Thompson making good decisions Oklahoma quarterback coach Josh Heupel praised Paul Thompson's decision-making in the passing game, but both Thompson and his coach know the quarterback has some improvements to make in other areas.
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"Every time he dropped back and went to throw the ball, he was throwing the ball to the correct guy," Heupel said of Thompson's performance in last Saturday's 24-17 win over UAB.
"Fundamentally, he overthrew a guy a couple times or he was a little low sometimes, but it wasn't always his fault either.
"Obviously, we need to take better care of the ball in the red zone."
Heading into today's game against Washington, Thompson feels he must read defenses more quickly.
"With different defenses you have to go to different places quicker," he said. "You have to be able to think quickly and know where you're going with the ball and improve on getting the ball to the receivers to be able to make plays."
In watching Washington's defense on tape, Thompson sees similarities to another defense he's familiar with.
"From what I've seen they run similar to what we run as far as defense goes, which is easier for me," he said.
Wilson's TV solution: Kevin Wilson has an idea to help television networks shorten the total time of college football games without affecting the product on the field.
"If they shortened the game to speed it up on time, they ought to take out all those commercials out," Wilson said. "I think the people pay to come watch our guys play. I think the people that want to see the guys play are penalized.
"The drives are shorter. They're going to miss their commercial breaks. We had to make some money for them and our crowd got to sit on their tail.
"They could shorten the TV breaks, just charge more per commercial."
Head coach Bob Stoops simply hopes the coaches will have a voice in determining whether the new game clock rules remain after the season.
"Hopefully we will," he said. "I don't believe we have to this point. Doubtful whether we will. I think there will be higher powers than us that determine whether we change it or not.
"Our athletic directors and presidents do value what we have to say about it, so hopefully when we look at all this and everybody's kind of unsatisfied with it, maybe we can do something about it."
Weather worries: Washington head coach Ty Willingham was likely surprised when he walked off the airplane after arriving in Oklahoma City.
Willingham has tried this week to get his players prepared for much warmer weather than what they're used to in Seattle.
"We're anticipating 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity," Willingham said Monday. "We can't duplicate that in Washington."
Forecasts project the temperature closer to 85 degrees. But with a slight chance of rain, the humidity could be up.
Willingham said he did not practice in the team's indoor facility with the heater on, though they did go inside to better prepare for the noisy crowd they'll face today.
By Scott Wright
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