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College football’s NIL Era has created plenty of headaches for teams, especially smaller programs that don’t have the means to compete with bigger schools. Based on what Richmond coach Russ Huseman had to say, that problem has reared its head yet again thanks to the series of events that led to his kicker unexpectedly transferring to Maryland.
The NCAA had years to prepare for the seemingly inevitable day its student-athletes would be allowed to profit off of their name, image, and likeness, but the approach it opted to take after essentially flipping the switch overnight in the wake of the landmark Supreme Court ruling that forced its hand has left a lot to be desired.
It’s no surprise that schools have done everything in their power to exploit the current NIL landscape that has essentially created a market where many players are constantly on the hunt for the highest bidder—a reality that obviously benefits the programs with the deepest pockets.
The football team at the University of Richmond is pretty far from that end of the spectrum thanks to its status as an FCS squad at a school with less than 4,000 students. It is able to take advantage of the NIL fund known as The Spiders’ Collective, but most of its players aren’t exactly swimming in cash.
However, based on what head coach Russ Huesman had to say earlier this week, former Richmond kicker Sean O’Haire has managed to secure a pretty sizeable payday courtesy of the Maryland Terrapins, who he accused of tampering after losing the redshirt freshman at the start of May.
O’Haire hails from Ireland and had never played football before arriving at Richmond on a scholarship last year but quickly proved he could hang as a kicker by making all 12 of the field goals he attempted in the five games he appeared in.
All signs pointed to the Irishman playing for Richmond in 2025, as he’d been partaking in practices and participated in the team’s spring game before announcing he was transferring to Maryland at the start of the month—a development Huseman is not thrilled with based on what he had to say via the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
“Maryland tampered with our kicker and gave him $50,000. They came in, they tampered. The kid had zero interest in transferring, they offered him money. It happens all over the country, and there’s nothing the NCAA’s going to do about it.
“So, Maryland just decided to come in. They liked our kicker and offered him money…It’s ridiculous, pretty frustrating… He’s got an unbelievable future.
This was not on him. This was on Maryland. This was on his handlers. It was on a lot of other people that I’m not real happy with.”
At the end of the day, this is par for the course when it comes to the current state of college athletics, but it’s pretty easy to understand why Huseman is frustrated.