Jake Richards, a central midfielder from Exeter, signed for Exeter City as a scholar/trainee after finishing school in 2023 having been with the club’s academy since the under-12 category. He soon made his debut in a League Cup tie on his 16th birthday and had played around thirty first-team games when he moved to Luton Town shortly before turning eighteen.

He played as an under-16 for Exeter City under-18s in Youth Alliance games in 2022/23 and also featured in the squad for FA Youth Cup games that season. Becoming a trainee/scholar in July 2023, Jake appeared in a first-team friendly at Mousehole before making his full debut as a late substitute in the League Cup against Crawley Town on 8 August 2023 followed by his first league game - as a starter - against Leyton Orient on 9 September 2023.

Participating in one league game, an FA Cup tie, two League Cup matches and two Football League Trophy fixtures during his first half-a-dozen appearances for the first-team, Jake also featured in the club's FA Youth Cup side. After spending the middle part of the season playing for the club's under-18 team, he returned to the first-team in April 2024 with a substitute appearance against Stevenage and a start in the game at Leyton Orient followed by three other substitute appearances.

With such a strong run at the end of the season, Jake had clocked-up a dozen first-team appearances whilst still a 16-year-old scholar/trainee and was duly named as the Supporters' Trust young player of the year for 2023/24. Not involved in the opening games of the new season because of injury, he made his first appearance of the 2024/25 campaign as a second-half substitute against Swindon Town in the EFL Trophy at the start of September 2024 and followed through with his first-ever goal - a free-kick from twenty-five yards - in the same competition against Tottenham Hotspur under-21s three weeks later. 

Continuing to appear for the under-18s, Jake was part of the club's squad for FA Youth Cup games and also played for the under-21s in the Premier League Cup prior to scoring his first goal in the league for the first-team against Bristol Rovers on Boxing Day 2024. Thereafter making relatively spasmodic appearances for the first-team - and having not yet been sent out on loan like his under-18s team mates - Jake nonetheless added  twenty first-team appearances to his tally (including the FA Cup game against Nottingham Forest) in a season when he was named EFL League One Apprentice of the Year, the supporters' trust's 'young player of the season' and the disabled supporters' association's 'breakthrough player'.

Approaching his 18th birthday in August 2025, and with over thirty first-team games to his name as a trainee, there was continued speculation as to whether Jake would sign a professional deal and eventually  - at the start of July 2025 - it was announced that he had signed for Luton Town.