NORMAN, Okla. — Rhett Bomar still looks at the Oklahoma quarterback job as an open position, even though Paul Thompson has been designated to start Saturday’s opener against TCU.
“You have to look at it that way,” Bomar said. “Because if you don’t, you’re not going to make anything of it.”
In the same vein, Thompson knows being selected the initial starter is only a first step.
“Throughout this whole year and probably even into the next, it’s going to be a continuous battle,” Thompson said.
The OU coaching staff has not divulged how many snaps they’d like to see each player take against the Horned Frogs, nor when Bomar will make his first appearance.
“They told me it was going to be early,” Bomar said. “So we’ll see what that means.”
The perception is that, with little discernable difference in ability between the two, Thompson, a fourth-year junior, won the job because of his maturity and steadier hand, that he is the quarterback who will make the fewest mistakes and that Bomar is more the gambling playmaker.
That’s not entirely true, Thompson said.
“I have been here going on my fourth year, and I have good leadership qualities,” Thompson said. “I definitely regard myself as a playmaker. I’m not going to go out there and force anything. But when the opportunity presents itself, I’m going to make some plays.”
Bomar also counters the presumption that he is the riskier of the two choices. In fact, the offense was more productive in spring scrimmages with him as quarterback. But during the final two of three public August scrimmages, Bomar threw for four interceptions and only two touchdowns, and defensive backs dropped several more possible picks.
“I made a few bad decisions in each one of (those scrimmages) ... but that hasn’t been my thing, if you go back and look at the spring and early fall,” Bomar said.
“I will protect the football. But yeah, I want to go out there and make plays. And I think I will do that when I get out there and everyone will see the kind of player I am.”
Thompson said he doesn’t believe he will feel any pressure to simply try to not make mistakes at the sacrifice of his natural ability.
“I do want to get out there and prove some things,” he said. “But at the same time, I don’t want to try and do too much. I want to stick in the rhythm of the offense and the rhythm of the game and the rhythm of the team.
“I think once I get in there, it will be second nature to me.”
