Daniel Vollmer walked out from St. Xavier Jesuit Academy to his lacrosse practice, grabbed the door handle and stepped to the side to let Vanderbilt Defensive Line Coach and Defensive Run Game Coordinator Larry Black through.
Vollmer was on Black’s list of players to talk to, but Black was in Cincinnati primarily to recruit eventual Notre Dame commit Gordy Sulfsted and Clemson commit Tucker Kattus and didn’t know if he’d get to speak with Vollmer as a result of Vollmer’s lacrosse obligations. The eventual lacrosse state champion wasn’t letting his opportunity to speak with Black pass him by, though.
“I saw him walking into our school when I was heading out to lacrosse practice,” Vollmer told Vandy on SI, “And I opened the door for him and just introduced myself.”
Black didn’t know it yet, but Vollmer always had his eyes on Vanderbilt. The Cincinnati high schooler always wanted to use football as an avenue to get him into a school that he couldn’t get into otherwise. Vollmer has always been a “pretty good” student and has had a GPA “in the 4.0, 3.9 area” for his entire high school career, but “that’s not getting me into Vanderbilt,” he says.
If Vollmer wanted to follow in his cousin’s footsteps and make it into Vanderbilt, he had to find a way as a football player.
Black and Vanderbilt linebackers coach Nick Lezynski eventually came around to the possibility that Vollmer could be a player for them, but made an out of the box evaluation relative to what Vollmer had put on tape to that point.
Vollmer had been primarily a quarterback as an underclassman, but became a swiss-army knife of sorts as he realized that playing quarterback wasn’t his best path to a college career. In an average game, Vollmer estimates he played around 10 snaps in the slot, received around 10 or 15 carries at running back, blitzed off the edge on most third downs, returned every kick and handled all punting duties.
“I take pride in my athletic ability and being able to be so versatile,” Vollmer said. “I also think my mindset has been ‘whatever helps the team win.’”
When Lezynski and the rest of the Vanderbilt staff popped on Vollmer’s tape, they envisioned his best path towards impacting winning coming at linebacker. Lezynski sold Vollmer on his vision by putting together a powerpoint of his offensive highlights as well as high school film of current Vanderbilt linebackers Nick Rinaldi and Langston Patterson and how the film correlates.
Turns out Lezynski’s pitch was music to Vollmer’s ears as he committed to Vanderbilt less than two weeks after receiving his initial offer. Vollmer is entirely bought in on his role as a linebacker now, too. The 6-foot-2 utility man will now spend most of his time in his senior season of high school as a linebacker and running back.
“I don’t care as much where I play, whatever is best for the program,” Vollmer said. “I think that position for me and my build, with my speed and physicality is where I’ll be best on the field.”
Vollmer appears to be fully bought in on his new role as a linebacker and what Vanderbilt’s “gritty” vision could do for him. His commitment isn’t wavering anytime soon.
“Playing in the SEC is a great experience and will be a blast,” Vollmer said. “I think that coach Lezynski and coach Lea had a vision that I wanted to be a part of and have created the culture that I want to be a part of.”
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