SAN ANTONIO — Wide receiver Malcolm Kelly will catch passes from Oklahoma’s third starting quarterback in three years this season. But that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten about one of the old ones.

Rhett Bomar will play for Sam Houston State this season. Kelly said Bomar’s tarnished image doesn’t change the fact that fans of the school in Huntsville, Texas, will see a very good quarterback.

“Rhett is a great quarterback. People can say whatever they want to about him, but the boy can play,” Kelly said. “That spring and right before the season was getting ready to start, he had grown so much. He was a complete quarterback. He could run the ball. He could throw precision passes. He could throw the deep ball. Whatever you wanted, he could do it. He could get it all done.”

When Kelly arrived at OU prior to the 2005 season, most figured Bomar and Kelly would become linked in the same way former quarterback Jason White and Mark Clayton became during their explosive run through the 2003 and 2004 seasons.

But Bomar’s dismissal ended any chance of that happening.

Kelly said the two have spoken a few times over the last year and he holds no ill will against the Sooners’ former quarterback.

“A lot of people want to knock him, but I’m going to give it to you straight. He was a great quarterback,” Kelly said. “A lot of people make mistakes and he made a mistake. But it still doesn’t take his talent away.”

Changing the past

OU fans will get a chance to rewrite history … at least in the world of video games. EA Sports NCAA Football 2008 has been running a commercial featuring former Sooner running back Adrian Peterson.

The premise of the ad is the chance to replay last season’s Fiesta Bowl. In the commercial, a Sooner brings down Boise State’s Ian Johnson before he can convert a two-point conversion, on a Statue-of-Liberty play, and complete the Broncos wild victory.

OU tight end Joe Jon Finley said he’d seen the commercial and liked it.

“It looked better than what really happened,” he said. “It’s a pretty good commercial.”

However, cornerback Marcus Walker was actually on the field for the famous play and doesn’t want to re-live what happened.

“I guess we can win it in that one, but it doesn’t change anything,” he said.