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Staten Island, NY – The Wagner College football team will open the 2022 season against Fordham at Hameline Field on Thursday night, with kickoff set for 6 pm on NECFrontRow.
2022 Outlook - The Offense
Head coach
Tom Masella and offensive coordinator
Chris Nugai welcome back several offensive skill players from last season. Veteran wide receivers
Naiem Simmons and
Jayvin Little are joined by running backs
Rickey Spruill and
Chris Collier atop the depth chart. Transfer wide receiver
Jallah Zeze and sophomore speedster
Randy Fizer along with senior
Nicholas Cartwright-Atkins give the Seahawks a plethora of offensive weapons to choose from. At the quarterback position, senior
Nick Kargman will get the starting nod. The transfer from FBS member Western Michigan and former New Jersey high school standout won the starting job in training camp and will be backed up by senior
Ryan Kraft. On the offensive line, graduate student
Matthew Mazza will be the Seahawks' left tackle after transferring to Wagner from Villanova in the offseason. Mazza joins a group of veteran offensive linemen that also features team captain
Antonio Williams in the middle.
2022 Outlook - The Defense
All-American
Titus Leo leads a veteran defense that added multiple key pieces in the offseason. Upfront, Leo will team up with veterans
Andre Crawley,
Tajay Passmore,
Lennox Lamar,
Tajhi Tate, and
Luke Jakubauskas. At linebacker, the Seahawks return graduate student
Tre Vallar, senior
John Gioia, junior
Jalin Justice, and senior
Shane Quast, while adding junior transfer
Junior Wily. In the secondary, FBS transfer
Branden Coleman, junior college transfer
Roberto Auguste, and freshman
Jayden Brown join returners
Travis Laster, Nicholas Olivier, and
Justin Smith.
2022 Outlook – Special Teams
After featuring three freshmen in the kicking game last year, the Seahawks return
Austin Hosier,
Joshua Brown, and
Brylan Noonan at kicker, punter, and long snapper.
Starting At Home
The last time the Seahawks opened their fall slate at home was in 2018, when running back
Ryan Fulse rushed for a career-high 271 yards and three touchdowns, highlighted by a pair of 77-yard scoring runs, in leading Wagner to a 40-23 victory over Division II power Bowie State. The last time Wagner opened its fall schedule against an FCS opponent at home was in 2011, when the Seahawks earned a 38-28 win over Saint Francis U.
The Captains
Wagner's players elected five captains to lead the team this season.
Titus Leo returns as a captain for the Seahawks for the second consecutive season. He is joined by newcomer
Junior Wily on defense.
Offensively, wide receivers
Naiem Simmons and
Jallah Zeze join center
Antonio Williams as captains.
Leo Earns Preseason Recognition
Graduate student
Titus Leo has been the recipient of numerous preseason awards, taking home HERO Sports First Team Preseason All-America, STATS Perform Second Team Preseason All-America, and Preseason All-NEC honors. Leo also earned a spot on the Buck Buchanan Award Watch List, which Stats Perform presents to the national defensive player of the year in college football's Division I subdivision. Most recently, Leo was named to the watch list for the 2023 Reese's Senior Bowl. Leo joins an elite list comprised of the best seniors and graduate students across all of college football.
Following the 2021 season, Leo was named a Stats Perform FCS Third All-American, First Team FCS All-American by HERO Sports, and Third Team All-American by Phil Steele.
After earning his Bachelor's Degree in Sociology in May, Leo has re-enrolled at Wagner, where he is pursuing a Master's Degree in Business Administration.
Leo was also named the Northeast Conference (NEC) Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. No player has ever won the NEC Defensive Player of the Year award three times.
The senior finished the 2021 regular season as one of the best defensive players in the nation, as he ranked eighth in the nation and first in the NEC in tackles for loss with 1.7 per game. Leo also finished third in the NEC with seven sacks and led the Seahawks with 71 total tackles.
This marked the fourth straight season a Seahawk has won the highest honor for a defensive player in the NEC, as Leo follows Super Bowl LV Champion and former All-American
Cam Gill, who won the award in 2018 and 2019 and was a HERO Sports FCS Second Team All-American in 2019.
Wagner is the first school in NEC history to win four consecutive NEC Defensive Player of the Year awards. Leo, Gill and defensive lineman Bill Sommers, who earned the distinction in 1996, are the only Wagner players to earn NEC Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Scouting The Rams
The Rams finished the 2021 season with a 6-5 overall record and 4-2 record in Patriot League play.
Fordham returns quarterback Tim DeMorat and linebacker Ryan Greenhagen, who have been on the receiving end of multiple preseason All-America accolades.
The Rams, who compete in the Patriot League, will also take on Monmouth, Albany, Ohio, and Stony Brook as part of their non-conference slate.
The Series
The Seahawks and Rams will meet for the second time since 1987, when the Seahawks beat the Rams 21-0 in the NCAA Division III Playoffs.
Wagner holds an 8-4 lead in the all-time series and has won six of the last seven meetings between the two schools.
Last year, the Seahawks fell to the Rams in the Bronx.
Masella's Familiar Foe
Head coach
Tom Masella was the head coach at Fordham between 2006-2011. Masella's Rams won the 2007 Patriot League title after an 8-4 season, earning him Patriot League Coach of the Year honors. Masella was also a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, which is given to the top FCS coach in the country. The Rams featured 12 all-league players that season.
The Schedule
Wagner will travel to Big 10 member Rutgers on September 10. The NEC opener is scheduled for September 17 against Saint Francis U on Staten Island.
Following a bye week, the Seahawks will travel to ACC member Syracuse on October 1.
Wagner has played 13 games against FBS teams and faced off against at least one opponent from college football's highest division in each of the last ten fall seasons.
Wagner will play two FBS opponents for the fifth time in program history in 2022. In 2015, the Seahawks played at Rice and at BYU while in 2016 the Green & White traveled to UMass and Boston College. In 2019, Wagner faced UConn and Florida Atlantic. During the 2021 fall season, Wagner took on Buffalo and Temple.
The Seahawks nearly pulled off their first upset of an FBS opponent in the 2019 opener against UConn, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Huskies before falling 24-21. Thanks to an interception return for a touchdown by defensive back
Myron Morris and two rushing touchdowns by
Dymitri McKenzie, the Seahawks were within striking distance late in the fourth quarter but fell short in the final minutes.
In their first-ever meeting against an 85-scholarship opponent, the 2012 Seahawks dropped a hard-fought 7-3 contest at FAU in Boca Raton. That 2012 Wagner team opened the season 0-3, before reeling off nine straight wins en route to the program's first-ever Northeast Conference (NEC) championship and an ensuing NCAA FCS first-round playoff win over Colgate.
The final non-conference game of the season will take place on October 8, when the Seahawks travel across New York City to take on Ivy League member Columbia.
Six conference games will round out the 2022 schedule, with home contests against LIU (October 21) and Sacred Heart (November 12) and road games at Merrimack (October 15), Central Connecticut (October 29), Stonehill (November 5), and Duquesne (November 19).
