They still call it the Red/White Game. It said so on the media credential. But it really wasn’t a Red/White so much as an Offense/Defense game.
That’s what it said on the scoreboard. Offense on one side and Defense on the other. Up in the press box they were passing around the rules. Offense gets a point for a first down. Defense gets a point for forcing a punt. Offense gets two points for a play longer than 30 yards. Defense gets three points for a turnover.
Touchdowns were still six points.
Double eagle gets you 10.
Just kidding.
So they did all this to spice things up and it worked. Even if a Nic Harris interception set up a Garrett Hartley field goal, each canceling out the other on the scoreboard. Somebody said Harris should have run the wrong way after the pick just to pin the offense deep. And then there was the fumbled punt return. Nobody seemed to know where the points went on that one.
It was kind of fun.
But not particularly meaningful.
Meaningful is what’s going on between offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson and quarterback Rhett Bomar.
Bomar completed 11 of 22 pases for 173 yards and a touchdown, as well as an interception he threw right to Reggie Smith, which came right after a Smith interception was disallowed on a phantom pass interference.
So if Bomar’s not your guy, there’s room to complain. And still, the thing that might have bothered Wilson the most was some body language Bomar offered when he didn’t like a play call on third and long.
Bomar wanted to go get a first down, but Wilson had his reasons. And it’s all about the reasons.
“My thing is,” Wilson said, “if we call this play, this is what we’re thinking.”
Consider Bomar’s path and where Wilson is trying to take him.
Bomar’s beginning as OU’s quarterback couldn’t have gone much worse. He may have set a record for fumbled snaps and the coaches had so much confidence in him last year against Tulsa, they put the passing game on ice, even as OU struggled to win. By the same token, his freshman season couldn’t have ended much better. He left the Holiday Bowl with the MVP trophy.
Now, apparently, it’s time to take the next step. Wilson wants to take Bomar far beyond execution. He knows Bomar can play the game. Now he wants him to know the game.
“I think last year he was trying to be the star. It was all like a race,” Wilson said, adding, “He’s talented, but we’re trying to make him a good player.”
In Wilson’s world, anybody can have all the tools, but it’s not enough. Bomar has to know when to dump the ball off and when to throw it away. And if a play comes in that may seem a little curious, Bomar has to know there’s a reason and eventually what that reason is.
“I know I can make plays,” Bomar said. “But you don’t always have to.”
So many of his quotes are like that. He may have to spend a whole game dumping the ball off, so he wants you to know he can always cut it loose if he has to.
But it’s that same confidence, along with all those tools, that make greatness possible.
“I feel totally different now,” Bomar said, thinking back to last season. “When you have experience, that makes a whole lot of difference.”
But in so many ways, he’s just getting started.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
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