Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Cal LB Hardy Nickerson to join his father at Illinois

It’s a situation Abbott and Costello could appreciate. “Hey, did you hear Hardy Nickerson is headed to Illinois?”

“Yeah, I knew that a long time ago.”

“That’s impossible, he just announced it.”

“No, it was announced back on March 14. The 49ers’ linebackers coach, right?”

“No, the California linebacker.”

Nickerson the younger announced on his Twitter account Thursday he will join his father at Illinois, where he was hired last month as defensive coordinator. The pair was previously in close proximity; the son in Berkeley as a Golden Bears linebacker and the father in Santa Clara as the Niners’ linebackers coach.

Nickerson will graduate from California and receive immediate eligibility at Illinois.

A native of Oakland, Calif., Nickerson played for his father previously at Bishop O’Dowd High School.

He recorded 112 tackles and four sacks for California in 2015.