Quarterbacks Crop Up : Hilger and Others Try for Passing Grades at Raiders’ Minicamp

Los Angeles has been a quarterback town for at least 40 years. The Rams introduce a new starter almost every season, and at times even the Raiders are good for a quarterback controversy.

So it was no upset this week when the Raiders brought in four new, young quarterbacks for their minicamp at El Segundo.

One was drafted last month. He is Rusty Hilger of Oklahoma State--a tall, strapping, fresh-faced youngster who threw the long spiral pretty well Friday.

“I’m here to stay if they want me,” Hilger said.

After looking him over, Coach Tom Flores said: “He has the self-confidence and quick release you want.”

The other new quarterbacks, all coming in as free agents, are Russ Jensen of Cal Lutheran and the USFL, Matt Mendoza of Northern Arizona, and John Coppens of Illinois State.

None will make the team this week because that isn’t what minicamps are for.

“We aren’t here to evaluate these fellows,” Flores said, standing in bright sunshine as his four young quarterbacks and 60 other prospects hustled around. “We’re just here to show them what you have to do to play in our system--the blocking combinations, the defensive coverages, the (quarterback) dropbacks, the pass routes, even the huddles. We’ll begin measuring their progress later.”

All three practices are being filmed by order of Flores, who ranks the movies as his principal tool this week.

“You don’t just learn your position when you start with us,” he said. “You have to see the whole picture. The way to pass the ball right is for every player on the team to understand the whole Raider passing game.”

Ron Wolf, the club’s personnel director, was neither surprised nor disappointed by anything he saw of the 15 draft choices and the others on hand, many of them free agents from big schools--Wisconsin, Penn State, Illinois, Texas.

“You can’t tell about any prospect until the drudgery begins at training camp,” Wolf said.

Does a free agent here really have a chance?

“Four of our veterans were free agents,” Wolf said, identifying linebackers Stanley Adams and Darryl Byrd, defensive lineman Rich Ackerman and wide receiver Cle Montgomery.

Presumably, draft choices have a better chance--quarterbacks particularly--and Hilger, a sixth-round pick, was the fourth quarterback chosen in this year’s draft.

A week ago, Hilger was in Tampa, contemplating what he said was a $1-million offer--with $400,000 guaranteed, including a signing bonus of $250,000--from John Bassett, the owner of the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL. Bassett has been recruiting players for his proposed new spring league.

“Even on the plane to Tampa, I was getting bad feelings about doing that,” Hilger said. “I decided not to, because I wanted to try the NFL. I’m here playing out a dream.”

At 23, Hilger stands 6-4 and weighs 205--the right numbers for the Raiders--and he has a hunch he’ll make it in Los Angeles. But despite an excellent college career, he has more modesty than illusions.

“I expected to go on about the sixth round because at Oklahoma State I got their 29th and last scholarship in 1980,” he said. “They asked me to walk on, but I couldn’t afford it. My brother is an electrical engineering major, and that’s all we (his family) could afford. They finally gave me a scholarship. No other school even offered me one.”

He has been a quarterback since high school in Oklahoma City, where his father is a buyer for a sound equipment firm.

Recommended to the Raiders by quarterback coach Larry Kennan, Hilger said that, given his choice, he’d have taken either the Raiders or 49ers.

“They have the good programs,” he said. “But more than that, they have starters I knew I could learn from--Jim Plunkett and Marc Wilson, or Joe Montana.”

Hilger asked for and got Raider uniform No. 12.

“That’s Roger Staubach’s number,” he said. “Staubach was my idol. He was always the same man, win or lose.”

Raider Notes This weekend’s minicamp is the first of four preseason Raider phases, Coach Tom Flores said. The veterans will be in for three days later this month; the rookies will be back for three more days next month, and training camp will start at the Oxnard Hilton Hotel in July. . . . The only absent draft choice is Nebraska defensive back Bret Clark, who was drafted after he had joined the USFL. “We think he’s that good,” Ron Wolf, personnel director, said. “We’ll wait for him.” . . . Veteran guard Don Mosebar is in camp this week, playing center. “We’re always trying for versatility,” General Manager Al LoCasale said.