How Nick Lezynski, Vanderbilt Football Kept Vanderbilt's Surplus of Linebackers Together

Nashville–When Vanderbilt linebackers coach Nick Lezynski would stand on the inside sideline of Vanderbilt’s turf practice field and watch his position group work through each of their practice sessions, he used to see a drop off at times when his first and second unit would come off the field. 

Ever since joining the Vanderbilt staff, Lezynski has always worked at developing a room that was among the deepest on Vanderbilt’s roster. He didn’t know if he’d ever get it, but now he feels as if his work was worth the effort. 

“There’s been a little bit of labor pains in the past to get to this point,” Lezynski said. “I think in the past maybe we didn’t have the depth that we have now.” 

Depth can often be a misnomer that covers up for a group’s lack of starpower–it certainly has been in the past surrounding Vanderbilt’s linebacker room–but this appears to be different. 

This doesn’t appear to be Lezynski–or those in his room–putting lipstick on a pig. If they were, they’d certainly be doing a nice job hiding their feelings towards the capability of their room. 

“There’s no guy who couldn’t start at least somewhere in the SEC,” Vanderbilt linebacker Bryan Longwell said. “I believe that wholeheartedly. I believe we’d all start somewhere in the SEC. Having to start above guys that can start other places is always the battle and a lot of times I watch other guys who are made better at one thing or another and see how they do it.” 

If Lezynski and Longwell want to point to some evidence in regards to their theory, they no longer have to reminisce on flashes they’ve seen on film in practice. Lezynski’s got two returning starters in Langston Patterson and Longwell as well as rotational piece Nick Rinaldi–who he says he now has “no hesitation about putting on the field in any situation” rather than using as just a situational player like in the past–and Bryce Cowan–who he says he’s "absolutely going to be looking for every opportunity to get on the field.”

As a result of players like Cowan–who likely could’ve gone elsewhere and started as a result of his abundance of good practice film and flashes of standout play in games–deciding to stay and develop under Lezynski and Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea, Vanderbilt now has a good problem to have in terms of working to distribute snaps among what could be perceived as too many viable options. Factor in former four-star recruit Prince Kollie and bowl prep standout Jameson Curtis and it appears that Vanderbilt has a log jam of sorts. 

“It’s a testament to all the guys that have stayed here,” Lezynski said. “We’ve been able to retain a bunch of guys that I’m sure had opportunities elsewhere and they’re a part of this brotherhood. They love it here and they want to be part of this mission to win. It’s been awesome to see that.” 

Perhaps no player in Vanderbilt’s room has seen the transformation of Vanderbilt’s linebacker room like Patterson–a Nashville native and senior–has. Patterson has seen when injuries have worn down his group’s production. He’s seen when there was a lack of top-end ability within it. 

He knows the dangers of declaring a room deep in the preseason, yet there he stood the grass practice field on Vanderbilt’s first day of fall camp and said it. 

“We have a really deep room and I’m excited about what we’re gonna do this year,” Patterson said. ” We’re one of the deepest rooms on the team. Our goal is to be the best linebacker room in the country. That just takes every one of us pushing each other every day. Competition, you want it to all be easy, you want to get all the plays in the game, you want all the recognition. But, for us we know if we’re gonna be the best we can be then it’s gonna take all of us.” 

Patterson as well as Longwell–who is projected to start alongside him–know that they can do it at a high level and aren’t asking to be taken off the field, but they know that there will be a level of selflessness required to make this thing work as it’s currently constructed. 

Even those two experienced starters aren’t all that this group needs at this stage. To win SEC games, it needs to win in the margins. Some days the adequate way to do that could be through Patterson and Longwell flying around and making tackles. Some days it could be as a result of Rinaldi’s speed and athleticism. Some could include Cowan’s physicality coming downhill as a blitzer. 

“Different guys having different skillsets, body types definitely helps in certain personnel packages,” Lezynski said. “Anytime you have guys that can do multiple things in multiple personnel groups, you can start doing stuff in one personnel group that you normally wouldn’t see because those guys are capable of doing that stuff.” 

Vanderbilt’s linebacker room still hasn’t proven anything at this stage, but it believes that when the time comes, it’ll be able to prove that it belongs with the rest of the league. Time for Lezynski’s labor to translate into on-field progress within his room.