Spartan's journey ends far from the pocket

This was not what Keith Nichol envisioned coming out of high school. Far from it. He saw himself throwing touchdown passes in Norman, Okla., perhaps winning a national championship with the Oklahoma Sooners, not catching Hail Mary passes and making tackles on special teams in East Lansing, Mich. The rocky, but rewarding ride will end for Michigan State's fifth-year senior Jan. 2, when the Spartans face Georgia in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla. Because of his versatility, Nichol was able to reinvent himself as a football player when the quarterback dream fell apart. Nichol was one of the nation's top dual-threat QBs coming out of Lowell High School, near Grand Rapids, Mich., in 2007. Scout.com ranked him as a four-star prospect and the No. 22 quarterback nationally. After making a verbal commitment to Michigan State, Nichol changed his mind when former coach John L. Smith got fired. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops then traveled to Lowell in a private jet, made a strong pitch and Nichol ended up a Sooner. He enrolled early, in the spring of '07, and competed with Sam Bradford for the starting quarterback position. Bradford, a redshirt freshman at the time, won the job and went on to become the Heisman Trophy winner in 2008 and the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft in 2010. Nichol? He transferred to Michigan State, sat out the 2008 season, lost another quarterback competition during the '09 season to Kirk Cousins and switched to receiver for his final two years. From Oklahoma quarterback to Michigan State receiver, not the most predictable journey, that's for sure. "I think anybody who's played quarterback will say they miss having the ball in their hands every single play," Nichol said, reflecting on his roller-coaster career. "As a competitor, you like to control the football and control the game. "But I can get certain things out of playing wide receiver that I couldn't do at quarterback. Making big plays down the field, being physical, getting on special teams, being much more a part of the entire team than just the quarterback aspect. "There's ups and downs to both sides. I've enjoyed the process, enjoyed playing both positions. To say I miss quarterback, that's not true. I enjoy playing wide receiver a lot. I just like doing whatever it takes to succeed and to win games." Coach Mark Dantonio appreciates Nichol's selflessness. "He sacrificed incredibly for this football team," Dantonio said. "He's the model for our team in terms of sacrifice and commitment." In the end, Nichol was rewarded. He got more publicity out of two plays this season at receiver than some quarterbacks get throughout their entire careers. First, he caught the desperation heave from Cousins for the winning touchdown on the final play against Wisconsin in October. The ball deflected off teammate B.J. Cunningham's face mask straight to Nichol, who used his size and strength (6-foot-2, 220 pounds) to push his body barely across the goal line. Then, in the Big Ten championship game, he made the memorable, risky lateral to Cunningham, as Nichol was about to get pushed out of bounds. It helped Michigan State take the lead on Wisconsin, only to have the Badgers rally in the final minutes. Like the big catch several weeks earlier, the lateral was one of that day's most popular highlights seen around the country. "If I ever did that in practice, they'd (the coaches) never give me the ball again," Nichol said of unplanned flip to Cunningham that turned into a touchdown. "They gave me that look like, 'Great play, but don't ever do that again.' " As for the Hail Mary, Nichol has mixed emotions. "It will be a fun moment to look back on and say, 'Hey, man, it was a great play, it's still on TV 20 years later,' " he said. "But it's tough because that game didn't really mean anything. Huge moment, but at the end of the season, that's not the game that won the Big Ten title or the one that sent us to the Rose Bowl. "I would have much rather had that moment in the last game. In the grand scheme of things, it really didn't matter that much." It did to Michigan State fans at the time. During the past couple of years, they have embraced Nichol after once despising him for de-committing from Michigan State. "People have kind of gone full circle on me a little bit," Nichol said. "They felt as bitter about me as possible, and they've come around. I've felt a lot of love from all the fans around here." Nichol doesn't care to the play "What if?" game at this point. But what if he had come to Michigan State straight out of high school rather than using up a year of eligibility by playing in three games (against North Texas, Utah State and Tulsa) and throwing seven passes as a true freshman, third-string quarterback at Oklahoma in 2007? "This is where I belonged the whole time," said Nichol, who has 22 receptions for 299 yards and two touchdowns this season in 13 games. "I was always supposed to be a Michigan State Spartan." At the same time, Nichol insists he has no regrets. "I learned a lot at Oklahoma and through the whole process," he said. "It really made me mature and learn a lot of things, not take certain things for granted. "Oklahoma molded me into the kind of player I am now. Michigan State has further molded me into the play I am. "I'm very appreciative of the entire experience. I wouldn't say to every kid, you should do it the way I did. It was a very challenging road. The best part is finishing it out as a Michigan State Spartan." A couple weeks ago, Nichol went through the graduation ceremony. He has received a degree in supply chain management. When he was greeted by university president Lou Anna K. Simon, like every other graduate during the ceremony, she took a moment to try to pick him up after the heartbreaking loss in the Big Ten title game. "Great job in the game," Simon told him. "We're proud of you. We're going to go out there and get them next time." Said Nichol: "That was a great moment. If the president of the university is proud of us, then I'm proud of myself, too." Nichol flipped the tassel on his graduation cap to the left, as is tradition, but his career isn't over just yet. One more game. Who knows, maybe even one more Hail Mary.