USF has had a lot of great linebackers over the years, and the former #51 is one of the best. In our original 15 For 15 series, we rated him as USF's #8 greatest player ever. He had a productive NFL career, and is now an assistant coach at USF.
Career Stats: A four-year starter at linebacker, Nicholas is among USF's all-time leaders in games played (51), games started (45), tackles (326), tackles for loss (53.5), and sacks (20).
And those totals were harder to attain in Nicholas' era, because college football teams only played 11 regular-season games in 2004 and 2005, and USF did not make a bowl game in 2004.