Courtesy of Hampton Athletics
HAMPTON, Va. – This season, Hampton hosted three nationally-ranked Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) football teams at Armstrong Stadium. And in each case, the game went down to the wire. Earlier this season, Hampton fell to No. 20-ranked Rhode Island 46-44 in double overtime and to No. 13-ranked Villanova 20-14. In the 2024 home finale, Hampton (5-6, 2-5) drove to the 28-yard line in the game’s final seconds against No. 11-ranked Richmond (9-2, 7-0) needing a field goal for a tie or a touchdown for the win but were unable to convert one last first down in a 24-21 loss to Richmond.
Hampton outgained the Spiders 391-322, had 24 first downs to Richmond’s 16, and ran 79 plays to Richmond’s 55.
But Hampton couldn’t quite recover from a slow start. On Richmond’s first play on the game, Zach Palmer-Smith broke loose on a 54-yard run to the Hampton 21-yard line. An 11-yard Spider pass completion followed by a Hampton penalty moved the ball to the eight. Two plays later, Palmer-Smith, who finished with 166 yards rushing and two TDs, scored from three yards out. Sean O’Haire’s PAT made it 7-0 just 1:56 into the game. Hampton mishandled the ensuing kickoff and the opportunistic Spiders recovered the fumble at the 27-yard line. Richmond successfully gambled on fourth down and converted setting up an eight-yard pass from Camden Coleman to Landon Ellis to pad the lead to 14-0 with 9:16 left in the first quarter with the Pirates yet to run a single play from the line of scrimmage…