Colgate Raiders 2026 Season Preview

Fitzpatrick's Middle Ground

Curt Fitzpatrick's 2025 team split its conference schedule at 3-3 but couldn't turn that into a winning record overall, finishing 5-7. The power numbers back up that in-between feel, with Colgate sitting at No. 68 nationally, neither a program in crisis nor one banking wins it left on the table. The 2026 question for Fitzpatrick is whether the pieces that produced competitive league play can finally tip a few of those close nonconference or crossover games the other way.

Buy Low on Colgate

The 5-7 mark hid a better team than that record shows: Colgate went 2-4 in one-score games, and that kind of thin-margin misfortune tends to swing back the other way. Jake Stearney returns to run the offense off a 2,099-yard, 18-touchdown season, and a passing attack that ranked 10th nationally in yards per game should keep this offense ahead of schedule even though it settled for points too often. The bigger problem is a defense that gave up 250 passing yards a game (108th) and let opponents move the ball too easily, so 2026 will be decided by whether that unit tightens up faster than the offense's puncher's luck runs out.

Jake Stearney takes over an offense that put up 275 passing yards a game last year, tenth-best nationally, a number Zach Osborne's departure with his 1,088 yards and 9 touchdowns can't erase from the equation. Stearney inherits a passing attack already built to fling it, the question is whether he can push an offense that stalled at 131 rushing yards per game and ranked 81st in explosiveness into more explosive territory rather than just replicating last year's efficient-but-not-explosive profile. Given the passing infrastructure already in place, expect Curt Fitzpatrick to lean on Stearney early and often rather than lean on the ground game to carry 2026.

Danny Shaban's 432 yards and 5 scores anchor a backfield that leans on Colgate's passing game more than its ground attack, and that split should hold given last year's 275 passing yards per game against just 131 on the ground. Cole Fulton returns after 297 yards as the clear complement, while Marco Maldonado's 298 yards and 2 touchdowns are gone. VJ Bullard and Aiden Carson are back without a rushing track record yet, and O'Shea Faison arrives from Lake Mary to compete for early snaps in a room that will still ride the arm more than the legs.

Colgate's passing game ranked 10th nationally in yards per game a year ago, but the two biggest hauls in that room are gone: Reed Swanson (57 catches, 939 yards, 8 TD) and Treyvhon Saunders (50 catches, 700 yards, 6 TD) both departed, along with Brady Hutchison's 35 grabs. That leaves Matt Fogler, who turned 23 catches into 7 touchdowns, and Winston Moore's 376 yards as the proven pieces Curt Fitzpatrick has to lean on, with Kam Phillips, Chief Montalvo, Ricky Bates and P.J. Holmes all needing to grow into bigger roles. Hudson Reasor arrives as a high school signee out of All Saints Episcopal with no college numbers yet, so the immediate burden of replacing nearly 2,000 combined receiving yards falls on Fogler and Moore proving they can be featured targets rather than complements.

Colgate's tight end room produced almost nothing on tape last year and the two players who did catch a pass, Mason Mozo and Dave Thomson, are both gone now. That leaves Michael Stevenson and Chuck Volans, who combined for two catches and a net of one yard between them, as the returning names, alongside Mike Balogh and Bryce Lubin, who have no prior production on file. The passing game carried this offense (275 yards per game, 10th nationally) almost entirely through other position groups, so whichever of these four Curt Fitzpatrick trusts most will need to become a real weapon rather than a decoy for 2026's attack to keep that ranking.

Colgate threw for 275 yards a game and moved the ball at 5.91 yards a play in 2025, but the ground game lagged at 131 yards per game, and the front office that built that lopsided attack is losing three pieces up front in Ethan Tyla, Miles Salinas and Nick Dalessandro. Curt Fitzpatrick brings in Gerard Gearity, a high school signee from The First Academy, to start restocking the interior rather than plugging the hole with a transfer. The bet for 2026 is that the passing game stays efficient enough to cover for a line still finding its rushing footing.

Colgate's front let opponents stay on schedule at a 45.6% clip, a number that lines up with a defense giving up 6.28 yards per play (104th nationally) and 250 through the air per game (108th). That's a line that couldn't get off blocks or get after the passer consistently, and with Zaven Koltookian and Danny Norocea both off the roster, Curt Fitzpatrick has to find pressure from an experienced but largely unproven group up front. The rush numbers, 161 yards allowed per game, were respectable enough that the fix here is really about collapsing pockets and finishing plays, not stopping the run.

Colgate's defense bled through the air last season, allowing 250 passing yards per game (108th) and 6.28 yards per play (104th), and the linebacker corps that watched it happen loses its top three tacklers in Elijah Hamilton, Dane Picariello and Caleb Procaccini. Curt Fitzpatrick brings in Josh Faraimo, a three-star signee out of Cathedral Catholic, and Kyle Kirby, a high school recruit from Granville, to start building the room back up, though neither has a college snap on record yet. The rush defense held up fine at 161 yards allowed per game (62nd), but until Faraimo or Kirby proves capable of anchoring run fits, the bigger question for this unit is whether it can tighten a defense that let opponents stay on schedule 45.6% of the time (103rd).

Opposing quarterbacks picked Colgate apart for 250 yards a game through the air last season, a number that ranked 108th nationally and made every other defensive issue secondary. With Justin Lawrence, Brian Rawls Jr. and Taitwoine Sanders all gone from that group, Curt Fitzpatrick is counting on an experienced secondary to tighten coverage on schedule-down snaps, since opponents stayed on schedule 45.6% of the time against this defense a year ago. The run defense at 161 yards allowed per game was passable enough that fixing the back end alone could drag the overall 6.28 yards per play mark closer to respectable.

Luke Vogeler made 12 of 16 field goals with a long of 43 and piled up 74 points, giving Colgate a steady leg to build around after a 5-7 season. Tyler Fontenot returns too, averaging 39.4 yards on 50 punts, so the Raiders have their specialist duo intact even with long snapper Terry Mowrey gone. With Patrick Cramer and Will Dodds back to handle snaps, Curt Fitzpatrick isn't searching for answers here, just leaning on a group that already produced.

Matt Fogler's Breakout Burden

Reed Swanson took 57 catches and 939 yards out the door, and Colgate did not go to the portal to replace him, so the answer has to come from within. Matt Fogler already scored 7 touchdowns on just 23 catches a year ago, and Jake Stearney needs that big-play rate to scale up into a featured role rather than a complementary one. If Fogler cannot become the every-week threat Swanson was, Stearney's 18 touchdown throws get much harder to repeat.

Fitzpatrick's Market Stays Flat

Colgate never gave bettors an edge either way in 2026, splitting evenly at home, on the road, as a home favorite and as a road underdog under Curt Fitzpatrick. The one exception was against ranked opponents, where the Raiders covered twice in three tries despite losing all three of those games outright, a sign the number found their true level even when the scoreboard did not. Bet the line here, not the record, because Fitzpatrick's team keeps games closer than 5-7 suggests without actually turning that into wins.