Where's Bomar?
Published: 8/30/2006 1:53 PM
Last Modified: 8/30/2006 1:53 PM
Bob Stoops said it, and, as usual, he meant it.
Back on July 26, sitting at a media day roundtable encircled by a couple dozen Big 12 Conference reporters, Stoops' question-and-answer session turned to NCAA violations. The questions were in reference to Reggie Bush and his family allegedly living in housing provided by a sports agent.
Stoops, not talking about Bush in particular but rather in a general sense of how players who knowingly break NCAA rules would be vilified, said, among other things, "your picture's off the wall here."
If you've seen the newer version of the 2006 OU media guide, you know Stoops obviously meant business.
Rhett Bomar, deported for taking money at a job he hardly worked, is almost nowhere to be found.
In Oklahoma's initial run of media guides – a run of 600, which went to Kansas City for Big 12 media days, Bomar's photo is prominently displayed nine times, including the back cover.
But a week after Stoops uttered his prophetic words, OU severed its ties to Bomar – then began severing him from the media guide.
Kenny Mossman, senior associate athletic director for communications (a title once known as sports information director), approached Stoops and athletic director Joe Castiglione asking if they wanted to change the guide.
After they said yes, ensuing prints of the 208-page guide were altered, sans Bomar. That means about 13,000 copies, which are sold to fans, mailed to national media and kept for the archives, don't have the QB, or his partner in NCAA crime, offensive lineman J.D. Quinn.
University Press in Norman prints the guide, and has stacks of finished pages laying around waiting to be bound, so the change wasn't that difficult. Mossman said he didn't know the final expense of the last-minute change, but didn't anticipate it would be outlandish. He said the practice of printing the book in stages saves the school from such large-scale embarrassment, and he was right about this one.
There may be red numbers in Mossman's media guide budget, but at least there are no red faces at the university for keeping Bomar's image around for the 2006 season.
As it stands, the only remaining pic of Bomar in the new printing is on page 23, something of a "Where's Waldo?" It's a celebratory team photo after the Holiday Bowl. Bomar's face, partially obscured and about half the size of a pea, is in the upper-right corner. He was, after all, offensive MVP of the game.
Curiously, one item probably should have been changed that wasn't. QB Paul Thompson, who lost his job to Bomar last year, moved to wide receiver and then replaced Bomar a month ago, has an action photo that appears four pages ahead of his bio. Only, it shows him lining up at wide receiver.
I see somebody making money off this on eBay.
Here's a list of the pages that were changed from the original printing to the current edition:
* Back cover, removed from the center of a group of five players. Quinn was also taken down and replaced by CB D.J. Wolfe.
* Page 22, bowl championships: half-page photo, replaced by LT Chris Messner.
* Page 32, explosive offense: tiny pic replaced by RB Allen Patrick.
* Page 33, explosive offense: medium-sized photo replaced by WR Juaquin Iglesias.
* Page 48, Sooners in the community: quarter-page pic with young girls replaced by RB Jacob Gutierrez with a young boy.
* Page 60, 2006 season outlook: half-page pic replaced by Bob Stoops.
* Page 91, The Sooners: full-page pic replaced by DE Larry Birdine.
* Page 95, Bomar's bio: half-page bio removed, one-third-page pic replaced by Birdine.
* Page 132, 2005 season review: A quarter-page pic of Bomar replaced by CB D.J. Wolfe.
The removal of Bomar's bio affected 28 subsequent pages, as follows:
- SS Jason Carter's action photo was changed.
- FB Matt Clapp had an action photo added.
- C Jon Cooper had an action switched to his bio page from a later page.
- DT Carl Pendleton's action photo was moved up 12 pages.
- TE Joe Jon Finley's action photo was changed.
- PK Garrett Hartley's action photo was removed.
- WR Manuel Johnson had an action photo added.
- LB Zach Latimer's action photo was removed.
- LT Chris Messner's action photo was changed.
- RB Allen Patrick had an action photo added.
- LB Demarrio Pleasant had an action photo added.
- J.D. Quinn's bio and quarter-page action photo was removed.
- FB Dane Zaslaw's action photo was removed.
– John E. Hoover
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
