Jim M. Nichols is American college administrator and former football coach. He was the first head football coach at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama, leading the Faulkner Eagles in its first two seasons of play, 2007 and 2008. Nichols was hired at Faulkner in 2006 following three seasons as a graduate assistant at Auburn University, where he worked under head football coach Tommy Tuberville. Nichols was born in Camden, Arkansas and grew up in Searcy, Arkansas, where he went to Searcy High School and graduated from Harding University.