Cali, Country and QB

July 26, 2007

NORMAN, Okla. - Cross a boogie board with country music and you get Joey Halzle.

The Oklahoma quarterback, at home on the California beaches, but a musical misfit among his West Coast friends, has found a new home of sorts on the plains.

An Oak Park, Calif., native, Halzle grew up about 15 minutes from the Pacific Coastline. If he was still there today, his off-season activities would be a lot different than they are in Norman.

"I'd be at the beach," he confessed. "You can really spend the whole day there playing football, volleyball and boogie boarding."

Lake Thunderbird, just east of Norman, is a poor substitute, but Halzle isn't bemoaning what he found in Oklahoma.

"Oklahoma is a nice change," he said. "I really like the people here. They're very nice and they're kicked back. It's a good pace."

It's also a hotbed for country music, Halzle's favorite despite the ridicule it drew from his buddies back in "Cali."

"I was the only guy among my friends that liked country music," he said. "The guys made fun of me a lot back home.

"I like Tim McGraw, Jason Boland, Stoney LaRue and a lot of others."

What? No Toby Keith?

"Oh, I like him too," Halzle said of the country star that also counts himself among OU's most ardent fans. "I've seen him around, but I haven't met him yet."

Halzle may get that opportunity at a practice in the near future although his attention may be diverted. He's competing with Sam Bradford and Keith Nichol in a high-profile battle for the starting job.

Halzle is locked in on the competition, not the debate.

"I'm focused on the field and I try not to think about it or obsess when I am away from football," he said. "Everybody has an opinion, but not a lot of it is based in fact."

Halzle said the competition is friendly.

"We spend a lot of time together, watching film and in workouts," he said. "We all want the job, but we don't take it off the field."

Most of Halzle's support comes from within his own family. His parents, Corky and Teresa, were at every game last season, and he chats with him almost daily. His lone sibling, Catherine, also roots for her brother.

"She just graduated from USC, but she has switched," he said. "She's a Sooner fan now."

And so is Joey. He committed to Oklahoma on his official visit to campus after quickly recognizing the advantages of Norman and the OU campus.

"There is enough that I like here that I don't think about what I miss in California," he said.

In other words, the boogie board can wait. Between country music and the prospect of quarterbacking the Sooners, not necessarily in that order, he has everything he needs right here in Oklahoma.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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