Dallas ? Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops doesn’t sound too worried about having to replace the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who led the Sooners to consecutive national championship games.

Actually, Stoops likes the new options he could have with Paul Thompson and Rhett Bomar.

“(Paul) has a quick release with the football and demonstrated the accuracy and ability to stay in the pocket and throw like we like,” Stoops said Monday. “With his feet, he can improvise and scramble, and he gives you a lot of options with quarterback-run play.

“It’s a different dimension that we haven’t had since we’ve been here, guys capable of running the football,” he said. “He and Rhett give us that option, athletic guys that can run.”

Jason White, Josh Heupel and Nate Hybl, the previous starting quarterbacks for Stoops at Oklahoma, were more pocket passers. All were part of the coach’s initial recruiting class there in 1999.

Thompson starts Saturday when the seventh-ranked Sooners play their season opener against TCU. The junior was the backup in 2003 when White won the Heisman Trophy but redshirted last year when White returned for a sixth season with a medical exemption.

Nebraska struggled last season in its transformation from being a run-oriented team to a West Coast-style passing offense. Coach Bill Callahan wouldn’t name his starting quarterback during the first Big 12 coaches teleconference of the season but will have a new one.

Callahan planned to name the starter Tuesday and is expected to go with Zac Taylor, who threw for 3,000 yards and 29 touchdowns in junior college last season. Taylor was so impressive in the spring that last year’s starter, Joe Dailey, transferred to North Carolina.

Second-ranked Texas (Vince Young), No. 17 Texas A&M (Reggie McNeal), Missouri (Brad Smith) and Colorado (Joel Klatt) are set with their multiple-season starters at quarterback.

At Oklahoma State, new coach Mike Gundy is talking about using two quarterbacks – and possibly having Donovan Woods and Bobby Reid on the field at the same time. Woods, the returning starter, will take the first snaps Saturday against Montana State.

“Both are skilled athletes that run fast. : We’ve walked through some stuff, with both of them playing separate positions – quarterback, running back, wideout, vice versa,” Gundy said. “It’s not a situation with just one of them at quarterback.”

No. 21 Texas Tech’s unrelenting passing attack will be led by fifth-year senior Cody Hodges, who will be the third straight Red Raider quarterback to watch from the sideline for four seasons before getting his chance to start.

The rest of the Big 12’s expected season-opening starters split some time in that role last season: Shawn Bell at Baylor, Bret Meyer at Iowa State, Adam Barmann at Kansas University and Allen Webb at Kansas State, ahead of Dylan Meier, who started six games last season but is still overcoming shoulder surgery.

“He really took some steps forward and became a better quarterback in a lot of different areas,” K-State coach Bill Snyder said of Webb. “He was off and on, hot and cold (last season). … To improve that performance during the course of the spring was important for us and important for us. And during two-a-days, he continued on that track.”