OU QB RACE

[Eric the Red]

OU QB race

 

NORMAN — Here’s how tight the three-man quarterback race at Oklahoma has become:

 

Each time one of the trio is asked to evaluate that day’s performance, he consistently has eschewed the “I” and said “WE” instead.

 

“We did this well. We didn’t do that well.”

 

So here we are, two weeks into spring practice with a quarterback race that is so tight the guys involved can’t even separate themselves from one another anymore. But offensive coordinator Chuck Long must separate the three.

 

“I’m just thankful I’m not the one who has to put them on the field,” cornerback D.J. Wolfe said jokingly. “It’s a hard decision.”

 

That decision may have been made more difficult by the first scrimmage of the spring Saturday. All three were solid in some aspects. And maybe shaky in others.

 

Sophomore Tommy Grady was 9-of-14 for 88 yards and a touchdown. But he also threw an interception. Grady started, but don’t read anything into that, the QBs said.

 

Freshman Rhett Bomar was 10-of-16 for 84 yards and directed two long scoring drives. But he said he might have missed a couple of throws.

 

Junior Paul Thompson statistically wasn’t as strong as the other two — 7-of-17 for 40 yards. But he progressed through his reads quickly and made some smart dump passes.

 

“We all three have done really well,” Bomar said. “I’m happy with my performance today. I expect to get better.”

 

Thompson said, “We’ll improve, and this is something to build on.”

 

One thing not built into the scrimmage game plan was complex patterns.

 

“We would like to throw it down field,” Bomar said. “But I had a lot of third-and-shorts, so we worked on our quick (passing) game.”

 

Long said he wanted to keep it simple to keep the quarterbacks from dealing with too much too fast. Grady did let loose with a long pass to Jejuan Rankins at the start of the scrimmage. The ball just glanced off Rankins’ fingertips.

 

“They were blitzing,” Grady said. “I had to get rid of it real fast. I just put it up there and hoped he could get it.”

 

Rankins had a rough start early when a ball glanced off his fingers and went into the arms of safety Lewis Baker. He fumbled, as well, but that mistake was nullified by a face-mask penalty. But the senior came back with five catches for 45 yards.

 

Tight end Willie Roberts added three catches for 46 yards and a 29-yard touchdown reception. Freshman Quentin Chaney turned a few heads with his 15-yard touchdown reception. The 6-foot-6 Chaney caught the ball on the outside, put a stop-start move on the defensive back and scooted into the end zone.

 

“Things that I felt today is that we need to get our reads quicker,” Long said of the quarterbacks. “And we need much better huddle control.

 

“The reads and all the different things will happen in time. For the most part, we had some good sustained drives. There were some drives we needed to keep sustained.”

 

One way Thompson and Bomar were able to keep drives alive was with their feet. Both are scramblers, and when the pass protection broke down, both utilized that aspect of their game.

 

“Pass rushing, they are harder” to contain than Jason White, defensive end Larry Birdine said. “As far as coverage and picking you apart, they are easier (to deal with).”

 

Bomar’s two sustained drives may have been substantial in terms of Long’s evaluation.

 

“That helps,” Long said. “That’s part of the equation of evaluation. How these guys respond. Practice is one thing, but when there are people in the stands and you have a live scrimmage, that’s quite another.

 

“(The drives) put him in a good position.”