Monday, August 18, 2003

By Mike White, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

One in a series on top high school football players in the WPIAL and City League.

Rory Nicol had 12 receptions last season. Multiply his catches by three and that's about how many Division I colleges have offered Nicol a scholarship.

A senior at Beaver High School, Nicol is a prime example of how college coaches couldn't care less about a player's high school statistics. The numbers they care about are height, weight, time in the 40-yard dash and grade-point average. Those are areas where Nicol has impressive statistics.

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Nicol is 6 feet 5, 243 pounds. He runs the 40-yard dash anywhere from 4.7 to 4.8 seconds, which is good for a high school tight end with Nicol's size. In track and field, he has run the 110-meter hurdles in 15.8 seconds and also finished third in the discus at the WPIAL Class AA championships this past spring. On top of that, he has a 3.7 grade-point average.

Put it all together, and it's easy to see why colleges believe this Nicol is worth a lot.

Nicol has scholarship offers from colleges across the country, including Florida State and defending national champion Ohio State. But Nicol's top three choices are Pitt, Penn State and Tennessee. Next in line are Ohio State, Virginia and North Carolina. He is Beaver's best college prospect in at least 25 years.

"The schools recruiting me say they like me because I'm a complete tight end," Nicol said. "I'm not just a receiving tight end. I can catch the ball when it's thrown to me, but they think I'm a pretty darn good blocker."

Scouting services also think highly of Nicol. Super Prep ranks him the No. 3 tight end in the country while Rivals100.com ranks him No. 4.

"When people actually have a chance to see the kid's physical ability, the number of catches doesn't come up any more," Beaver Coach Jeff Beltz said.

There were a few good reasons why Nicol didn't catch the ball much last year. First off, Beaver had a talented receiver in Lance Fink, and it was Nicol's first season as a starting tight end.

"Lance Fink is the all-time leading receiver at Beaver and he did a remarkable job," Beltz said. "Plus, it was a maturing process for Rory at tight end. But in terms of college recruiters, they see how he's a dominant blocker at the line of scrimmage. Those guys are rare."

With Fink gone, Beltz expects his team to use Nicol more in the passing game. Nicol also will play outside linebacker. He was second on the team in tackles last year with 68 and had 4 1/2 sacks and two interceptions.

Nicol has changed greatly since his freshman year at Beaver when he was a 6-2, 198-pound quarterback-safety on the ninth-grade team.

"Where I play now is a lot more fun. It's like night and day from quarterback and safety," Nicol said. "Now I get to light people up. It's just more fun to get after it rather than hand the ball off to someone, run over to the sideline and get the next play."

Beltz calls Nicol "an old-fashioned, blue-collar type of kid." This is a kid who got some of his brawn lifting bales of hay at his uncle's farm in Chippewa.

"We made 10,000 bales of hay this summer," Nicol said. "I would work out in the morning and get done about noon. Then I'd work in the afternoon at the farm. It was like a double workout."

Nicol is still trying to work out the college thing in his mind, although he said he probably won't make a decision until after the season. His father, Robert, a Beaver linebacker in the late 1960s, works for US Airways, so Nicol was able to take some free plane rides to colleges this summer. He has been to North Carolina, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Syracuse, West Virginia, Pitt and Penn State.

Earlier in the summer, he said Penn State topped the list. Now he's not so sure.

"Some things have happened," Nicol said. "I still like Penn State a lot, but I've decided that I want to take some official visits to some colleges. I'm probably not going to take those visits until December. Then I'll decide."

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