Most Important People #13 – Nigel Nicholas

Photo Attribution: Icon SMI

Who he is: He came in as a tight end from Georgia (is Georgia becoming our new recruiting pipeline?) before switching to defensive tackle his first year. I’ll always remember him as “the guy who tried to end Ryan Broyles’ life seconds after the most amazing football play in school history” (see 0:07 mark below), you might remember him as an average to above-average defensive tackle.

What he does: He only had 26 tackles and 2 sacks last year but that’s fine with me as long as he’s clogging up the middle and not letting teams run between the tackles while they open up the outside. Bill Young sounds like he’s all in on the guy so I don’t see any reason for us not to be either. I even tabbed him as one of the five players OSU can least afford to lose.

Where he fits in: DT has long been a sore subject for lifelong Cowboy fans. When’s the last time we had a good one? Kevin Williams? We usually see it as the main reason our defense sucks and as such the catalyst for all the losses our football team endures (we have the best offense in the country, if we just had a D…!!). Nicholas and Christian Littlehead have a real chance to reverse that this year. Of course I think we say that almost every August. We mean it this time though!

Why he matters: Our DTs lost the game against Nebraska, I really believe that. They made Taylor Martinez look like an Archie Manning offspring because he didn’t get touched while visiting the state of Oklahoma last year. That has to change, and it starts with this guy.

Bill Young says of Nicholas, “We’re looking for him to have a tremendous year.”

We are too.

This post is part of our series on the 20 most important people to a 2011 Oklahoma State title run. Check the full list out here.