Nichol never had a prayer at OU, but he catches Hail Marys for the Spartans
Published: 10/27/2011 10:04 AM
Last Modified: 10/27/2011 10:04 AM
"After all these years, Keith Nichol finally ended up in the right place at the right time."
So began Noah Trister's AP story on the Michigan State receiver who caught that Hail Mary pass to beat Wisconsin last Saturday. The Michigan State receiver who used to be an Oklahoma quarterback.
Remember?
"Coach Stoops flies to my house the day after they win a Big 12 championship game," Nichol told Trister.
This was 2006. Stoops was still thawing out from OU's 21-7 conference-winner at Arrowhead.
"I was a 17-year-old kid," Nichol continued. "I was like, 'OK, there's some security in that. Michigan State doesn't have a coach right now."
MSU was Nichol's first choice, him being a Michigan kid. But coach John L. Smith was fired after the '06 season. Who could blame Nichol for shifting gears?
Who could blame him for shifting them again two years later?
Sam Bradford beat Nichol to start the 2007 season for OU. Nichol stuck it out through the spring of '08, then saw the carving in the wall.
A tense, uncomfortable divorce? Hardly.
From Josh Helmholdt's Rivals.com story at the time: "Leaving his friends on the team, particularly running back DeMarco Murray with whom he was closest, was one of the most difficult aspects of the decision. But so was leaving a coaching staff with whom he had grown close. Nichol spent nearly all his time with quarterbacks coach Josh Heupel, and he had come to respect and rely on head coach Bob Stoops as a father figure."
Nichol said he worried about how Stoops might take the news he had decided to leave.
"He said, 'I don't blame you,'" Nichol told Helmholdt. "'I don't want to see you not play at all. We want to get you in there, but with Sam playing so well we can't do that.' I was just real taken aback by that. He didn't make me feel guilty."
There wasn't any reason to. Stoops had his franchise quarterback. So Nichol got his release. And while he never caught on as Michigan State's QB, he found a way to help the Spartans.
Boy did he help them last Saturday night.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
