Duke TE Nicky Dalmolin said goodbye to football, but he’s back. Why he changed his mind
Having enjoyed senior day in November and a bowl win in December, Nicky Dalmolin put his football career in the past and looked forward to his Duke graduation last spring.
His former teammates went through their winter workouts last January while Dalmolin focused on completing his psychology degree and cinematic arts minor by May.
Somewhere along the way, though, Dalmolin reconsidered his decision about football.
“I had a lot of things to think over,” Dalmolin said. “Ultimately, I missed the guys, I missed the locker room, I missed the grind of it every day. I missed the game.”
That’s what led Dalmolin to reverse course this summer and use the extra season of NCAA eligibility he has due to COVID-19 pandemic rules to play for the Blue Devils this season.
The move added a valuable player — on and off the field — for Duke as it begins its first season with Manny Diaz as head coach.
Dalmolin played in 41 games, with 20 starts, over the past four seasons after arriving on campus to play for David Cutcliffe and continuing his career in 2022 and 2023 under Mike Elko.
He missed three games to injury in each of the past two seasons, catching 21 passes with four touchdowns in 2022 and 15 more passes last season.
Those numbers could be higher this season.
New coach, new schemes
When Dalmolin visited Duke’s spring practices earlier this year, as an ex-player to watch his former teammates, he liked what he saw from the schemes new offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer was installing.
“He saw how much we were throwing the ball around,” Brewer said, “especially that the tight end is catching the ball a lot. He’s not just in the core blocking all the time. And so I think he got excited, like, hey, I’m not gonna have to go in here and block power or counter inside zone. I can actually go out and run routes and be a highly productive person in our offense.”
Duke already had tight ends in redshirt sophomore Jeremiah Hasley and redshirt freshman Vance Bolyard returning from last year’s team. But finding room for the 6-4, 241-pound Dalmolin wasn’t a problem.
“You’re adding,” Diaz said, “not just a person who we think is a unique talent on the field that we believe in our offensive scheme can provide a lot of mismatches, and a guy that can catch a high volume of balls, but you’re also adding another older, experienced worker, and someone who loves Duke.”
In the transfer portal era, adding such a player between spring practices and the start of fall work toward the regular season has become commonplace. But Dalmolin was different because of his familiarity with the team, even though the coaching staff had changed.
‘Couldn’t believe our luck’
When he rejoined the program for the summer, he was so impressive that strength coach David Feeley gave him a team award for his weightlifting in the summer conditioning program.
“We watched his film,” Diaz said, “and, again, in some limited targets, we couldn’t believe our luck to see this guy was just walking around our campus and wanted to be a part of our team.”
During his time away from football last winter, Dalmolin didn’t formulate any post-graduation plans. His change of heart caused him to enroll in Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, where he’s pursuing a master’s in management studies.
He’s among the several players still at Duke who are playing for their third head coach while staying at the same school.
Dalmolin played nine games in 2020 and 12 more, with one start, in 2021, suffering through the 13-game ACC losing streak that led to Elko replacing the ousted Cutcliffe.
The past two seasons, Dalmolin helped Duke go 9-4 and 8-5 in a dramatic program turnaround.
Now he’s poised to help Duke continue that success under Diaz.
He’s just glad he was welcomed back with the realization of how much football means to him.
“Just the game itself,” Dalmolin said. “I just didn’t feel right not playing it and I want to play it until someone tells me I can’t anymore now.”