Freshman to start at QB for stunned Sooners

? After being upended in its opener, Oklahoma is making a switch at quarterback.

Red-shirt freshman Rhett Bomar will replace Paul Thompson as the Sooners’ starting quarterback for Saturday’s game against Tulsa and get his opportunity to be the one to replace 2003 Heisman Trophy winner Jason White.

“We’re going to give Rhett Bomar an opportunity to start and see where he takes us,” coach Bob Stoops said Monday.

Bomar played in four series in the No. 7 Sooners’ 17-10 loss to TCU on Saturday and completed two of five passes for 19 yards. On his first play after substituting for Thompson late in the second quarter, Bomar faked a handoff to tailback Adrian Peterson and rushed 28 yards down the right sideline, bullying a defender along the way.

But he also was responsible for a turnover that led to TCU’s winning score.

Stoops said coaches believed Bomar didn’t have a chance to do much.

“He only threw five balls. He didn’t have nearly the number of snaps and preparation coming into the game … He’s had the fewest number of snaps overall when you look at his amount of time here and he’s been that close all along that we feel maybe giving him more opportunities, more snaps, maybe he’ll do more with it. We’ll see,” Stoops said.

The 20-year-old from the Dallas area lost a close competition to Thompson to become the Sooners’ starter, but coaches announced beforehand that Bomar would play both early and late in the team’s opener.

“I have a great opportunity to go out there and do some things to establish myself,” Bomar said. “I’m really excited. This is what I’ve been working for. It’s what I’ve been trying to do all my life and now it’s here.”

Bomar said he was confident his performance in his next chance to lead the team’s offense would be different than the first.

“I want to play, I want to keep playing. That was my No. 1 goal coming in here. I’m going to go out Saturday and prove I can be the guy,” he said.

Regarded as the team’s quarterback of the future, Bomar came to Oklahoma last season from Grand Prairie High School. He had thrown for 6,097 yards and 58 touchdowns in his career there and was regarded by many as the nation’s No. 2 recruit behind Peterson.