The QB quandary Coaches are waiting for Nichol to step up Coaches are waiting for Nichol to step up
By John Helsley
Published: April 9, 2007
Bob Stoops knows what we want, Sooner fans, a tip on who's in line to get the nod behind center next season.
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Quarterback competitions that linger for months — this one extending through the hiatus of summer — offer little comfort to the crimson crowd. Not with Miami due in town early next fall and Mack Brown and the Longhorns on a Red River Shootout winning streak.
Yet, Stoops can't help you here.
He doesn't know.
Oh, Stoops has a notion about who's best now. But he and assistants Kevin Wilson and Josh Heupel want to see more — from Keith Nichol.
This spring in Soonerland may be sorting out a pecking order between Sam Bradford and Joey Halzle. And Bradford has been better, at least in the major public scrimmages.
But Nichol hasn't really weighed in, yet.
This spring for the recent high school hall-walker has called for a heavy diet of information, but in small portions. Playbook lite.
If Nichol makes the anticipated leap coaches are hoping for between now and August, he could restart the competition. There's still a sense that Nichol offers something special, that intangible of being a winner, to go along with playmaking skills that have yet to be fully on display.
"We hope all three of them are completely different players when they show up in August,” said Heupel, OU's quarterbacks coach. "But certainly, we feel like Keith has a lot of strides he can make.”
Heupel said he expects to see all advance physically. He and Stoops both alluded to the need for one or more of the quarterbacks to demonstrate command of not only the offense, but the huddle, and the locker room.
"I know everyone wants (a starter),” Stoops told us Saturday. "But what people have to realize, too, is that position has to be earned.”
Maybe we should take that as a hint into what's missing so far in this competition.
It's difficult to envision Nichol, a true freshman, rallying OU's veteran lineup and being ready to trot out and take on the 'Canes defense Sept. 8.
But don't count him out, either. OU's coaches aren't.
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