Warm welcome Nichol in the running for OU's starting quarterback position as a true freshman Warm welcome Nichol in the running for OU's starting quarterback position as a true freshman
By Berry Tramel
Published: June 11, 2007
The NCAA restored freshman eligibility in 1972, and in those 35 years, Oklahoma's Jamelle Holieway remains the only true freshman to quarterback a team to the national championship.
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It's gotten harder and harder for a yearling quarterback to excel on the college gridiron. Tricked-up defenses, mysterious coverages, complicated offenses. Freshmen heads swivel so much, they need an exorcist.
But it's also gotten easier and easier for a yearling quarterback, because most hit campus so well prepped. High school offenses rarely are elementary, and conditioning improvements have turned 18-year-olds into chiseled men.
Which brings us to Kid Nichol, the early-entry OU freshman who will challenge Sam Bradford and Joey Halzle for the quarterback job.
Is Nichol ready for prime time? Could he start the very first Sooner game he lays his eyes on?
Not likely. Redshirt freshman Sam Bradford's four-month head start should give him the Sept. 1 starting nod. After that, of course, it's a horserace.
Sooner skipper Bob Stoops is torn on whether it's easier or tougher than ever for a freshman quarterback to shove his way to playing time.
"They're developed further along in high school” at Lowell, Mich., Stoops said. "Keith's been developed in a great way.”
Stoops was about to talk himself into easier. Then he thought about it.
"In a way, defenses are much more complex,” Stoops said. "So it's harder than ever to play quarterback at the collegiate level, even I'm sure at the high school level. The NFL level as well.
"Anymore, playing quarterback just gets harder and harder. But they do come in more prepared. Physically ... mentally, and coming in early, like Keith did, getting an extra semester, gives them more opportunity, gives them a better chance.”
The Sooners are loaded almost everywhere but QB. Stoops doesn't need a difference-maker at quarterback. He just needs a guy who can make a few plays and very few mistakes.
"When you come into a team that has so much experience back, that also gives them a chance,” Stoops said of freshmen.
In Division I-A last season, only six true freshmen started the majority of a school's games, according to Rivals: Georgia's Matthew Stafford, Kansas State's Josh Freeman, Duke's Thaddeus Lewis, Illinois' Juice Williams, Arkansas' Mitch Mustain and Ball State's Nate Davis.
Those six combined to go 22-30 as starters. Only Lewis and Mustain had more touchdown passes than interceptions, and Mustain has transferred to Southern Cal.
The Sooners have started only three true freshmen quarterbacks since 1972: Troy Aikman went 0-1 in 1984, Holieway went 8-0 in 1985 and Cale Gundy went 3-2 in 1990.
But redshirt freshmen regularly have started at quarterback. Charles Thompson, Rhett Bomar, Justin Fuente, Steve Collins, Eric Moore. The list is long.
That extra year makes a big difference. But Nichol came to campus in January and went through spring ball. Bradford has a jump only of last autumn. Significant, but not insurmountable.
Some of the nation's biggest football factories have trotted out true freshmen quarterbacks this decade. Michigan's Chad Henne, Tennessee's Erik Ainge, Notre Dame's Brady Quinn.
Chances are, sometime in the 2007 season, the Sooners will, too.
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Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford seems to have the inside track to start for the Sooners when the season opens this fall. THE STEVE SISNEY, THE OKLAHOMAN
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