagner tried to minimize damage when they played against Kansas and gave opposing receivers a huge cushion (to prevent receivers getting behind them, beating them with speed, limit explosive plays, etc), but here wee see that Alim Parks Jr. misses anyway:
Also worth mentioning is the way that NEC refs would sometimes lose control of the game with their reluctance to throw flags, resulting in a number of massive brawls or near-brawls. Things like this:
(Parks appeared to have broken his ankle against JMU, so he will not play, and hopefully he recovers well.)
This was also a team prone to mistakes in coverage, where defenders seemed unclear on their assignments (which is surprising, given that the head coach was himself a former defensive back):
Some of their issues were schematic — I couldn’t tell you who was at fault here:
Or again here, I can’t imagine this was his assignment:
CB Julio Tatis was not on my radar at all last season, but he’s made an immediate impact this year for Wagner and seems to be the new top corner. Tatis is a converted running back and on the Wagner Track & Field team, so he’s probably one of the few defensive backs with the speed to match his FBS opponents:
Starting on the other side of the field is CB Deshawn Long, who plays a bit more physically even if he’s not as tight in coverage:
Here Long misses a tackle as the receiver gets free for a huge touchdown:
S Wes Johnston has worked his way into the starting lineup after showing his effectiveness in run defense, and currently leads the team in tackles and is tied for third in TFLs (behind only defensive linemen):
Here is one of the backups that played in the second half last week:
The Wagner defensive backs will have the unenviable task of trying to shut down a future #1 overall quarterback, so… good luck.
Special teams
Wagner was a fan of trick plays, and would bust them out quite frequently:
More generally, however, I’d say that Wagner struggled on special teams (and keep in mind that I originally wrote this long before the JMU game). Wagner’s only FBS transfer last season was their kicker, Nicholas Romero, who transferred to New Mexico. Poor kickoff and punt coverage often gave opponents short fields to work with (Wagner gave up a 99-yard kick return TD last season), the punter would shank a kick out of bounds, missed PATs on bad holds, and so on. With a new punter and placekicker (and freshman long snapper), it remains to be seen how they fair in the kicking game.
In fact, the freshman long snapper already off to a rocky start:
Special teams had an incredibly rough game last week at JMU, where 3 punts were returned for touchdowns, as well as giving up a 92-yard kickoff return and having this punt blocked:
Muffing the punts doesn’t help either:
I usually include this section when I think that a game might come down to special teams, but in this case I felt it was worth mentioning because I suspect that special teams miscues may appear at some point in the game. Certainly, you don’t get to the really absurd scores without defensive and special teams touchdowns included. I can’t tell you how annoying it is that I prepared a whole special teams section in the off-season because I thought their special teams miscues might be a factor in the game, only for JMU to do what they did last week. It’s like staying up all night for weeks studying for a test that ends up being an online, open-book, couple true-false questions type of test.
Conclusion
This is about as straightforward of a game as it gets. Cal needs to take care of ball security, win on a play-by-play basis, and avoid major mistakes. This is not a game that will have any major surprises, and anything less than a blowout win should set off alarm bells.
Go Bears.
You can find my full clips here.
Man oh man, Mr. Helling, I admire your work ethic, your transparence, your sly humor and your willingness to honor our upcoming opponent with the same rigor you would one from a major conference. I imagine every one of Seahawks will read this with interest and pride. I hope it’s a good, clean game where Cal can work out the kinks and give the home crowd (please show up, people) respectable W.
I hope this turns out to be like a scrimmage against our 3rds and 4ths.