Nick Rinaldi Looks to Increase Role in Run Defense

As a senior in high school, track and basketball star at Dover-Sherborn High School Nick Rinaldi had a dream of playing another sport: football.

Rinaldi had no past experience of playing organized football growing up, whether it be PeeWee, middle school or high school football until his senior year of high school. Rinaldi was able to join the Dover-Sherborn football team his final year in high school. But he did not want to stop there. Rinaldi wanted to play collegiately as well.

After sending emails to 15 different coaches around the country asking to be a walk-on, Rinaldi did get three replies, but ultimately decided to enroll at Vanderbilt where he joined as a walk-on as a linebacker.

Since he started playing for Vanderbilt, Rinaldi’s role has predominantly been in the Commodores’ pass defense. From walking on his freshman year and appearing in just four games, Rinaldi’s playing time has increased into a regular on the defensive side, playing in every game his sophomore and junior seasons. As he enters his senior season, he is hoping he can be involved in the run defense as well.

“I can’t speak for my coach, but I’ve been trying to involve myself in the run game. I feel like I’m a more developed backer now. I may be a veteran, but I’m not a veteran in the actual game of football, but camp has been really helpful for me. But I am trying to put myself in the position for rundowns,” Rinaldi said.

Entering just his fifth season ever of playing football, one thing Rinaldi has had to work and improve is his confidence. With little experience of playing the game coming into his freshman season and bouncing between a couple of different position rooms at the start of his collegiate career, Rinaldi relied heavily on his coaches to help give him confidence until everything flipped in a game against Kentucky in November of 2022.

“I credit it to the coaching staff. I think when it flipped for me was when I was a razor in the Kentucky game my freshman year,” Rinaldi said. “I didn’t have much confidence coming in, which is not very good. Everyone talks about how good it is to have confidence. I didn’t really have that coming in, so the coaches believing in me was a big part of that, and that grew in me.”

Not only did Vanderbilt come away with a 24-21 upset win to knock off a ranked Kentucky team, but Rinaldi came away with his second tackle of his collegiate career and a ton of added self-confidence. 

Since then, Rinaldi has become a bigger and bigger contributor to the Vanderbilt pass defense. As a sophomore, Rinaldi came away with 21 tackles, including six in one game against Florida and his first career interceptions against UNLV. As a junior, his presence was not only felt, but it was needed as Rinaldi finished last season with 52 tackles, including a career-high 10 tackles in Vanderbilt’s Birmingham Bowl victory over Georgia Tech. In addition, he recorded six sacks and two fumble recoveries. 

If Rinaldi is able to get involved in the run defense this year, it will only help the Commodores. Another linebacker involved in both the pass and run defenses will provide strength and depth to the Vanderbilt defense.

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