When Johns Hopkins football takes on Mount Union in the NCAA Division III Tournament semifinals on Dec. 21, it will do so with a quarterback not many fans expected to see a few months ago.
Senior quarterback Bay Harvey, who turned in a big season a year ago, suffered a season-ending injury three games in, leaving senior James Rinello to take the reins. The 6-foot, 185-pound signal-caller had thrown a total of 17 passes in his first three years at Hopkins but never left to seek other opportunities.
Instead, Rinello has played in 10 games in 2024, helping lead the Jays to a 12-1 mark. He has thrown for 2,106 yards and 13 touchdowns, completing 64.8 percent of his passes, while running for 286 yards and two scores.
Not bad for a backup quarterback.
“Coming into this year, I never really expected that I was going to be playing many meaningful snaps, but the reason that I’ve stayed here all four years is really a combination of the program just being really an amazing group of guys and coaches that I love being around every single day,” Rinello said on Glenn Clark Radio Dec. 19. “And obviously the school is known for its education, which is amazing, so really those two things. No matter the circumstances of me playing or not, this is where I wanted to be. I couldn’t imagine being with any other group of guys than the one I’ve been with.”
Hopkins defeated Grove City (17-14), DePauw (14-9) and Mary Hardin-Baylor (17-10) to reach the semifinals. Rinello threw for 872 yards and four touchdowns in the three victories, setting up a trip to Ohio to face Mount Union, which will enter the game a perfect 13-0. The winner of the Hopkins-Mount Union matchup will face the winner of the Susquehanna-North Central (Ill.) semifinal in the Division III championship on Jan. 5.
Rinello pointed to the Jays’ win at then-undefeated Ursinus in late October as a turning point of the season. Hopkins allowed just seven points that day, a familiar theme for the Jays this year. Hopkins has allowed 11.2 points per game this season, and the Jays’ defense has given the team a chance to win close postseason contests.
“I think what really it comes down to at the end of these games is everyone on the team is just so close. We really are all brothers,” Rinello said. “We are fully confident that someone is going to step up and make the play that we need, whether we mess up and the defense needs to make a stop or vice versa. It’s just we know at some point it’s going to come up in a big-time moment and make sure we get a win.”
Rinello filling in as well as he has, however, allows Hopkins to take advantage of its stout defense.
“The biggest thing that I realized right away is not only the trust that he has in the rest of the team but most importantly the trust that all the guys have [in] him to make big plays and put us in good situations,” first-year Hopkins head coach Dan Wodicka said on GCR Dec. 13. “Being a senior, it’s kind of a unique situation. The backup quarterback is in, but he’s been a part of the program for a long time here and he knows what we’re trying to accomplish on offense and knows how to get that job done.”
Wodicka took over as the head coach after Greg Chimera became the offensive coordinator at Penn in January. Chimera was the head coach at Hopkins for five years and four seasons, going 40-7 and winning two Centennial Conference titles. Wodicka won the league in his first year as head coach, but now he has a chance to lead his team to much more than that.
Rinello is appreciative of everything Wodicka has brought to the table as the head coach.
“He is just a guy that loves the Hopkins football program,” Rinello said. “We were really glad that he stepped up as our head coach and we love having that sense of continuity just because he does know all of us so well and knows the program so well. He’s just done a good job of really instilling the traditional values of pride and poise in all of us, keeping us calm in the big moments, firing us up for the big moments and really just being a leader that we can all look to when we need guidance.”
For more from Rinello, listen to the full interview here:
For more from Wodicka, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Johns Hopkins Athletics