Grad Transfer Linebackers Fitting In with Blue Devils
David Shumate, GoDuke The Magazine
This interview originally appeared in the 16.3 issue of GoDuke The Magazine - October 2024
In this Q&A from the October 2024 issue of GoDuke The Magazine, David Shumate sat down with graduate transfer linebackers Ozzie Nicholas and Alex Howard.
David Shumate: I want to start in the way-back machine and see if you could tell me how a California kid ends up playing football on the East coast (at Princeton) in the cold?
Ozzie Nicholas: (laughing) Yeah, you know, it wasn’t something I thought a whole lot about. My initial plans were not to really go over there, especially in the Ivy League. I was lucky enough to get those offers early on because I had good grades and things like that. I suffered two ACL injuries in high school, and I was kind of reevaluating my football career path and how that would go and that led me to look towards the Ivy’s, you know, for one of the best educations in the country.
I didn’t think about really the geological differences or how much snow I was going to get and how different it would be. I just kind of said, “You know, I want to get a really great education.” It just kind happened overnight almost, so yeah, it was pretty simple.
DS: I do want to ask you about your time at Princeton. By the end, you’re an FCS All-American. You’re obviously a good tackler, you’re a very physical player. Being on the East coast, being with that group, did it harden you? Did it toughen you? What was that experience like?
ON: Oh, for sure, that’s a great observation. I mean, especially Jersey guys — they pride themselves on being gritty, the grit’s a big thing, especially my guy Liam Johnson, my other linebacker at Princeton. He’s the grittiest guy I know. Hard-working. They may lack a little bit of emotion, a little bit of that, you know, softer side. But when you’re playing football and you’re trying to get better you don’t need any of that. Those guys, they just seem to work hard and really are just gritty. Gritty is the perfect word. I don’t really know the exact definition, but I think that really got instilled in me over my four years there.
DS: Let’s talk about the decision to come to Duke. You were highly sought after in the portal and I know you said with the coaching change and everything going on here, Duke was a little bit late to the party. But Coach Diaz and his staff obviously won you over. How’d they do it?
ON: Well, I think they called me within their first week in the office. It was really late, and I was waiting on a couple schools to kind of come through on me, and luckily, I wasn’t committed yet. They called me with every coach in the room and passed around the phone and said how much they liked my film, and it was obvious that they seemed to care about me and seemed to have really, really been excited about me. So, I planned the visit and was like hell yeah, let’s do it. I’ve always known Duke is a great school and I obviously talked to some people and the things that people say about Coach Diaz are nothing but amazing things.
Of course, Coach Patke (the defensive coordinator) was a big part of it as well. I did some research on him, and he’s done amazing things too. So, those two were really a massive reason why I came here. I wanted to play in this defense which has had so much success, especially at the linebacker position. Once I came and got a feel for the team, the family aspect and everything, it was kind of a no-brainer. It seemed to just be a perfect fit.
DS: You mentioned fit, everyone talks about that in terms of the personality, getting to know the coaches and things like that, but there’s also fit on the stat sheet. When you saw the TFLs at Texas State for Coach Patke, obviously at Penn State and at Miami with Coach Diaz, how much did the stats and what they’d done previously play into that?
ON: That was huge. I mean, that was the easiest thing to find before I even looked at any film. It was all about the stats and, you know, it’s something completely new to me. They play a little bit differently, a little bit more aggressive than I did at Princeton. I played in an amazing defense at Princeton, but this one is completely different, and it’s really cool to be able to learn two totally different techniques and styles of playing linebackers. So, I think it’s really bettered my game to kind of expand my skillset.
DS: Learning a new campus, learning a new scheme, new staff, new team, everything like that can be tricky. How much was that helped by the fact that you have another newcomer in your room, Alex Howard, who’s going through the same experience coming to a new school from the FCS ranks? I imagine that had to help.
ON: Yeah, Alex is my boy. Ever since day one during camp we were in the same hotel room and yeah, he’s got the grit. He’s an Ohio guy so he’s a hard worker and an extremely talented football player. Just being able to talk through everything — he helps me when I’m out there and I help him — we’re able to work through learning this new defense together and when you have other great linebackers besides you that’s the dream. Having Cam (Bergeron), Tre (Freeman) and Alex and hopefully soon Nick (Morris), having a linebacker core like this is extremely important for everyone, and especially for me, because, selfishly, they push me to be better and I’m very grateful to have a lot of really great linebackers around me.
DS: I know it’s hard to go big picture, but expectations versus reality. You guys have a great record with obviously a lot of games still in front of you. But coming here, I would imagine you had dreams or expectations of what it could be like competing for an ACC title. What’s it like to play at this level for you and know that you guys have a chance to really do something special?
ON: To play at this level individually, it’s kind of the same thing for me, to be completely honest. Football’s football, you know. The guys are a little bit faster, but it’s the same thing. I don’t feel like I’ve had to change anything physically. If anything, it’s a mental switch just because the mental aspect of this level of football definitely goes up.
That UNC game was awesome, even Georgia Tech, they filled up that stadium. So, it’s very exciting to be part of these games. It really juices me up, I love the pressure, I love the big moment. It’s really cool. I think that this team really has just great potential to really do something special.
David Shumate: Before we talk about the decision to come here and play, I don’t know if you’ve heard Coach Diaz talk about this, but one of the reasons you popped for him is he saw you at Youngstown State and everything you were doing. How cool is that to hear high-level coaches like him talk about seeing you when you’re playing in the FCS ranks?
Alex Howard: It’s just cool, I mean, it was my Youngstown State film. I played against Ohio State, so I’m sure he saw it was when he was at Penn State. When I entered the portal, almost every coach showed me my Ohio State film. That’s all I heard was just them saying I was a baller. They noted I could run fast and that I could play at any level.
DS: A lot of people don’t realize, and before we talk about the decision to transfer, Youngstown State is one of those programs over the years that’s been really at a high level in the FCS ranks. Tell me about your experience there and how that’s made you the player that you are right now.
AH: It started a little slow, I had a lot of injuries in my first few years, but then once I started to learn the defense and started to play, each year just got better and better. My stats just doubled and tripled and then I got to the point where I was like, I need to go up and play bigger.
DS: I know your path was a little bit unusual coming here to Duke, you spent some time at Texas A&M before you ultimately landed here. Tell me about that process specifically getting to know Manny Diaz and the defensive staff and making sure that this was going to be the right fit for you.
AH: Once I saw the defense, it was the right fit because this is a similar defense to the one I played in at Youngstown State. At A&M it was different. So, once I entered the portal again and I saw this defense and I already knew about Manny Diaz and how his defense is about getting vertical, making a lot of plays in the backfield, at that point I knew it was a done deal.
DS: Obviously, he and Jonathan Patke have a very longstanding relationship. They seem like brilliant football minds. I’m curious what’s it like to be in the meeting room with Coach Patke but also picking Coach Diaz’s brain as well?
AH: I like it a lot. During camp Coach Patke had his baby, so Coach Diaz was in there with us one day and it was just crazy to have him coach us and just go through things and then see what he wants. Then there is just the day-to-day with Coach Patke. He just lets us communicate with him and pick his brain on what we see and what we need help on. It’s a completely open dialogue and I think he loves that too.
DS: So often when you see defensive schemes, it feels like they’re reacting to what the offense is doing. With the speed you guys play with and as aggressively as you guys play, it feels like you’re dictating the terms on the field. Is that fair? How much fun is that, to play in a scheme like that?
AH: I would say it’s probably half and half. Sometimes, yes, we just go because we want to get in that backfield and just create negative plays. But it’s very fun. I love playing in the backfield. I love getting sacks and TFLs — those plays just hype the crowd up.
DS: It’s easy to look at it because you guys came in at similar times, but what about you and Ozzie going through the same experience transferring? Obviously, you guys are at or near the top of the sheet in terms of tackles and TFLs for the team — what’s your relationship like?
AH: He and I, we were in the hotel together during camp, so every day we were just with each other all day. We talked about the defense, how camp was here and things like that. So, it definitely made our brotherhood pretty strong. We’re definitely pretty good friends and we just love communicating on the field too.
DS: Speaking of that brotherhood, the linebacker room in particular, normally when you see schemes the linebackers are who they are, you don’t see a lot of guys repping or a ton of substituting. Some of this is because of injuries for you guys, but the variety of guys you can put out there — whether that’s Tre, whether that’s Cam, we’ve seen Kendall (Johnson), I mean just on down the list — how cool is that for you to be a part of a group that’s seeing six, seven guys on the field?
AH: It’s really cool. It gives us a chance to just make plays and then just be happy for each other. We just love going out there and just doing that. We can be very versatile with whoever’s out there. It could be a different three every single series.
DS: When you look at what you guys have done defensively leading the country in TFLs, and we could go through all the stats — what do you think has allowed this defense to be so successful, even though it’s a new scheme in a first year with Coach Diaz?
AH: Just how hungry the whole defense is. Just our front seven, everybody wants to make plays. But we do it by doing our job and then just getting TFLs and sacks. That’s what we harp on every day.
DS: You have the second half of the season coming up now. When you look down the road, what’s it going to take to have similar success to what guys were able to accomplish through the first half?
AH: Just the same thing we’ve been doing every day — holding our standard up, bringing people to the sewer and just grinding.
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