By John Shinn

Transcript Sports Writer

The clock is winding down on Oklahoma’s quarterback competition. The Sooners will conduct their third and final preseason scrimmage at 6:30 tonight at Owen Field.

It’s the last time Paul Thompson and Rhett Bomar will have to impress the coaching staff in a game-like setting.

“This is no doubt a big scrimmage,” offensive coordinator Chuck Long said, “but they’ve all been big.”

Yes they have.

Thompson and Bomar have been through six of these, counting all the way to spring practice. They’ve both had their good days and bad days.

Bomar doesn’t expect this one to be any different. He struggled in the Sooners’ last scrimmage, completing 16-of-36 passes for 151 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also threw three other passes a more sure-handed defense might have picked off.

“I had a bad scrimmage,” he said. “It wasn’t my night. I had a few forced throws. I made a few physical mistakes.”

However, the redshirt freshman from Grand Prairie, Texas, isn’t interested in hearing any notions that he’s the young gunslinger prone to making big plays but also big mistakes.

“I have my moments and stuff like that,” he said, “but I don’t feel like a young guy where I don’t know what I’m doing. I feel like I’ve been here a while.”

OU coach Bob Stoops said the scrimmage will consist of about 100 plays. Practice is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. The team will move over to Owen Field for the scrimmage portion an hour later.

Stoops claims not to be too concerned about the quarterback race. Instead, he wants to see continued improvement from his team.

“I want us to continue to make strides and hopefully eliminate some of the foolish penalties,” Stoops said. “I want to see guys execute on both sides of the ball and see who is going to make plays. Same things we look for every time we’re out there.”

Much like the first two scrimmages, the focus will be on the passing game. OU put the ball in the air close to 70 times last Saturday.