Former FCS Standout Unfazed By New Challenge

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Ohio State, a storied Football Bowl Subdivision program, plays its home games in front of capacity crowds at 102,780-seat Ohio Stadium. Tennessee Tech, which competes in the Football Championship Subdivision, is the home of 16,500-seat Tucker Stadium, where the Golden Eagles averaged 6,885 fans per game in 2024.

The players in those programs live in different worlds when it comes to football. Even so, Mitchell Melton, a transfer from Ohio State, passed no judgment on fellow defensive end Daniel Rickert before the Virginia Cavaliers opened training camp last month.

“College football has taught me a lot,” said Melton, who arrived at UVA in January. “It’s taught me that people come from a lot of different places but all have the same mentality, which is to work. And I think he has exactly that. His mentality and his work ethic have been second to none since coming here. And it’s been really encouraging to see, especially from a guy coming from Tennessee Tech. He’s been doing nothing but elevating our room, and I’m really excited to see what he does this year.”

Rickert, who was born in Ann Arbor, Mich., moved with his family in 2015 to Nolensville, Tenn., about 25 miles south of Nashville. He starred in football at Nolensville High School, where he also played lacrosse, but attracted little recruiting interest from FBS programs.

“I was basically between Army and Tennessee Tech,” Rickert, 23, said after practice Tuesday evening. “I ended up going to Tennessee Tech because I wanted to major in engineering. It’s a good engineering school.”

Located in Cookeville, Tenn., Tennessee Tech has about 10,000 students. Rickert graduated in December with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and started pursuing an MBA in January. Unsure of his plans for the 2025 season, he went through spring practice with the Golden Eagles, then entered the transfer portal when it opened in April.

Tennessee Tech is one of the nine teams in the OVC–Big South Football Association, which combines the football members of the Big South Conference and Ohio Valley Conference.

Rickert, who recorded nine sacks in 2023 and seven in 2024, twice was named to the All-OVC-Big South first team.  At 6-foot-2, 232 pounds, he’s small for an FBS defensive end, but his film intrigued the Cavaliers.

“He was very, very dynamic,” said Chris Slade, who coaches Virginia’s defensive ends. “He could run. He was elusive, athletic. You could see that in the film. He’s a good pass-rusher.”

When evaluating FCS players, Slade said, UVA’s coaching staff likes to see how they’ve performed against FBS programs.

“They’re really good in their leagues,” Slade said. “What you really look for is how they play against tougher competition.”

Rickert broke his hand on the first day of training camp last summer and was sidelined for several weeks. That set him back significantly, and he played with his hand heavily wrapped in the Golden Eagles’ first three games last season. Even so, he had a tackle for loss in Tennessee Tech’s loss to Georgia.

He toured UVA in late April. “I came on this visit, and I loved it, and that was it,” Rickert said. “This was my first visit that I went on, and after that, I just shut it down and committed here.”

Virginia’s coaches initially debated whether to offer Rickert a scholarship, Slade acknowledged, “because he’s so undersized. We knew he could rush the passer. You could see that. But can he play the run? Can he take on 300-and-some pounders?”

Two weeks into camp, Rickert has proved to be more than a one-dimensional player.

“Now, we’ll see how the year goes, how he pans out,” Slade said, “but I think he’s playing as well as anybody on the defense. Right now, I think he’s probably playing the best of anybody on the defense.”

Against the run, Slade said, the key for Rickert “is going to be getting off of blocks and disengaging.”

That’s not news to No. 52. “Coach Slade has told me a dozen times already that I gotta use my hands, I gotta be perfect with technique, and I got to get off blocks fast or else I’m going to get engulfed,” Rickert said. “But if I do those things, I shouldn’t have any problems.”

The Wahoos hope Rickert will become an every-down defensive end. But even if he ends up playing primarily in passing situations, he’ll be an asset.

“We haven’t had a lot of pass rush here in the last couple years,” said Slade, a former All-American who still holds the program record for career sacks.

He’s encouraged by what he’s seen from his group, which includes two other transfers: Fisher Camac (UNLV) and Cazeem Moore (Elon). In Rickert, Melton, Camac and Moore, the Hoos have “finally got four guys I feel like can really rush the passer,” Slade said.

With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, the 2020-21 school year, Rickert’s first at Tennessee Tech, didn’t count toward his eligibility. The Golden Eagles, who didn’t play any games in the fall of 2020, played seven in the spring of 2021 and 11 in the fall of 2021.

In 2022, Rickert suffered a season-ending injury in Tennessee Tech’s fourth game and took a medical redshirt. That gave him the season of eligibility that he’s using at UVA.

“It’s been great,” Rickert said of his experience in head coach Tony Elliott’s program. “I love Slade. Big fan. The whole group is great, all the guys.”

Count Slade among Rickert’s fans.

“He’s been a pleasure to coach,” Slade said. “He’s got a motor. He’s got a burst. He has great instincts, so he’s able to dissect plays. He’s able to see sets, see different formations, and he has an innate way of getting skinny and bending [past blockers].

“He’s very experienced. You can tell he’s got a chip on his shoulder. He wants to show everybody he can play at this level.”

Rickert said: “I think I’ve always felt that way, because I was under-recruited in high school. I wasn’t even on full scholarship my first year at Tennessee Tech. I came on at 50% and ended up earning a full scholarship after a semester.”

Asked the transition from FCS to FBS, Rickert said, “To be honest with you, there hasn’t been a huge difference. Obviously, everyone is better, bigger, faster, stronger, more athletic [at UVA]. But in my opinion, I had kind of outgrown the FCS landscape, and we played FBS teams every year, so I knew what I was coming into.”

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