Arion Shinaver joined the Vanderbilt football program in 2022 and currently serves as assistant safeties coach. He was a graduate assistant with the defense in 2023, and spent his first season as a scouting assistant and defensive intern.
Working alongside safeties coach Melvin Rice, the Vandy safeties were led by seniors CJ Taylor, De’Rickey Wright and Marlen Sewell. Taylor paced the group with 64 tackles, 2.5 for loss, two forced fumbles and a pair of interceptions. He had a key pick late in the third quarter of the Birmingham Bowl win over Georgia Tech. Wright contributed 48 tackles and a pick while Sewell added 20 tackles. Taylor and Sewell were both voted team captains.
In his first season in Nashville, Shinaver helped linebacker Anfernee Orji complete his third consecutive season as the team’s leader in tackles and earn All-SEC honors from Phil Steele. Orji’s 108 stops made him the first Vanderbilt player since 2005 to lead the team in tackles for three straight years. With 8.93 tackles per contest, no one in the SEC had more than Orji. Orji became one of Vanderbilt’s first protegees to reach the NFL in 2024. After spending 2023 on the practice squad for the New Orleans Saints, Orji played in 16 games during his debut season in ’24, making 30 tackles. During the 2022 season, Shinaver helped mentor both Orji and Ethan Barr who were named team captains.
Shinaver has participated in the NFL’s Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship prior to the start of the 2024 and ’25 seasons, spending time each summer with the Las Vegas Raiders staff focusing on special teams.
Shinaver played collegiately at Notre Dame from 2016-19. The walk-on receiver appeared in seven games over his career with the Fighting Irish, helping the program to a trio of 10-win seasons, including a 12-1 record and College Football Playoff appearance in 2018.
Vanderbilt is Shinaver’s first collegiate coaching stop. Following his playing career, he worked as a strategy and analytics analyst at Deloitte Consulting for two years.
The Carmel, Indiana, native graduated from Notre Dame in 2020 with a degree in finance from the Mendoza College of Business and earned a Masters of Liberal Arts and Science from Vanderbilt in 2023.
Shinaver and his wife, Francesca, and their son Thomas, reside in Nashville.
The Shinaver File
Hometown: Carmel, Ind.
High School: Guerin Catholic
College: Notre Dame (finance, 2020)
Playing Experience
2016-19 • Notre Dame (wide receiver)
Coaching Career
2022 • Vanderbilt • Scouting/Defensive Intern
2023 • Vanderbilt • Graduate Assistant, Linebackers
2024 • Vanderbilt • Assistant Safeties Coach
Postseason Experience
2017 • Notre Dame • Citrus Bowl Champions (player)
2018 • Notre Dame • College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Cotton Bowl (player)
2019 • Notre Dame • Camping World Bowl Champions (player)
2024 • Vanderbilt • Birmingham Bowl Champions