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HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Rhett Bomar's outlook mirrors the
slogan on a billboard advertising Sam Houston State along
Interstate 45 -- "No Better Time. No Better Future." Now 22, the disgraced Oklahoma quarterback has found a
comfortable niche on this quiet, wooded campus about 70 miles north
of Houston, the ideal place to make a fresh start after a bad
decision that could've cost him his career. The crowds are smaller where Sam Houston plays, in the Football
Championship Subdivision, formerly I-AA. The uniforms and
facilities aren't as fancy, the media attention is scant and
Bomar's new team makes most of its road trips on buses, not
chartered planes. But Bomar's aspirations haven't changed. He still believes he's
one of the best quarterbacks in the country, still capable of
leading a team to a national championship and good enough to play
in the NFL. This week, all the old, ugly questions have resurfaced one more
time because, in an ironic twist, the Bearkats (2-1) visit Oklahoma
State (2-2) on Saturday. It'll be Bomar's first trip back to the
state since he and offensive lineman J.D. Quinn were dismissed from
Oklahoma for getting paid for work they didn't do at a car
dealership in 2005. The NCAA stripped Oklahoma of its eight victories in 2005, when
Bomar played as a redshirt freshman, and took away two scholarships
from the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years. The school is appealing
the scholarship reductions. Bomar, meanwhile, landed at Sam Houston, a program with a
history of resurrecting quarterbacks who came from the higher
division. Chris Chaloupka (Oklahoma State), Josh McCown (SMU) and
Dustin Long (Texas A&M) are among the products, and McCown now
plays for the Oakland Raiders. Bomar plunged into the program immediately, followed his new
coaches' instructions and ingratiated himself with his new
teammates. But inside his own head, the transition wasn't so easy. He was one of the highest-rated prep quarterbacks in the country
coming out of Grand Prairie (Texas) High School and was the next
anointed star at one of the nation's most glamorous programs. Now
he was here, and he had to swallow some ego before accepting the
new path of his life. "Everybody knows it's a tough deal, whatever, but I really
don't think about it anymore," he said. "Everybody helped me get
through it. I knew I was going to come out on top, I was going to
be all right. Once I got back to playing football, I figured
everything would be fine." His teammates say he's never shown a hint of an
"I'm-better-than-this-place" attitude. "He came in and nobody really knew what to expect," said
senior center Brennan Williams. "Some people thought he would come
in from such a big school and act different. But he came in and he
wanted to be one of us. He wanted to put everything at OU aside and
just become a Bearkat." After anxiously sitting out in 2006, Bomar has put up
spectacular numbers this season, averaging 323 yards of total
offense per game, which ranks sixth in the nation at the FCS level.
He's completed 69 of 111 passes for 819 yards and eight touchdowns
and the Bearkats are ranked 15th nationally. By all accounts, he's fit in perfectly. "Rhett is very thankful to be at Sam Houston," said third-year
coach Todd Whitten. "Rhett's working very hard and I think he is
certainly making the most of his second chance. And we're thankful
to have him." The big difference now, of course, is that Bomar is playing in
obscurity, in places like Fargo, N.D., and Thibodaux, La., instead
of Austin and San Diego, where Bomar and the Sooners won the
Holiday Bowl after the 2005 season. The national spotlight never aims here, but that doesn't seem to
faze Bomar. "Even though it's a smaller place, it doesn't matter," he
said. "When you're out there playing, you don't notice that
there's 15,000 or 80,000 in the stands. You don't pay attention to
that stuff. The good players don't. It's been a blast playing so
far. I'm just looking forward to the rest of the season." Bomar has one more season of eligibility left after this season
and Gil Brandt, an NFL draft analyst, said Bomar is still a mystery
to many pro scouts right now. But Brandt said it shouldn't hurt
Bomar's stock in the long run that he's dwelling in the second tier
of college football. "If he's still got the talent, they'll see it," Brandt said.
"And the difference is Bomar is really a I-A player. He's not
playing at I-AA because he couldn't play at the highest level. He's
playing at I-AA because of circumstances. I don't think he's lost a
step." Brandt doesn't think Bomar's dismissal for Oklahoma will hurt
him, either. "I don't think what he did will be considered a character
flaw," Brandt said. "There's no pattern of serious offenses." Still, Bomar brushes away questions from the media about the
Oklahoma ordeal and his teammates say he hasn't opened up to them
about it, either. Bomar says he hasn't kept in touch with his former teammates in
Norman, nor paid much attention to the Sooners' impressive 4-0
start this season. He's a different person now, he says, one who
would never look back at his time there if he could help it. "I guess I've become a lot more mature," he said. "I've
experienced a lot of things not a lot of people experience in their
life, going through a lot of stuff. It's been tough, but I think
I've grown up and I'm ready to move on." As for Saturday's game against Oklahoma State, Bomar says,
"It's just another game to me." The fans in Stillwater probably see it differently, and Bomar
says he'll laugh off the derisive taunts that will surely come his
way. Bomar has never played at Boone Pickens Stadium -- the Sooners
beat Oklahoma State 42-14 in Norman when Bomar was the quarterback. "People are always going to say stuff. That's how fans are at
an opponents' field," he said. "I hope they do. It doesn't bother
me at all. I think it's funny and it gets me more motivated." Bomar shrugs off the notion that this game is his big chance to
prove he can still perform at the highest level. He answers by
saying it's a huge opportunity for his team and the entire program,
not just him. "Everybody wants to make it a big deal, just because I'm going
back to the state," he said. "I'll let everybody else worry about
that. I'm just worried about Sam Houston and winning football
games. That's my main focus right now."
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