EVANSTON, Ill. — Ozzie Nicholas looks the part.
“If the football gods gave birth to a linebacker,” La Costa Canyon High School football coach Sean Sovacool said, “they’d create Ozzie.”
He plays the part, too.
Making his first start at the major college level since transferring from Princeton, Nicholas led Duke to a 26-20 overtime win over Northwestern on Friday.
The La Costa Canyon graduate flew around Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium Field, Northwestern’s temporary home adjacent to Lake Michigan, chasing down ball carriers. He defended the , locking up Wildcats tight end Thomas Gordon in single coverage on a third-down seam route into the end zone. Nicholas’ presence around the ball also resulted in a fumble recovery.
Nicolas showed the same energy and versatility that garnered him attention at LCC, earned him All-America honors at Princeton, and, as Duke coach Manny Diaz suggested, will make him a key to the Blue Devils’ season.
“We felt like he was a guy in training camp who would have a big role for us this year,” Diaz said. “And tonight, we needed him.”
The win at Northwestern offered a snapshot of Nicholas’ football career. He came up limping at one point in the second half only to return and finish strong.
Injury, recovery
At LCC, he ed the Mavericks varsity roster for the 2016 CIF San Diego Section playoffs as a freshman and then became a standout as a sophomore.
Nicholas received Division I recruiting interest almost immediately. Arizona and Cal were interested, as was Boise State.
A torn ACL sustained against rival Torrey Pines in his junior season complicated Nicholas’ path. The following year, Nicholas tore his other ACL in a game against Oceanside.
Sovacool called the second injury “a total gut punch.” Returning from significant injury can be as much psychological and emotional as it is physical.
Nicholas, however, says the injuries are something he is “able to look back on and be grateful for.”
“The obstacles and adversities I faced then taught me how to be a much more resilient, hard-working, and disciplined player and person,” Nicholas said. “I learned a lot of things about myself, about physical therapy, about taking care of my body.”
A system that included his family, the LCC coaching staff and Roy Holmes and Cristina Valenzuela proved instrumental to Nicholas’ recovery. Holmes, a certified strength and conditioning specialist, and physical therapist Valenzuela are the co-owners of AMP Performance in Carlsbad.
Previously at EXOS, Holmes and Valenzuela guided Nicholas’ physical therapy workouts.
Nicholas credited the two as “huge in my comeback after my second ACL (tear).”
Both raved about Nicholas’ dedication and determination, starting with his post-surgery therapy.
“It’s really fun to work with somebody like him because he’s internally motivated,” Valenzuela said.
The coronavirus pandemic provided Nicholas a chance to focus extensively on his rehab.
“It was helpful for him to understand when to go hard, when to back off, and how to recover,” Holmes said. “If he was in a normal environment … who knows if he would have regressed, because he would have wanted to do everything at full speed.”
Not that Nicholas’ college coaches (or the pandemic) would have allowed it. He graduated from La Costa Canyon in 2020, but due to the pandemic didn’t play his first game until 2021.
“If you know Ozzie, it would have been a fight every day that we would have given him modified workouts,” Princeton coach Bob Surace said with a laugh. “Ozzie does not do modified workouts.”
A never-timid Tiger
By the time Nicholas ed the Princeton football team, he was healthy and ready to contribute to the Tigers. As a first-year player, that meant primarily playing on special teams.
“That was also good for his maturity,” Surace said. “He missed a lot of time in his development in high school, and all the freshmen had missed that fall. So he was almost three years behind from a mental standpoint. He got a chance to shake the rust off on special teams, and he was unbelievable in his ability to impact kickoffs and punt (coverage).”
Nicholas’ time at Princeton mirrored his arc at LCC. In his first year, he worked his way onto the defense in special packages. The next year, he was primed to break out.
And break out he did. Nicholas helped Princeton to an 8-2 record in 2022 and led what was one of the most stingy defenses in the Football Championship Subdivision, allowing just 13.5 points per game. He recorded 75 tackles, picked off a , and forced three fumbles.
That was only a prelude to a sensational 2023 in which Nicholas made 104 tackles, 4.5 sacks, and seven quarterback hurries. His outstanding individual production earned Nicholas FCS All- America recognition and made him a fan favorite — including in Surace’s home.
“In my 15 years as head coach at Princeton, my wife (Lisa’s) favorite player is Ozzie,” Surace said. “I would drive home with her and she would say, ‘That Ozzie Nicholas, he is such a great young man.’ I would always tease him, ‘I can never yell at you because you can do no wrong in my wife’s eyes.’”
At the same time, Surace recognized Nicholas’ exceptional talent. The Princeton coach said he held Nicholas to a “higher standard” in part because he sees the linebacker as having NFL potential.
Holmes, who has extensive experience training NFL players, says Nicholas “looks the part” of a pro. It helps, the trainer said, that Nicholas has the mentality that is necessary to make that leap.
“Sometimes our college athletes would train with our professional guys, and the professionals are very picky about which college kids they’ll allow (to work out with them),” Holmes said. “That’s never the reaction to Ozzie. Every time I see that kid, I feel like he’s gotten faster, I feel like he’s gotten bigger. He es the eye test, and that’s a compliment to the strength and conditioning programs he’s been in at Princeton and now at Duke.”
Attending both Princeton and Duke also provides Nicholas with an academic résumé few in any walk of life can match. While Nicholas’ immediate goal is the NFL, his college background will open countless doors.
“I’m lucky enough to have a lot of great connections from the Princeton football alumni network,” he said. “I had two internships in commercial real estate at Princeton that I really enjoyed and met some amazing people. And I’m excited for the people that I’ll meet here at Duke beyond football.”
Nicholas still has plenty of football ahead of him, though. And as Nicholas’ high school coach can attest, this linebacker was made to play football.
