Deatrick Nichols | East | CB | USF

Let’s start things off with a hometown player, one of the USF Bulls who will be down in St. Pete for the East-West Shrine Game.

Nichols was a player that was on NFL teams’ radars last year as well. He was a four-year player and a three-year starter for the Bulls since his freshman season. Nichols has 11 career interceptions, 15 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles, 174 tackles and even returned one of his turnovers for a touchdown during his first year as a starter.

At 5-foot-10, 185 pounds, Nichols would be a “smaller corner” by most Bucs fans’ accounts – even though 5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11 is right around the average for an NFL cornerback. Nichols has some shutdown traits, but isn’t as gifted physically as an outside cornerback a team would take high in the draft. However, he’s not afraid to come up and lay a hit on a ball carrier, and he is pesky with offensive players when the ball is in the air and with physicality, though he is smaller.

How he matches up against some of the bigger receivers at the Shrine practices will be a make-or-break for him.