The Huskies will have a couple of official visitors in town this weekend when they host Colorado, but they’ll also have an unofficial visitor from California by the name of Austin Nicholas.
Nicholas, who actually goes by the nickname “Ozzie”, spoke to Realdawg.com over the weekend about what he’s been hearing from Washington.
The 6-1 1/2, 225 inside linebacker was initially noticed by Husky coaches the past summer at the Redlands Camp in California, “Coach Gregory told me that they were interested and he was going to keep in touch with me”, Nicholas said, “I talk with Coach Pao the most.”
The Huskies haven’t offered yet but Nicholas will be on the sidelines this Saturday and hopes to gain further insight into what the Huskies’ level of interest is.
He’s already offered by Cal, Arizona State, and Washington State, and has been having a solid junior season. His team is 6-1 and, while he doesn’t have his exact stats, Nicholas is racking up some impressive numbers in the sack department. Interesting enough, however, is the fact that pass-rushing isn’t even his strongest suit.
“Defending the run game…pressing in on gaps and getting into the backfield”, he said of his strengths on the field, “I feel I’m a good third-down pass-rusher and I have good hands — but my real strength is stopping the run.”
The scouting report on Nicholas is that he’s a very hard-nosed, hard-working player who brings his lunch pale to the job site and gets it done. His upside is strong and it’s still quite early in the process.
While Nicholas says he won’t be taking in any combines this spring (that he knows of yet), he’s very interested in getting out more and seeing schools unofficially.
Right now he’s not ranked or rated by any of the networks, but he’s the kind of kid who doesn’t seem so concerned with that as he is with just making sure he picks the right school to continue his education and football career.
“Washington is 100% one of my top five schools”, he said, “I’ve always thought about how I’d love to go up there — they have a great program.”
Nicholas is also a very good friend of Husky commit, Asa Turner, “We met at the Under Armor All America camp and have become good friends”, he said.
This weekend he’ll be accompanied by both parents, and he’s been to Seattle before — but he’s also going to get to see his older sister, “She’s a freshman at University of Washington”, he said.
This is definitely a guy to keep an eye on going into the next recruiting cycle of 2020, and we’ll continue to keep track of his progress in the months ahead.
