Mike Nixon has taken his fair share of ribbing as the elder statesman of the ASU football team.

Even as a 22-year-old freshman, the now-senior linebacker was older than most of his teammates.

“Old Man” and “Grandpa Mike” are a of few of the barbs that have been slung his way.

But for all the monikers that have been bestowed upon Nixon, only one matters: Captain.

“Of all the seniors, and they are all good, Mike has been a leader both on and off the football field,” ASU coach Erickson said. “What he does in the classroom, what he’s done for Arizona State — he’s a spokesman.”

There is no doubt the senior has been the unquestioned leader of the team, always one to face the media regardless of the outcome of a game.

Though he spent four years away from gridiron after high school pursuing a professional baseball career in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm system, Nixon was only slightly reticent about returning to the football field.

“I think you never know how things are going to work out when you step into a new situation,” he said. “One of the things to being a leader is you’ve got to prove it on and off the field, so when you first get here and you haven’t proven much, it’s tough to step in and be a leader right away.”

But Nixon did become a leader almost immediately, just as he had as a star quarterback at Sunnyslope High School in Phoenix, where he was also the team’s best defender, kicker and punter.

He excelled at basketball and baseball, too, and was, as he is now, a superior student.

After deciding that he didn’t want spend years bouncing around the minor league system, hoping to one day get the call up, Nixon returned home, returned to football and returned to the competition he had missed in the years since his high school days.

The experiences he underwent as a minor leaguer — the lengthy travels, the less-than luxurious accommodations, the time spent away from family and friends — made his time at ASU something, Nixon said, he tried to never take for granted.

Watching him roam the field the past four years, it’s clear he didn’t.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been around [a player] like him,” Erickson said. “He’s a great leader. I can’t say enough good things about him. Of all the guys I’ve coached, he’s been one of the most pleasant to be
around.

As a junior, Nixon was tied for first in the Pac-10 with five interceptions, led ASU in tackles (90) and was an All-Pac-10 honorable mention.

This season has been more of the same. Nixon leads the team in tackles (65), and in the Sun Devils’ season opener against Idaho State, he had an out-of-this-world performance that included three interceptions, a forced fumble and a blocked punt.

The picks, like many of the seemingly countless big plays Nixon has made in his career, were not feats of jaw-dropping athleticism — defensive coordinator Craig Bray has often joked that Nixon “waddles” around the field — but were instead testaments to the linebacker’s intelligent approach to a complex game.

“He’s so smart, and he understands the game better than most coaches,” Erickson said. “He’s a coach on the field.”

Nixon has been instrumental in helping to shape the future of the linebacker corps at ASU.

The young trio of Shelly Lyons (sophomore), Brandon Magee (sophomore) and Vontaze Burfict (freshman) out of Corona, Calif., are better prepared for the future, they said, because of Nixon’s presence on the field.

“Mike Nixon played a big role in me just learning how to play football really,” Magee said. “I had the physical stage of it, but the mental takes a lot of work, so he helped me a lot. A lot.”

The advice he gives goes beyond the sidelines.

“I talk to him about girls, about life,” Magee said. “He’s my roommate [in the hotel before games], so we have a lot of time to talk.”

Nixon’s success on the field and off — he is a finalist for the Wuerffel Trophy, an award given to a player who best exemplifies athletic and academic performance in addition to service in the community — has been the result, teammates and coaches say, of never doing anything halfway.

“There is nobody better than him,” Erickson said in terms of Nixon’s impact.

Work ethic goes a long way, particularly when combined with Mensa-type smarts and a competitive drive that rivals that of any player in the program’s history.

Nixon hasn’t spent much time wondering if he’ll be selected in next April’s NFL draft. He’ll be 27 when the combine starts, far from the age most rookies begin their careers in the league.

One thing is for sure: Nixon’s options won’t be scarce.

“Right now if my playing career is done, then I’m leaning toward going to law school,” said Nixon, who this year became the first Sun Devil to earn three straight ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-District VIII honors. “One way or another I’d like to tie it back into sports, whether it be working for a team or on the other side with an agency.”

His coach thinks he may have an even higher calling.

“He’s going to be successful in whatever he does,” Erickson said. “He might be a senator or a judge, or he might be the President of the United States. He’ll make sure we get good social security.”

It would be hard to put it past Captain Mike.