Wagner Seahawks 2026 Season Preview

Masella's Mixed Ledger

Tom Masella's crew went 5-7 overall but 4-3 in the NEC, a split that tells the real story for 2026: this program is more competitive within its league than its No. 104 power rating suggests. The nonconference results dragged the record down, but the conference mark shows a staff that can hang with its actual peer group. That gap between overall struggle and league competitiveness is the number worth tracking heading into 2026.

Stevens Returns, So Do the Picks

Wagner's offense was the problem in 2025, ranking 121st in total yardage and 124th through the air, and the answer at quarterback is the same Jack Stevens who threw 8 interceptions against just 2 touchdowns. That is not a clean-slate fix, it is a bet that experience alone cleans up the turnovers behind a passing game that averaged 97 yards per game. The path to more wins runs through the ground game and a defense that held opponents to 198 passing yards per game, because until Stevens' picture-quality changes, Wagner's offense stays the anchor, not the engine.

Jack Stevens threw 8 interceptions against just 2 touchdowns last season, and Wagner brings him back as the starter anyway, a bet that his 511 yards of experience matter more than the accuracy that produced a 97-yard-per-game passing attack, 124th nationally. That ground-and-pound identity, 166 rushing yards per game against a passing game that couldn't crack triple digits, only works if Stevens stops turning the ball over, since the offense already ranks 112th in success rate and 122nd in explosiveness with little margin for mistakes. Jordan Barton's 557 yards and 4-to-3 ratio in relief make him the clear insurance policy if Stevens repeats last year's turnover rate rather than fixes it.

Andre Hines Jr's 812 yards and 8 touchdowns walk out the door, and Wagner has nobody in the room who scored on the ground last season to replace that production. Sekou Kamau (341 yards) and Matt Morad (284 yards) split carries behind him without finding the end zone, and now they inherit the backfield outright on a rushing attack that actually ranked a respectable 45th nationally in yards per game. The bigger problem isn't the ball-carriers, it's what surrounds them, an offense that managed just 4.25 yards per play (123rd) and a 30.6% third-down rate (114th), so even if Kamau or Morad approaches Hines' volume, the touchdowns won't come easy behind this passing game.

Jeremiah Colclough's 34 catches were the closest thing Wagner had to a security blanket in a passing game that managed just 97 yards per game through the air, 124th nationally, and that number has to jump for this offense to escape the bottom third of the country in yards per play. Teree McDonald and Malik Redd, who turned 16 grabs into 206 yards and 2 scores, give Tom Masella a returning trio with real experience, and Pittsburgh transfer Zion Fowler-El adds another proven target after catching a touchdown in limited work last season. The bigger question is who replaces the intermediate production lost with Malik Cooper and Derek Burrell gone, since Wagner's 30.6% third-down rate suggests the passing attack still needs more than its top two or three names to hold up.

Johans Bars quietly paced the tight end room with 5 catches for 52 yards and a touchdown, modest numbers that still stood out on an offense stuck at 97 passing yards per game, 124th nationally. Christopher Harris adds 3 catches back to the mix, while Vincent Cajano III, Dominick Capuano, Christian Donato and Michael Frankie all return without a recorded target, leaving Bars as the only proven receiving threat at the position. With Wagner's passing game that broken and third-down conversion sitting at 30.6%, Tom Masella needs Bars to become a real safety valve rather than a change-of-pace piece.

Tom Masella watched a line last season that could push people off the ball but couldn't buy Wagner any time or space through the air, a split visible right in the numbers: 166 rushing yards a game (45th nationally) against just 97 passing yards a game, 124th in the country. That gap is the story of this group, and it now has to hold up without Brady Anderson, Prinz Guitian, and Arman Kabuli, all gone from the front. The bigger fix isn't just replacing bodies but tightening protection so the 4.25 yards per play and 35.2% success rate stop capping an offense that otherwise runs the ball well enough to win.

Tom Masella watched a defense that held up against the pass (198 yards allowed per game, 33rd nationally) but leaked on the ground at 170 yards a game, a split that points straight at the front. Now the group that produced those numbers is largely cleared out, with Luke Jakubauskas, Mason Buono, Terry Charles, Franklin Simms and Olanrewaju Adeyemi among seven departures up front. With that much turnover at the point of attack, expect the rushing defense number to move before the passing one does, for better or worse.

Brendan Leal's 10 tackles topped a linebacker corps that never got off the field on schedule, with Wagner letting opponents stay ahead of the chains on 44.5% of snaps and finishing without a single sack. Colton Guerrero and Cam Haynes are back alongside Leal, and Eli Hiscock's lone tackle for loss was one of just four the whole defense produced, a number this group has to move well past in 2026. Jordan Johnson's 7 tackles are gone, but the bigger issue is production, not just replacing a name, given a defense that ranked 79th against the run and 50th in yards allowed per play.

Wagner's secondary was the strength of a defense that held opponents to 198 passing yards a game, good for 33rd nationally, even as the run defense lagged at 170 yards allowed. That pass-defense number now has to hold without Akil Lampley, Jayden Brown, Riley Dravet and Jaylen Gullatte, who combined for the bulk of the tackle production in that back end a year ago. Tom Masella still has an experienced secondary in place, and the group's task in 2026 is simple: keep the pass defense elite while the front finally cleans up that rushing number.

Vincent Muscillo, who averaged 42.6 yards on 11 punts, takes over the full-time punting job now that Joshua Brown, who kicked 57 punts at a 39.9 average, is gone. The bigger question is who kicks. Ryan Liszner is back after going 0 of 0 on field goals with just two points on extra points, and he now competes with returners Drew Borner, Salvatore Salafia Jr. and Matthew Schwindt, none of whom have logged a college kick, to replace departed placekicker Nick Romero. Nick Ciucci returns to snap for whoever wins that job, but Tom Masella is essentially picking a kicker from scratch for 2026.

Jack Stevens at quarterback

Jack Stevens threw eight interceptions against just two touchdowns last fall, and Wagner handed him the job anyway over Jordan Barton, who actually posted better numbers in relief (557 yards, 4 TD, 3 INT). That gap between the incumbent and the backup's production is the swing factor here: if Stevens cleans up the turnovers, Wagner's offense has a real complement to Sekou Kamau and Matt Morad in the backfield, but another turnover-heavy year invites a switch to Barton and stalls any progress from the 5-7 mark.

Wagner's road value

Wagner went 5-7 straight up but covered spreads at a 64% clip, and the real signal is what happened away from Staten Island. As a road underdog, Tom Masella's team covered 80% of the time (4-1) despite winning just two of those games outright, meaning oddsmakers consistently overrated opponents against this group. That gap between straight-up results and against-the-spread performance on the road is the through-line for bettors watching Wagner again in 2026.