By Clay Horning
Transcript Sports Editor
There we were at Media Day Friday. Bob Stoops went on at 8 a.m. Punishment for stories not yet written, as far as I could tell. But it was the guys from Enid, Ada and Ardmore who really got up early, and they go negative so rarely, it hardly seemed fair.
But Stoops took his turn and had plenty to say before playing spectator to Adrian Peterson’s turn at the podium. No orator, Peterson still sounded relaxed and at home, a bit more comfortable than last season.
Then came Brent Venables and Bobby Jack Wright. When Wright took the microphone, we learned a little about the secondary and a lot about how Wright needs no microphone.
Then came Chuck Long and Kevin Wilson. And when Long got to talking, you might have heard jaws drop. You might have seen what few media remained in the room (most having headed to the field to speak with players) with their fingers in their ears, unsure they’d just heard what they’d just heard.
“It’s not out of the question that we could go with two at this point,” said the Sooner offensive coordinator.
Huh! What?
But he really did say it and he really was talking about the quarterbacks. And because he downgraded Tommy Grady Thursday (even as Stoops tried to rehabilitate the absent quarterback Friday), the two for which he speaks are Paul Thompson and Rhett Bomar, the redshirt junior and the redshirt freshman, the heir apparent and the high school phenom.
What Long said demanded a follow up.
Are you serious?
“With every quarterback we have, we feel like we have a great situation and sometimes it gets to a point where, hey, you have two good ones, play two good ones … That’s something coach Stoops and I will discuss at a later date and time if that’s the case.”
Well, it’s clearly the case. They have two good ones. Of course, they had two good ones in 2001 and Nate Hybl won the job and they had two good ones in 2002 and Jason White won the job.
What makes this year different? Or is it any different at all?
You should know the messenger wrote last Sunday that A) they’d be crazy to go with two guys and B) they’re not crazy. Well, despite my credibility perhaps being shot, allow me to add C) they might be crazy.
I don’t think Long was throwing out a possibility, but a probability.
Why else even bring it up?
It’s not necessary. It can’t help things. It’s only use appears to be as a trial balloon. Throwing it against the wall, as we mix our metaphors, to see if it sticks.
Stoops just happened to be in the hallway, headed toward the ramp. He was even alone and the question had to be asked.
Could it really happen?
“If what they do from now to then dictates that, or if we feel that’s the best thing to do, then we will,” said the coach. “If it isn’t, we won’t.”
So it could happen. It’s not out of the question?
“If I say it could, then everybody’s going to say that’s what we’re going to do. So, I’m not going to say that,” Stoops said.
Yeah, but you kind of just said that.
Before Long left the Big Red Room, he managed to bring up the only defendable reason two might be better, or more necessary, than one.
“The last ingredient of separation, or the last part of (a quarterback’s) grade, comes in game situations,” he said. “Practice is one thing, but some guys step it up a notch in a game or don’t, or fall behind. So, you really don’t know about a quarterback until you put him in game situations.”
It still doesn’t sound like a good idea but at least it makes some sense. More telling, if that’s how Long really feels, it may go without saying we’ll see two quarterbacks.
There are two more pieces to the story.
Thompson and Bomar.
Paul, have any thoughts?
“If that presents itself, then that will present it self,” Thompson said. “I haven’t really thought about it too much. I’m just kind of focusing right now on me being the quarterback and nothing else.”
Rhett, how about you?
“That’s a possibility, of course. You can’t rule anything out,” Bomar said. “But I don’t think that’s what both of us are looking for. You know, we both want to be the guy.”
It might go like this.
Before they were thinking about disappointing one of them. Now they’re thinking about disappointing both of them. Still, Stoops may be right. If the situation dictates, it dictates.
That would be some situation.
I can’t even imagine.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
