Thursday, November 21, 1996
COMPARISON:
Quarterback Otton looks to redeem USC after a disappointing
seasonBy John Kelly
Daily Bruin Contributor
"I know that I have slipped quite a bit."
The sorrow and regret in Brad Otton’s voice is tangible when he
recounts the tale of his shattered dream season. He has faced
adversity and come out on the losing end, and now approaches the
finale of a collegiate career that ends, not with a bang, but with
a muffled whimper.
His USC team, touted by some as a contender for the national
championship, has instead stumbled and fallen on its way to a
mediocre 5-5 season.
Assailed by critics for his lack of offensive production,
Otton’s long and difficult quest to reach the NFL looks
increasingly desperate. His vision of the future, as he knows, will
be challenged in the next few weeks as USC takes on their perennial
rivals UCLA and Notre Dame.
"It was pretty early on in two-a-days that I realized that I
wasn’t going to be able to have the kind of year I wanted," Otton
said. "I wanted to be one of the top quarterbacks in the nation,
but … it has been a frustrating year, not just for myself but for
the whole team, and it has been really tough to deal with."
Otton had entered this season with high hopes after he
transferred to USC from Weber State after his freshman season.
"I was a little Mormon kid who followed BYU," Otton said.
"Besides that, I really didn’t follow anything else, I didn’t
follow the USC-UCLA rivalry. I didn’t even stop to think that they
were in the same city. I didn’t even know where they were
located."
Otton fought through a quarterback controversy last year. Kyle
Wachholtz, a senior, split time with Otton until the end of the
season, when Wachholtz surrendered the job to the junior.
"I said before this season that it was a tough situation, and
that I really didn’t learn anything from it," Otton said. "I would
rather not have done it, but I did learn a lot from it."
Even though California upset USC in the Coliseum, it still
appeared that the Trojans could pull off a successful season and
contend for the Rose Bowl.
Now, after losses to Arizona State, Washington and Stanford, USC
is bleeding and facing elimination from bowl game prospects. This
clearly weighs on Otton’s thinking as he attempts to end UCLA’s
five-year domination of the Trojans.
"Our goal was to go to the Rose Bowl. Anything short of that,
we’re just playing for pride, we’re just playing to win," he said.
"We’ve had a few disappointing games in recent weeks, there’s been
criticism from outside the program, and I think that the team has
felt the pressure."
Otton still stands behind the USC program and his coach, John
Robinson.
"Fans are going to blame the coach when things are going wrong,
especially at a school like this," he said. "For the school to not
understand that we have a young team that has struggled, and to
blame that on the coach, is wrong. I think that the players are
aware of that, and are pretty frustrated by that."
Otton put in a solid performance when he played in last year’s
UCLA-USC game. In three quarters of play, he went 17-for-23 for 151
yards and two touchdowns. Yet he was still disappointed with both
his and his team’s performance.
"I thought I played pretty solid," he said. "(In past years) we
haven’t gotten our best performance, we haven’t been loose, and
we’ve made a lot of mental mistakes. Last year, that was something
that we wanted to change, but … even without those (mistakes), I
think they outplayed us."
Otton knows that his performance this year has reflected poorly
on his prospects for the NFL.
"When I’m on the field I try not to think about these things,"
he said. "Basically, I don’t care where I get drafted. I just want
to prove that I can play at that level.
"That’s all I can hope for at this point."
USC Sports Info
USC quarterback Brad Otton