Oklahoma's Top 20 recruiting what-ifs, No. 1: Rhett Bomar

As much as any player since Marcus Dupree, the Rhett Bomar saga at Oklahoma serves as a cautionary tale for just how unpredictable college football recruiting can be.

Bomar was as close to a sure thing as there is for a college quarterback: a coach’s kid, big, strong, fast, athletic, a live arm and soaked up the game's nuances like a sponge.

But along with all those 5-star traits and all those high school All-America accolades, Bomar also came with a king-sized sense of entitlement that ultimately was his downfall in Norman.

He was unanimously the best high school quarterback prospect in the nation in the 2004 class coming out of Grand Prairie, TX. At 6-foot-4 and 208 pounds, Bomar was physically ready to play college football. But he still had some growing up to do, and that showed both on the field — and off.

After redshirting behind 2003 Heisman winner Jason White as a freshman in ’04, Bomar opened the 2005 season second-team behind Paul Thompson. But when Thompson hit just 11-of-26 passes for 109 yards with an interception and a red-zone fumble in a shocking loss to TCU, Bomar got his shot the next week — and with Thompson moving to wide receiver, Bomar held the job for the rest of a wildly uneven season.

Bomar didn’t throw the ball once in the second half against Tulsa, he fumbled four times at UCLA and went just 12-of-33 for 94 yards with two crucial turnovers against Texas as the Sooners struggled to a 2-3 start.

But then he threw crunch-time touchdowns against Kansas and Baylor, he passed for 206 yards and three touchdowns against Oklahoma State, and he threw for 298 yards and had two touchdowns in a tight win over Texas A&M. By the end of the season, Bomar was MVP of the Holiday Bowl.

Big things were clearly ahead for Bomar and the OU offense, which was evolving after Chuck Long took the San Diego State job and Kevin Wilson stepped in as offensive coordinator. Bomar completed just 54 percent of his passes for 2,018 yards with 10 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, but he was destined for stardom.

The following summer, however, — one day before the start of the 2006 training camp — Bomar was called into Bob Stoops’ office after OU's NCAA compliance office learned that Bomar and two teammates had been working no-show jobs at Big Red Sports and Imports. Stoops gave Bomar the chance to come clean, but Bomar denied it. Stoops showed him the proof, then showed him the door.

Before Bomar had even packed his bags, Stoops asked Thompson to return to quarterback, and he agreed — then led the Sooners to the 2006 Big 12 Championship.

Bomar, meanwhile, transferred to FCS Sam Houston State, where he had two very productive seasons — 6,159 total yards in just 19 games, including 507 passing yards in one game — before suffering a broken leg in 2008.

Bomar was a Sporting News honorable mention All-American, earned All-Southland honors twice, ranked No. 2 in FCS in total offense and No. 4 in passing offense, compiled nine 300-yard games and became just the 11th player in FCS history to throw for more than 300 yards and run for more than 100 yards in a single game.

Bomar was drafted in the fifth round by the New York Giants in 2009, and he spent the next four seasons in and out of training camps and practice squads with the Giants, Vikings and Raiders.

In 2013, he became a high school football coach, and today Bomar is the offensive coordinator at Conroe High School in Texas.

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This series

National Signing Day is around the corner, so SI Sooners is examining Oklahoma’s biggest recruiting what-ifs of the last 20 years.

This is about players who arrived (or almost arrived) at Oklahoma but then, for whatever reason, left well before they reached their potential.

This is what college football recruiting is all about: the risk-reward that comes with not knowing a prospect's potential. For every Adrian Peterson, there's a Rhett Bomar. For every Tommie Harris, there's a Moe Dampeer.

The time period is since 2000, when online recruiting services and the current "star" system became prominent.

The rankings were compiled by SI Sooners publisher John Hoover, Sports Animal host Al Eschbach, KREF host James Hale and Sooner Spectator publisher Jay Upchurch.

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How Hoover voted:

I ranked Rhett Bomar No. 1 on my list, as did two of the other three voters. Bomar's talent was undeniable — almost indescribable. He had one of the quickest releases the college game has ever seen, an absolute cannon of an arm and showed flashes of top-shelf accuracy. He had the prototype frame (6-4, 210), but he was unbelievably both quick and fast (his best 40 time was in the range of 4.5 flat). He also had a high football IQ (he was coached by his dad) and just enough cockiness/confidence to will himself to succeed. The finer points of Bomar's game were only going to improve the more Chuck Long coached him, but then, just went things got going, Long went to San Diego State and Bomar went to Sam Houston State.

There were six former Sooners who were named to all four ballots: Bomar, Trey Metoyer, Moe Dampeer, Jermie Calhoun, Chris Patterson and Brent Rawls. You can read about the others at the links from the list below. In all, 46 players received votes:

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Top 20 Oklahoma Recruiting What-Ifs

(since 2000)