NORMAN - The first thing a quarterback can do, says new Oklahoma offensive chief Kevin Wilson, is get your butt beat.
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That's one way of looking at it, I suppose, and the best way to look at it for the Sooners in these post-Rhett Bomar days.
There are two kinds of quarterbacks: those who are asked to make plays and those who are asked to not screw it up for everyone else.
Bomar mostly was the latter last season, but hopes soared that he could become the former. Now Paul Thompson drives the Schooner, and while plenty talk fairy tale for a fifth-year senior with one career QB start, no one talks Heisman.
Thompson, who Wednesday morning was a flanker, will be a caretaker quarterback.
"We told Paul we didn't need him to put the team on his shoulders," Wilson said. "We have a tremendous team, outstanding on defense, a lot of talent on offense.
"His job is to manage the players around him."
The Sooner spin says Bomar was in the same boat, but no one really buys that. Bomar was a bronco buck of a quarterback; you might as well put him in stilettos as put him in caretaker shackles.
Bomar was nowhere near star status; he also was nowhere near the finished product.
Thompson is what he is. We just don't know exactly what that is yet, and frankly neither does the Sooner staff.
So might OU go Baltimore Raven on us? The Ravens won a Super Bowl with a world-class tailback and a
Doberman defense and told quarterback Trent Dilfer to stay out of the way.
The Sooners have world-class tailback Adrian Peterson and presumably a Doberman defense. Might they tell Thompson to just stay out of the way?
"No," said Bob Stoops. "Absolutely not. Paul has too much ability to do that."
The best reason OU won't go into a Ravens shell is because you can't manufacture wins in college ball the way you can in the NFL.
The Baltimores would run the ball all day, cut off a limb to prevent a first down and try to be ahead at the end of the game. But college games are too danged long for that. Keep punting the ball back in college, and eventually you'll be in a hole and maybe deep.
"We're going to mix it up," Stoops said. "We always have. You can't run the ball without throwing it."
So don't expect the wishbone days. Don't expect Thompson to finish with more carries than throws. Don't expect the Sooners to prefer punts to passes, even if they find a guy who can kick.
But don't expect Air Paul, either.
"We will do what the quarterback can do," Wilson said.
That means some sprintout, some quarterback runs, even some deep balls. But mostly safe plays, with Peterson's carry load going up, maybe even into the 30s per game, Stoops said.
Can the Sooners win with Thompson? Well, not the national championship, they can't. I know, I know, Ohio State won the crown in 2002 with a defense for the ages, a bully of a ballcarrier in Maurice Clarett and a serviceable quarterback in Craig Krenzel.
But 14-0? That seems a tall Paul order. I wasn't really buying 14-0 even with Bomar.
OU will have a game or two where Peterson is bottled, and the defense develops a crack, and a quarterback save will be required. That doesn't look to be Thompson's game.
But 10 wins, 11? That's not crazy talk. Defense should keep OU in every game.
"For us to be any good as a team," said d-coordinator Brent Venables, "pre-Rhett Bomar, post-Rhett Bomar, with Rhett Bomar, it's irrelevant; it's about us playing great defense."
Most defenders quizzed Friday said their mindset hasn't changed since Bomar was deposed.
But defensive end Calvin Thibodeaux admitted: "We know we're gonna have to stop people. We're going to have to be the catapult of this team. We figured that coming into the season. Even more now."
The Sooners still will have a good season; a 2001, 2002 type year, when OU went 11-2 and 12-2 but eventually fell from the national race.
Look at it this way. Losing Bomar merely dropped OU back into the Big 12 pack, where almost every quarterback is untested.
Most Big 12 teams will trot out a quarterback whose first mission is to not lose the game. None of those quarterbacks will have Adrian Peterson in the backfield or the Oklahoma defense on the sideline.
Berry Tramel: 475-3314, btramel@oklahoman.com; Berry Tramel's radio show, the Writer's Block, can be heard Monday-Friday from 4-7 p.m. on KREF-AM 1400, KADA-AM 1230; and KSEO-AM 750.
