’Canes expected to hire Nicholson as LBs coach

The Miami Hurricanes’ 2023 staff appears to be nearly complete.

Miami is expected to hire Derek Nicholson to be the program’s new linebackers coach, a source told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Nicholson will take over for Charlie Strong, who left the program last week.

Nicholson spent the past three seasons as Louisville’s inside linebackers coach under Scott Satterfield. Nicholson followed Satterfield from Louisville to Cincinnati before the Hurricanes poached him from Satterfield’s staff. Satterfield was UM coach Mario Cristobal’s offensive coordinator for two seasons at Florida International.

Nicholson, 36, has seven seasons of experience coaching linebackers, having spent three seasons as the Cardinals’ inside linebackers coach, two seasons as the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Southern Mississippi, a season as an outside linebackers coach at Louisville, and a season as the Akron linebackers coach. He has also coached defensive linemen at Alcorn State and Southern Miss.

Louisville had the No. 11 defense in the nation last year, surrendering 19.2 points per game. The Cardinals were 40th in run defense, 22nd against the pass, 24th in yards allowed per game, seventh in tackles for loss, and tied for third in takeaways.

Louisville excelled in the pass rush, leading the nation with 50 sacks. Cardinals linebackers accounted for 23 of those sacks.

Nicholson, who was a standout linebacker at Florida State, has also been a solid recruiter and has experience recruiting South Florida, helping pull Miami Central linebacker and four-star prospect Stanquan Clark to Louisville and three-star Miami Northwestern cornerback Rayquan Adkins in the most recent recruiting class.

Miami, which also hired Houston offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson as its offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on Tuesday, has two open positions on its staff: coaches for wide receivers, and running backs. Former offensive coordinator Josh Gattis coached receivers last season. And running backs coach Kevin Smith is leaving after one season to return to Ole Miss.

WILFREDO LEE/AP Miami coach Mario Cristobal calls out to players during the Hurricanes’ game against Middle Tennessee on Sept. 24. Cristobal is expected to hire former Louisville inside linebackers coach Derek Nicholson as UM’s new linebackers coach.