Jason White Will Start For Sooners

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Sophomore quarterback Jason White will start Saturday when No. 2 Oklahoma plays host to Baylor, coach Bob Stoops said Monday. <br><br>Junior Nate Hybl had started all six games for

Tuesday, October 16th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Sophomore quarterback Jason White will start Saturday when No. 2 Oklahoma plays host to Baylor, coach Bob Stoops said Monday.

Junior Nate Hybl had started all six games for the Sooners (6-0, 3-0 Big 12), but has failed to finish the past two. He was knocked out of the Texas game Oct. 6 with an injury to his left shoulder, then was removed from the Kansas game Saturday after a lackluster performance.

In both cases, White played well in Hybl's place.

``Jason has earned the opportunity to be the starter,'' Stoops said. ``He'll be the starter in this game (Baylor) and then we'll take it from there. We have proven we can win with both of these quarterbacks and we feel we can be a good team with either of them playing.''

Stoops said the decision was made because Hybl hasn't played well, not because of any lingering effects from the injury.

``Nate wasn't as sharp as he had been,'' Stoops said. ``He had a sore shoulder. I think everybody saw that. Pain is difficult to gauge. I just admire the way he fought through that and tried to play.''

Hybl and White came out of spring practice and two-a-days in a virtual dead heat for the job. Stoops tabbed Hybl the starter in August saying he had outperformed White and made fewer bad plays.

White said he never give up hope of winning the job from Hybl.

``I wanted to push Nate to make him a better player,'' he said. ``It just so happened that he had an injury and now I'm getting an opportunity.

``The coaches made the decision and hopefully we'll keep winning.''