09/12/2005
Oklahoma asking: where's White?
By JEFF LATZKE
AP Sports Writer
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - Perhaps now Oklahoma truly understands what it had in Jason White.
With the best quarterback in school history gone after six long years, the Sooners would probably do just about anything to have him - bad knees and all - back for a seventh season.
Neither of his two successors have been able to lead the Oklahoma offense with any level of success, and the No. 21 Sooners (1-1) decided a game and a half into their season that it might be better to go without the pass than to have either Rhett Bomar or Paul Thompson throwing the ball.
The Sooners' 42 passing yards in Saturday's 31-15 win against Tulsa were the team's lowest total since a Sept. 6, 1997, win against Syracuse that included only 38 passing yards. The Sooners had never thrown for less than 100 yards in Bob Stoops' 80 previous games as Oklahoma's coach. They had only 128 passing yards in a 17-10 loss to TCU in Week 1.
``We need to develop a passing game that our players can execute,'' coach Bob Stoops said. ``For whatever reason for the past two weeks, what we have been doing hasn't been productive. That is being about as kind as I can be.
``We are not going to continue to go through the year like this and not be able to throw the football some.''
After going without a pass attempt in the second half against Tulsa, Stoops and offensive coordinator Chuck Long plan to thoroughly re-evaluate the passing game, but not just at the quarterback position. They'll also examine whether the team's current receivers can execute the same plays as three receivers taken in the NFL draft during the offseason.
``When we're as unproductive in two games as we've been, we have got to really be critical of what we're doing and what we're asking them to do,'' Stoops said. ``Just because it's worked for us in the past, and it's worked well, doesn't mean it's going to.
``We've got to really look at that.''
The coaches refused to say whether there might be another change at quarterback, but said the competition for the position will continue this season and always. Long said he never considered replacing Bomar with Thompson even though he didn't throw a single pass in the second half. Long said he expected the redshirt freshman to continue growing and wanted him to gain experience simply by being on the field.
``We felt good about him being in there,'' Long said. ``He's in command. He's good on the sideline. We wanted to keep that rhythm going if we could.''
White, who would win the Heisman Trophy in 2003, threw for 343 yards when he made his first collegiate start in 2001 against Baylor, but by that time he had already played in several games as a backup over the course of 2 1/2 seasons. Bomar's debut came in only his second game, with only 10 snaps of college experience and a receiving corps that includes four freshmen among the top six receivers.
``You can slice it every way you want, but we're young and starting over,'' Long said. ``I thought these guys had a little growth.''
Long said the Sooners would like to re-establish the play-action passing game that has led to big plays the past few years. Oklahoma opened its season with one of those plays, but Thompson overthrew receiver Travis Wilson as he had beaten TCU's coverage by a few steps.
Bomar was more confident than the coaches in his analysis of Oklahoma's passing game, saying that the team chose to run the ball, but could have passed it, too.
``We have the plays that will work and we know what to do,'' Bomar said.
Either way, the Sooners don't expect they'll be able to do away with the pass and just run the ball as they did in the wishbone days of Oklahoma's past. A major test will come Saturday, when the Sooners play at the Rose Bowl against UCLA.
``We're going to have to establish some form of a passing game,'' Peterson said. ``We just can't run it on everybody.''
