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…