ANN ARBOR - Dom Nichols doesn’t just look at the schedule and see opponents. He sees quarterbacks.
For Michigan’s edge rusher, the list starts with Oklahoma’s John Mateer, who is set to bring the No. 11 Sooners into Michigan Stadium on Saturday, Sept.
- Mateer is the same quarterback who lit up the Wolverines for 344 yards and three touchdowns in a win last season, and Nichols is already locked in on the rematch.
“Yeah,” Nichols said Tuesday night, Sept. 8 after practice, when asked if he has quarterbacks on the schedule circled. “This is one of them.”
He didn’t stop there.
“He’s not getting away from me,” Nichols said.
Nichols, who made his first start in last Saturday’s season opener against Western Michigan, turned in one of the few bright spots in a rough day for Michigan. He finished with nine tackles, tied for second on the team, along with 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
That kind of production fits the expectations that had been building around him all offseason. Coaches and teammates had been saying Nichols was ready for a breakout, and the opener backed that up.
Left tackle Blake Frazier didn’t hold back when talking about him.
“Dom is a psycho,” Frazier said recently. “That dude's going to terrorize people.”
Nichols said he spent the offseason preparing for a bigger role, pouring energy into film study and the weight room so he’d be ready when his chance came. He said the motivation was simple: make sure he didn’t waste the reps when they finally arrived.
The Oklahoma game also carries some extra weight for him. Nichols had limited snaps in last season’s loss at Oklahoma, but he still made his presence felt with four tackles, including one for loss, plus a quarterback hurry. The memory of that game has stayed with him.
“I definitely feel a certain way about this game,” Nichols said. “Just watching the older dudes last year and how they felt after having to take that one to the chin, that definitely sits with me still.”
Nichols has made it clear he sees Mateer as more than just another quarterback on the slate.
“He’s a game changer," Nichols said.
“He's good with the football, and he's a smart guy,” Nichols said. “He's a fifth-year dude.
He knows what he's doing out there. He's got experience.
He's a good football player.”
That confidence in Nichols is showing up everywhere around the program. Safety and captain Rod Moore said he’s seen a player who has changed himself physically and mentally, and he pointed to the daily work Nichols puts in.
“Dom is a different cat,” Moore said after Tuesday’s practice. “I've seen him grow mentally, physically.
That kid has changed his body completely. The way that he attacks, he's in here working every day.
I'm in here probably more than everybody because I don't have classes, and I see Dom in here working out, walking around with a weighted vest on.
“Just mentally, physically, he’s taking the team to the next step, and he's being a leader. Like he's actually being vocal, and you see it on Saturday.
Like the work that you put in here each and every day, especially over the summer and in the off season, it pays off. The way he played, he maybe had two sacks and was just all over the field creating havoc, that's what we love in the back end.”
Nichols was happy to hear it.
“I have no problem being called that, just because the way I carry myself on the field,” Nichols said. “It's the only time you're allowed to hit somebody, playing football.
So why not act like that when you out there? You're allowed to.
So, that's what I do.”
Asked how he’d describe himself, Nichols smiled through it.
“Depends on the day,” Nichols said. “When I'm out there, I am pretty energetic, a little bit crazy.”
Edge rushers coach Lewis Powell sees a player with uncommon traits in the mix of power, size, athleticism and strength.
“I'm not sure if I've ever coached somebody like him,” Powell said Wednesday, Sept. 9. “He's a special player.”
And now Nichols gets the stage he’s been waiting for. Michigan has already taken its share of criticism after the Western Michigan game and fell out of the AP poll, but Nichols sounded more focused on what comes next than on outside noise.
“Yeah, I mean, not that any of that matters, but yeah, like you see stuff like that, and you're like, damn, they did write us off,” Nichols said. “But that's all right.
It’s Week 1. You just got to keep loving your brothers, and everything will come together.”
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