USC assistant football coach Dave Nichol dies at 45

By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California assistant football coach Dave Nichol died Friday in McKinney, Texas. He was 45. A person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that Nichol had cancer. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the cause of death wasn’t being publicly disclosed. USC head coach Lincoln Riley hired Nichol in December as his inside wide receivers coach and associate head coach for offense. Riley announced four days ago that Nichol was leaving the team to focus on an unspecified medical matter. Nichol was the inside receivers coach at Mississippi State for the past two seasons under Mike Leach. Before that, he spent four years at Washington State as a receivers coach under Leach.