Clay Horning
The Norman Transcript
October 22, 2005 12:51 am
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With great reluctance, I’m going to write about the quarterbacks again.
Or, I suppose, the quarterback.
I thought I was done with it. Paul Thompson’s wish was granted to become a wide receiver and, with that, Oklahoma’s quarterback ship had sailed. The Sooners had named their starter and not just for this season, but the next one and the next one and the one after that.
Yet here we are, the issue won’t go away.
Right or wrong, OU’s quarterback … call it a situation, continues.
It’s not Bomar’s fault, even as he’s the only one who can put it to rest.
It’s not his fault because it’s not his fault he was given the job before he’d ever earned it.
That one’s on the coaches and whether or not it’s ever owned up to doesn’t much matter. Just as long as everybody understands there’s a reason people still talk about the injustice of his being handed the job and get riled up about how Thompson received one chance and one chance only and, to listen to the radio, have even brought race into it.
Thompson played one game, almost in its entirety, and was not good. He might have been terrible. Bomar started the next week and wasn’t any better, even as the Sooners prevailed upon Tulsa. The next week he did a lot of things right, but only when he wasn’t doing everything wrong, fumbling around the Rose Bowl. The next week Thompson was a receiver and any real competition between the two ceased.
Quarterback battles are like no other battles in the eyes of fans, or even media.
Many followed Bomar through the recruiting process and still believe he’s the golden child. Many have watched Thompson patiently wait and redshirt and will always believe he earned no less than a second chance. Heck, The Sports Animal was running a promo through the offseason that had none other than Bob Barry Sr., the voice of the Sooners, stridently stating his preference for Thompson.
So, whether they ever wanted it or not, both Bomar and Thompson have their publics.
And because Bomar still hasn’t done anything before the second half, the situation continues. For whatever reason, it seems to have intensified this week. It’s crazy, but it was bound to heat up again.
The reason is so simple.
It never went away.
Don’t blame Bomar
The kid’s not supposed to give his dream back, is he?
Yet there’s something he can do about it and it starts at 6 tonight.
Play well.
Play well from the start.
Play like you must have played in high school.
Play with confidence, heart and toughness.
And for crying out loud, hit the open man.
It can be that simple.
Everybody knows the offensive line isn’t very good, but it wasn’t the offensive line bouncing the ball in the dirt like 0-2 curve balls at the Cotton Bowl.
Everybody knows how young the receivers are. But if the ball hits them in the hands, it’s understood. The quarterback won’t be blamed.
As for the media, well … no promises. But this is one sports editor who quit taking sides the day Paul Thompson became a wideout. As for all this, well, sometimes when an issue won’t go away, somebody has to step in and explain it all over again.
Like this talk of race? It’s crazy to believe any of these coaches would ever make a decision in the interest of anything other than competitive advantage. Of course, at the same time, Bomar was never even announced as the clear No. 1. He just continued to start. Why it happened that way remains a mystery. Understand that and it’s no mystery why the air never cleared.
So here we are again.
Like every week this season, it all starts over tonight.
It’s only Baylor, but it’s not like the Bears can’t win.
It’s a chance for the Sooners to finally win back-to-back and post more victories than defeats.
And there’s this little situation that won’t go away. Only it might go away. Indeed, likely nobody’d like it to go away any more than Rhett Bomar.
And isn’t it the way things go?
Only he can make it go away.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
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