No Stump Speeches For Oklahoma Quarterbacks

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ One by one, Oklahoma's three candidates stepped to the podium and turned down an opportunity to state their case to be the team's next starting quarterback. <br/><br/>It's

Friday, August 3rd 2007, 3:33 pm

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ One by one, Oklahoma's three candidates stepped to the podium and turned down an opportunity to state their case to be the team's next starting quarterback.

It's not that Joey Halzle, Sam Bradford and Keith Nichol don't want the job. But they certainly don't want to rock the boat.

Halzle, the redshirt junior who's the oldest of the three, was the first to get asked why he thinks he deserves the job. His response: ``I don't really feel like I should say stuff about that.''

Bradford, the redshirt freshman, went next with his version of the refrain: ``That's really not for me to decide.''

The freshman Nichol's response was much the same: ``I can't really tell you why. I think that's really for the coaches to decide.''

The ritual was essentially meaningless. No matter what any of the three said, none was going to walk away with the starter's job based on his first performance in front of reporters and a line of video cameras. Sooners coach Bob Stoops shielded the signal-callers from reporters throughout the spring and he indicated during the team's media day Friday that they'd be off limits again while the competition continues this fall.

``They're smart, good guys and I know they're about the right things. It has nothing to do with anything else,'' Stoops said. ``I don't want them to have to worry about it. I just want them to concentrate fully on what they're to do, and that's be a teammate and quarterback and get yourself ready to play.''

Stoops and his staff plan to use a familiar formula to choose their starting quarterback. It'll be determined on the practice field, and the player who can be the most productive while limiting mistakes will emerge as the starter.

``They just have to do their job. They don't have to carry the team,'' Stoops said. ``I don't know that our style has ever been that way. It never has.''

The process has yielded four different quarterbacks who've led the Sooners to the Big 12 championship: Josh Heupel, Nate Hybl, Jason White and Paul Thompson. And Stoops sees it working so far.

``They're right where they ought to be. At this point, they're as good as any of those guys we've had as far as throwing the football, making the throws that we want and delivering the football,'' Stoops said.

Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said all three of the quarterbacks came in on essentially equal footing since none had any significant college experience.

Halzle, who came to the Sooners from a California junior college, has played only sparingly in two career games at Oklahoma. Bradford worked on the scout team while redshirting in his first season out of an Oklahoma City high school, and he had a head start of a few months when Nichol arrived in January after graduating early from his Michigan high school.

``I think that leadership is best coupled with performance, and he who performs at a high level can be a quality leader. Until they show their performance, it's going to be hard to say, `Hey, I'm the guy,''' Wilson said.

``Like I've told them too, it's the way you look, it's the way you act, it's the way you talk.''

On Friday, most of the talk was about teamwork and the trio remaining friends through the competition. And surprisingly, all three described a lack of pressure.

``I don't really feel too much pressure because it's just football,'' Halzle said. ``It's what we do, it's how we play. I try not to take it off the field. Once I get away from it, I get off the field, I'm done and I'm focused on something else.

``When we're on the field, I'm just thinking about defenses, thinking about my protections and where I'm going with the ball. You don't really have time to focus on who's watching this rep and let me make sure I throw the ball perfect. If you start doing that, then you start getting tight and then you're not making the throws that you can make.''

Wilson described Nichol as having a stronger arm than Halzle, but said it all evens out because Halzle makes quicker decisions before throwing the ball. Bradford said he considers himself ``kind of like Jason White, a dropback passer who likes to stay in the pocket. If I need to, I can make plays with my feet. I have good speed and am comfortable throwing on the run.''

``They're all quality, really good players. I don't know if we have one guy that's just a runner or one guy that needs to throw on the run or one guy that's a true pocket passer,'' Wilson said. ``They all exhibit the skills to move the pocket, they all have the ability to scramble and avoid.''

Stoops considers all three similar enough that the Sooners would employ the same game plan no matter who starts. And while he wouldn't rule out the possibility of using two quarterbacks, he said it would happen only if a decision hadn't been made and not as a strategical maneuver.

Ultimately, Wilson said the decision will come down to which quarterback the team can trust _ not who had the most touchdown drives in scrimmages or the best completion percentage in practice.

``The key will be the guy that plays within himself and allows the players around him to make plays will be the quarterback,'' Wilson said.