Clay Horning
The Norman Transcript
April 01, 2007 12:43 am
—
• Signal callers the center of
attention, but
Murray has the best scrimmage
By Clay Horning
Transcript Sports Editor
At this point, a good bit of the way through spring drills, the race to be Oklahoma’s next quarterback is whatever anybody wants it to be.
Any advocate for junior Joey Halzle, redshirt freshman Sam Bradford or true freshman Keith Nichol, going through spring drills only because he graduated from high school early and is already enrolled, found plenty to support their guy Saturday at Owen Field.
By the same token, there was plenty to throw doubt on their guy, too.
“This is where they learn and they made some critical mistakes,” Sooner coach Bob Stoops said. “But they’re smart guys and they’ll learn from (them).
“You know, not to go to a receiver late with some throws. But they all threw some nice balls as well.”
The quarterback race, the fourth in six offseasons for the program, is in the eye of the beholder.
There was no better case in point than the very first drive of the scrimmage, when Joey Halzle was leading the offense down the field. After starting at his own 30 and moving the ball 50 yards in eight plays, last year’s back-up looked very good. But on the next play Halzle went through his reads and tried to connect with tight end Jermaine Gresham. The ball hung up and D.J. Wolfe sprinted in front for the interception.
As it happened, Nichol was the only one of the trio to connect for a touchdown pass, finding Gresham from 15 yards late in the scrimmage. The trio also combined to throw four interceptions, two of them snared by defensive back Dominique Franks.
“From what I saw, they made some mistakes,” Stoops said, “and that’s why you can’t get enough snaps out here.”
Halzle competed 7 of 15 passes for 76 yards and one pick. Bradford completed 8 of 13 for 114 yards and two picks. Nichol connected on 4 of 8 for 96 yards and one pick.
Nobody expects any of the three to win the job before preseason practices begin late in the summer. This time around, the spring is a learning process, with a separating process still several months away.
“It was great to make some good plays today, it’s actually great to make some bad plays if you can learn from that,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said. “And we got them in some situations, be it good or bad, that if they can process and learn and grow, it’s going to help them in the fall.”
According to at least one receiver, any of the three could claim the job.
“(All) of them have the opportunity to potentially get us where we need to go,” Quentin Chaney said. “They’re coming along very well. They’re all pretty comfortable back there.”
Hello DeMarco
When Adrian Peterson went down last season, Allen Patrick stepped in nicely and was being backed up by Chris Brown and Mossis Madu. But that begged the question, where was DeMarco Murray?
Stoops had tried explaining it was a season-long case of turf toe.
That became very believable after what Murray did Saturday, running for 132 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries, with a long carry of 65 yards around the left side.
“DeMarco’s a special player,” Stoops said.
Offensive struggle
As is almost always the case, the Sooner defense is ahead of the Sooner offense. There were four touchdowns scored in all, but one of those was at the very end, when Chris Brown scored from 5 yards during Red Zone drills.
Prior to the Red Zone drills, the Sooners scored three touchdowns in the space of 16 possessions.
Safety Nic Harris led with eight tackles. Wolfe, Curtis Lofton and Lewis Baker each had seven tackles.
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