Okay, I have to preface this article: this one is going to be long. This is the most definitive, in-depth preview of Wagner Football you will ever find on the internet. You thought I got carried away with my UCLA preview? Please. Last year, I diligently recorded and saved each Wagner football game from the 2025 season (good luck trying to find them all now) to watch this off-season. And of course, I’ve watched their 2026 season-to-date. Did I need to take over 150 Wagner football highlights, and compile them into an article? No. Could I have gotten away with just watching the 3 games so far of Wagner’s 2026 season? Probably. Wagner’s football stadium capacity is 3,700, which is smaller than the number of all you WFC subscribers who regularly open my previews. Do you really need to see FCS highlights of players against FCS competition when they’ll likely struggle with the talent gap against another FBS opponent? No, probably not.
But I am going to do this anyway. This is Write For California.
Cal’s next opponent, Wagner College, is in Staten Island, New York. The Wagner Seahawks are in their 99th season of football this year, but joined Division I-AA (FCS) back in 1993. Prior to that, they had a run of success in Division III, winning the Division III National Championship back in 1987. They made one FCS Playoff appearance back in 2012 (advancing to the second round), but have otherwise struggled in the FCS in recent years, and haven’t posted a winning season since 2016. They at one point held the ignominious record of the longest losing streak in the FCS with 26 straight losses, dating from September 28th, 2019 to October 21st, 2022. Since then, Wagner posted a couple of 4-win seasons (2023, 2024) and won 5 games last year (2025). They at least appear to be trending in the right direction.
Wagner is led by head coach Tom Masella, a Staten Island native and former defensive back at Wagner (1978-81) in the Wagner Athletics Hall of Fame. He served as the final head coach of Boston University before they dropped their football program in 1997 due to insurmountable financial deficits, as well as the head coach of Central Connecticut (where he led CCSU to two conference co-championships in his two years there) and Fordham (where he led them to a conference championship and FCS playoff appearance). Masella took over the head coaching job at Wagner in 2020, during that aforementioned losing streak, but has put together a 14-24 record since then (he’s currently 15-47 overall at Wagner). To be fair, I can’t imagine it being very easy to recruit players to a team that hadn’t won a game in 3 years.
I have to say though, I was a bit disappointed to see that Wagner appears to be overlooking Cal on their schedule:
Although after some further deliberation, they decided to follow through on their previous scheduling commitments:
I also have to point out that—although they lost last year’s star RB Andre Hines Jr. to graduation—they did have some DeSean Jackson moments last season:
Luckily for Wagner, the NEC doesn’t have quite the same level of replay reviews as the ACC does, so this actually stood as a touchdown, so Hines Jr. was robbed of his true DJax moment.
Because I am all kinds of thorough, here is the 2026 Wagner depth chart I’ve compiled:
Please note that (1) I don’t have Wagner injury news, so I can only guess that some players (e.g. OL Dollhopf, DB Parks Jr., etc) may be injured and have moved them down (but not off) the depth chart, and (2) FCS teams will throw all sorts of new players in against FBS matchups just to get guys experience, so all this painstaking work may be for naught. Further, (3) the depth chart in the Wagner media guide is full of lies, which is why I ended up making my own. I half-suspect that the media guide depth chart order is to either reward good practice performances, or to confuse opponents and/or media. I am positive that I saw defensive #1 Shamar Williams on the depth chart for kick returns, but he was replaced by offensive #1 Zion Fowler-El last week against JMU. Fowler-El muffed a punt last week, but it was then incorrectly attributed to Williams. Not hard to see how that happens. And if you take a look at Wagner's roster online, you’ll see a lot of players with no numbers, and those players will periodically be swapped into the numbered roster. I remember writing down the names of all of the kickers (and trying to guess who was 1st, 2nd, 3rd string). Somehow I missed #8 K Giovanni Bernardo (probably because he didn’t have a number a week ago), and he was listed as potentially the starting kicker against JMU (Wagner managed one FG, but it was not Bernardo).
But I digress. Hopefully this is still useful.
Wagner’s offensive coordinator is Terence Sino, a former offensive lineman at Colgate (‘17), who has worked his way up from Offensive Line and Tight Ends coach at Wagner to now entering his second season as the Wagner OC. Perhaps not surprisingly, Wagner ran a heavy run-game scheme last year.
Offensive line
The offensive line underwent a major shift this season, with almost the entire starting offensive line from last year transferring out: LG Mateo Lucero (Tennessee Tech), OC Brady Anderson (graduation), RG Devan Taylor (UAlbany), RT Prinz Guitian (Indiana State). It’s notable that—while talented FCS players will always transfer—a lot of these are just lateral moves, and it’s the only position group on the team decimated by transfers.
The new center was expected to be Maximilian Dollhopf, a transfer from Santa Monica City College, who before that played football at various levels in Germany (including the U-19 German national team). The true freshman Trevor Winters has played his way into the starting center job instead:
Although Winters was the starting center in the first two games this season, true freshman AJ Cartusciello got the start last week at JMU.
The current starting offensive line, as of the JMU game: LT Malik Wilson (#72), LG Tyler James (#63), OC AJ Cartusciello (#60), RG James Aldrich (#73), RT Ryan Long (#54). Aldrich and Long swapped guard and tackle roles; Long got the start at right tackle against JMU. The only other unknown for me is that OL Mike Seeger received significant playing time at the tackle position last year, but I haven’t seen him at all this season, while true freshmen linemen are receiving playing time. I am not sure if he is hurt or if Wagner is just experimenting along the offensive line.
Even though most of the offensive line from last year transferred out, they weren’t particularly impressive before that anyway. In particular, the tackles (and quite a few of them rotated in and out) often lacked lateral quickness and frequently lost to speed rushes to the outside, giving up 29 sacks on the season. Former backups Tyler James and Malik Wilson have found their way into consistent starting roles this season, and I will say that I have seen some good run blocking plays from Wilson this year. Most of the following clips are perhaps unfair to use (as many of these players aren’t at Wagner anymore), but I just want to establish the trend:
RG James Aldrich has had some significant struggles so far this season, and he seems to be a target for opposing defenses. Caleb Bryant has played one game so far this season:
Bryant:
Guitian (now Indiana State) and Seeger:
Seeger:
Seeger:
Tyler James has performed well so far this season, but he’s since been moved inside to guard:
While Wagner does have some big bodies up front, they have struggled with quickness.
Quarterback
As previously mentioned, I did the vast majority of this article in the off-season. I watched Wagner’s entire 2025 season and the first game of this season in which the starting quarterback was Jack Stevens (minus the few games he lost to injury last year) and so I had this entire QB section finished before Wagner decided to shake things up and named redshirt freshman QB Benjamin Newman the starter instead. Newman originally got the start in the second game of the year against Southern Connecticut State due to an injury to Jack Stevens (which will make sense when you see Stevens’s style of play), but he played very well and earned the starting job for last week’s game against James Madison. I am not completely sure who the starter will be (the depth charts in Wagner’s media guides have been less than truthful), so I will assume that Newman is the starter, and I have relegated my Jack Stevens write-up to a skippable “Backup Quarterback?” section below. But, you know, it’s not like Newman had a great game against James Madison last week, so who knows if Stevens gets another shot.
I originally intended to only briefly mention the backup QB Benjamin Newman (who played just a couple snaps in 2025 as a true freshman):
But Benjamin Newman got the start in the second game of the year this season against Southern Connecticut State in place of an injured Jack Stevens. 2 games into the season, Newman was already halfway to Steven’s 2025 passing yards. After his third game last week against JMU, Newman is now 70% of the way to Stevens’s 2025 passing total. To completely oversimplify things, think of Stevens as Nico Iamaleava, and Newman as Steve Angeli.
Last year Newman still looked green:
But he looked calm and in control of the offense in his first start this year, and finally added a true passing threat to the Wagner offense:
And here he steps up in the pocket and makes a nice read:
Here Newman places this ball where only his receiver can get it:
Newman also showed his ability to make a throw on the run:
And here he showed some nice toughness, hanging in the pocket to make the throw even though he was about to get blown up:
Although he did let his throwing mechanics break down a bit at times:
Wagner played a lot of backups in the second half of the JMU game, including QB Cristian Pinto and QB Jason Wiley, mainly to hand the ball off and bleed clock. The other young quarterbacks might not be ready for the big time:
Backup Quarterback?
Wagner was not a team that was effective in throwing the ball last season. The starting quarterback for most of last season (besides a few games missed due to injury) was Jack Stevens, who posted 537 passing yards (60 ypg), 2 TDs, and 8 INTs in 9 games last season. Stevens had only one game in which he threw for over 100 yards (@Georgetown, 15/24, 128 passing yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs). However, QB Jack Stevens was an effective addition to the run game. For a more recent analogy: picture Nico Iamaleava, except not, you know, a 6’5” 5-star recruit. Stevens was a 3-star recruit in high school, and his high school highlights were more impressive than any throws I saw him make at Wagner, so the talent is definitely there.
As it stands, however, Stevens is much more of a threat on the ground, and he will run the ball often:
Stevens shows some power in his runs:
And here he shows some nice speed on the ground:
Here he weaves his way through traffic, showing that he has pretty good vision as a runner:
The most Nico-like thing about him is how often he’d run the ball even in typical passing downs:
Here Stevens punishes the defense for crashing down on the RB:
While Stevens isn’t throwing the ball too much, he has shown the ability to make some decent throws. This one isn’t a great read as he doesn’t see his receiver open downfield, but he fits it into a tight window for his intended receiver:
I didn’t see a ton of touch throws (more of a tendency to zip it), but here’s one he layered nicely over the defense:
Stevens isn’t afraid to stand in the pocket and deliver:
And here Stevens again shows some nice touch on this throw:
Stevens will obviously use his feet to extend plays, and so he will often throw on the run. Here he fires one in to his receiver:
Here Stevens does a nice job of sensing where the pressure is coming from so that he can step up in the pocket to make the throw:
However, not all his throws are on-target:
This one he throws too hot behind his running back on the checkdown:
Here Stevens locks onto his first read and is inaccurate on the throw:
Stevens has a bad habit of throwing across his body (because of how often he rolls out of the pocket), but in my view he doesn’t really have the arm strength to make throws like this work:
Another example on a poor read:
Another bad decision, this time throwing under pressure and into traffic deep down the field:
Wagner did not have a lot of success with the downfield passing attack:
And again, but this one he is smartly bailed out by his receiver:
This one’s not really his fault, but it’s one of the few examples I saw of Stevens trying to throw it deep instead of running it himself:
Again he locks onto his first read, and doesn’t make a very good throw anyway:
I have no idea who will start against Cal, but the two quarterbacks are very different and probably require very different defensive gameplans.
Running back
Much of the Wagner offensive gameplan in 2025 revolved around the run game. They were anchored by a strong power back in Boston College transfer Andre Hines Jr., who led the team with 809 total rushing yards. With Hines Jr. gone this year, Wagner will be looking to his backups, Matt Morad and Sekou Kamau, to make big leaps forward this year to fill the void Hines Jr. leaves behind. While both runners have decent speed (and similar size), Kamau is more of a finesse back while Morad is looking to level someone:
Morad has shown good vision and a good understanding of where his blocks will develop:
Morad has decent speed:
Morad is probably not going to hit homeruns, but he can pick up chunk yardage:
Morad generally runs with a lot of straight line speed and looks to lower his shoulder, but he can shake tackles too:
Here Morad shows some of that power:
Morad will run through ankle tackles:
The next clip doesn’t really have a point, I’ve just never seen someone gain so many yards while airborne before:
Wagner will also use their running backs as safety valves and will occasionally line their running backs up at receiver positions:
Wagner will also incorporate a lot of motion to see if they can get favorable matchups on their backs in space:
In contrast to Morad’s hard-nosed style, Sekou Kamau will often find his running lanes and elude opposing defenders in space:
Kamau shows a lot of patience when he runs, looking to hit the hole hard, but he can also break some tackles:
Here Kamau again finds his way into open space:
And here Kamau does a nice job of letting his blocks develop to find his way through traffic:
Here Kamau makes a nice cut to avoid the tackle:
Here Kamau decisively hits the hole and uses his momentum to carry defenders forward:
And here is some of that finesse I was mentioning earlier:
Like Morad, Kamau will also be used as a pass-catching back out of the backfield:
And again:
This wasn’t the greatest throw, but Kamau is a little more susceptible to drops than Morad:
Apparently both Morad and Kamau were hurt last week against JMU, so a lot of new faces had touches against JMU. I don’t really have strong opinions here given their limited play time, but sophomore Uriah Moats-Maynard showed some flashes:
Relieving Moats-Maynard was the junior RB Andrew Ransome:
Obviously Wagner’s offensive line had their hands full with James Madison last week, but Wagner was sorely missing Morad and Kamau’s ability to create some of their own yards and to catch passes in space. If Wagner only has backup running backs ready to go, they may abandon the run game entirely with Newman.
Receivers
The receivers group is pretty much the only position (offense or defense) where Wagner returns most of its talent, including its top three receiving targets last year: Jeremiah Colclough, Malik Redd, and Teree McDonald. However, there are also a couple of new transfers (from FBS programs) that I think will also make an impact this year.
The singular most important player in this game is the 5-star Ohio State wide receiver transfer WR Darryl VonStickyhands. After struggling to get snaps in a crowded receiver room at Ohio State, he made the transfer to Wagner where he expects to see immediate playing time.
Here we can see the impressive display of athleticism that made VonStickyhands such a highly-recruited player coming out of high school:
VonStickyhands has impressive speed, and combined with his large frame and catch radius, it makes him a very difficult receiver to cover:
If VonStickyhands is healthy and able to play this Saturday, his impact would be immediate and pose an enormous challenge to the Cal defense.
However, currently leading the team in receptions in the opening few weeks is a different FBS transfer: former Pitt WR Zion Fowler-El. Fowler-El looks to be the clear #1 target for QB Benjamin Newman, and Fowler-El has three times as many catches as the next leading receiver. Fowler-El saw some limited action at slot receiver in some Pitt blowouts, such as this play against an absolutely abysmal defense:
There aren’t a ton of huge pass play highlights so far in the opening weeks, but Fowler-El has made a lot of catches on short- to intermediate-routes, and seems to be the first receiver the quarterback is generally looking for:
The player I expect to grow into a bigger role this year (and is currently the second leading receiver, behind Fowler-El) after showing a lot of promise in his freshman season is the now-sophomore WR Malik Redd, the speedy 5’9” receiver who can make some explosive plays:
Wagner may also lean on Redd’s speed in the run game as well:
Here Redd does a good job of picking up some extra yards after contact:
And Redd also had some nice catches despite tight coverage as well:
The leading returning receiver is another 5’9” speedster, WR Jeremiah Colclough:
Colclough will similarly use his speed to try to get open in open space:
Colclough also showed plenty of sure-handedness, which made him a reliable target last year:
Wagner will run a lot of screens (and stacked WR formations) to allow their receivers to create some space on quick-hitting passes:
Here Colclough makes a nice over the shoulder catch in the corner of the endzone on this one, which is tough to defend:
And here Colclough is again showing why he was often a safety-valve for some less-than-stellar QB play last year:
The other receiver that Wagner often targeted last year is WR Teree McDonald, who has also made some big plays:
Wagner really loves their jet sweeps:
Here McDonald again makes a big play after the catch:
And here he also creates his own yards:
Also finding himself in a bigger role this year is Karlos Grier, who has worked his way into the starting rotation after mainly playing special teams last year:
Another player I thought I’d see more of this year (no idea if he’s hurt or not; good luck finding Wagner injury news online) is Richard Perkins Jr., due to his larger frame and catch radius (in contrast to most of the other receivers in the rotation that have been used interchangeably, in case you didn’t notice any patterns in the above clips):
Having good hands is important for Wagner receivers:
Probably the most experienced receiver on the team is 5th year WR Derek Burrell:
Burrell was an early favorite target of QB Jack Stevens, although he fell on the depth chart later in the season:
Although I am not sure why, he performed well when he played:
Wagner doesn’t have a lot of big pass plays though, so this probably didn’t help:
Probably the only trick play I saw out of that super common jet sweep play Wagner always runs:
A player I think might have more of an impact that some of the receivers I listed is the tight end, Christopher Harris. Here he is blocking:
And again:
(I thought this was going to be a bigger deal initially because of how much Wagner moves the pocket and runs the ball with QB Jack Stevens).
I also thought this play sequence was interesting, although I can’t tell how much of it is intentional or not. Here Harris misses on the block:
But on the very next play, it looks like Harris is going to be responsible for at least a chip block here, but he instead slips past the defender to get open for the pass:
Wagner didn’t involve their tight ends too much in the passing game, it was usually as a tendency-breaking play:
TE Johan Bars isn’t targeted very often, but that hasn’t stopped him from making some catches:
The third-string tight end, Vincent Cajano III, has mainly contributed so far by baiting the opposing team into penalties. This is actually not the only clip I have of him being grabbed and tossed by his facemask for a penalty on the other team:
Expect to see a lot of quick-hitting passing concepts, screens, stacked WR formations, and creative motions to try and scheme these receivers open.
Conclusion
Although Cal has historically played some of the tougher FCS squads (e.g. UC Davis in 2018/2024 and Sacramento State in 2021 were teams that went to the FCS playoffs and definitely gave Cal a scare), I think it’s unlikely that Wagner will be heading to the FCS playoffs this year, so please shake off your Cal vs FCS trauma. Wagner will be at a significant talent disadvantage, and this is a game where you want to see the players deeper on your depth chart to have significant snaps and game experience. Wagner was blown out last week 87-3 by James Madison, but that was an incredibly disrespectful game by JMU. Miami also played an outmatched FCS team last week, but they had their 4th string players in by halftime, and they agreed to a shortened 10 minute 4th quarter with a running clock. James Madison, on the other hand, kept the full time, and was still throwing the ball with under 2 minutes left in the game. JMU ran the score up on purpose and it was incredibly poor sportsmanship, and I frankly lost a lot of respect for them. I see why JMU tried to run up the score in garbage time of games last year (to impress a playoff committee they knew wouldn’t watch them) but I don’t see how winning 87-3 is any better than 57-3 or something. Although I hope Cal finds their offensive stride and works out the kinks in the offense, I really hope they don’t win by 80+ points.
Go Bears.
You can find my full clips here.
This is some truly exceptional work. I never thought I’d read anything about Wagner’s #3 tight end.
I’d like to think this won’t be anywhere near as close as recent FCS games, both because Wagner isn’t as strong and because this Cal team has better upside and athletic talent than past years. This should be a game where they keep things simple, overwhelm Wagner with talent and put things to bed quickly.
I also hope Wagner takes the rare West Coast visit as a chance to plant some recruiting seeds and build some connections that can pay off as they work to return to relevance.
This is a PhD dissertation on how small the differences are between top level football programs and really poor ones. Identifiable but marginal differences. The young men on Wagner are not unclear on how to play the game, and are likely the better athletes from their high schools. But imagine how truly exceptional Jahvid Best was as a RB? He made D1 defenders look slow. Yet, it's a marginal difference because the Wagner RB knows how to play, and would be the best at your HS. So I respect Wagner for suiting up and playing their best, and while we should win easily, I love the game of football and appreciate people who play it.