DAVID NORRIE : UCLA Passer Will Pit His Low Profile Against a Long Profile

As the time draws near for the Rose Bowl game this New Year’s Day--as the stories are told and the names made famous--one who most certainly will be shrugged off is UCLA’s quarterback, David Norrie.

That’s nothing new. Norrie went unnoticed through his first four years at UCLA, and when he finally became the starter this season, he was characterized as a solid, consistent athlete who patiently waited his turn. Every time he was mentioned, he was praised for having a great attitude.

It’s a compliment, sure. Kind of like complimenting a blind date’s wonderful personality.

Norrie has managed to direct the Bruin team to the Pac-10 championship and a berth in the Rose Bowl game and has finished the regular season as the highest-rated quarterback in the conference, only to be lost in the glare of the spotlights on All-American kicker John Lee, running back Gaston Green and record-setting split end Mike Sherrard.

Now, with the Iowa team in town, the only quarterback being described in superlatives is the Hawkeyes’ Chuck Long. After three years of setting records at Iowa, Long was the runner-up in the closest-ever voting for the Heisman Trophy.

So David Norrie, after finally winning the starting position in his fifth season, after putting his UCLA team in the Rose Bowl game for his last game as a Bruin, after making all those dreams come true, is still trying to shake that “consistent . . . good attitude” rap.

Then again, maybe it’s all for the best. As Norrie put it: “Let Chuck Long go in with all the publicity and all the expectations. I’ll go in with the low profile, and maybe that will be to my advantage.

“I’m looking forward to being at my best against Iowa. I feel very positive about it.

“I have always admired athletes who are at their best in the big games. That’s why I was so pleased with my game against USC. We didn’t win it, which takes a lot away from it. That was so frustrating. But I know, in my own mind, that I played a good game that day. I felt the sharpest I had been all season. I was proud of myself because I believe that you should be at your best in the big games.”

Even after all those years of standing around on the practice field and standing on the sidelines with a clipboard, playing behind Tom Ramsey, playing behind Rick Neuheisel, playing behind Steve Bono, even playing behind the younger Matt Stevens, Norrie is not lacking for confidence.

Norrie, a 6-4 1/2, 212-pound athlete from Portland, Ore., is used to success in athletics. Coming out of high school, he had to choose among baseball, basketball and football.

Norrie considers himself a good enough athlete to merit a little more credit than just “consistent.” Of course, he should feel that way. While he’s on the subject, he adds that Neuheisel, who was a very close friend and a Sigma Nu fraternity brother, was unfairly saddled with the same “consistent, no mistakes” kind of backhanded compliments that plague him now. “Rick Neuheisel was a much better athlete than he was ever given credit for, too,” Norrie said.

But he even claims that the “good attitude” part of his image is incorrect.

“I didn’t always have a good attitude,” Norrie said. “At this time last year, actually, later in January when we came back to workouts after the Fiesta Bowl, I was very disappointed. I was bitter. I knew that I wasn’t even the favorite going into spring practice. I knew the coaches had more confidence in Matt (Stevens), and I was willing to blame everyone else, everyone but myself, for why I wasn’t getting a fair chance.

“I was letting it be pretty well known that I had a bad attitude. I wasn’t trying to hide it. That was when I had a talk with Coach (Terry) Donahue, and he told me that I could call it quits right then or I could put all this aside and start anew.

“I don’t know how much Coach Donahue meant it when he told me I could start over and have a fair chance, but I meant it when I told him I would do it. Everything was much better after that. A lot of the problem did lie in the fact that I was more concerned with why I wasn’t getting a fair chance than with just doing what I had to do to prove myself to them.

“I decided that, no matter what kind of politics were going on, I would go out on the field and show who was the best. . . . The real progress is made during games and with game experience, but I wasn’t getting the chance to show what I could do in games. . . . I had never been a good practice player. I’m just one of those guys who gets in a game and has a feel for what has to be done. I rely on my athletic ability. But I wasn’t showing them what they wanted to see in practice.

“Last spring, I realized that I had to do it in practice if I was ever going to get to show anything in a game.”

Homer Smith, the UCLA offensive coordinator and the man responsible for honing the skills of the Bruin quarterbacks, had heard Norrie’s opinion on not being a practice player before. Obviously, Norrie had heard his response before, too. Smith said in his careful, quiet tone: “Oh, you have to be a practice player at UCLA if you are going to be a game player. We insist upon that.”

Norrie describes his five-year stint under Smith’s tutelage as a “love-hate relationship.”

Norrie said: “Coach Smith is one of the greatest people I’ve ever met in my life. He’s really an amazing person. But he is on my butt all the time. He never used to yell at Ramsey or Bono or Neuheisel. You know that. But he’s always yelling at me. Maybe that’s what it takes to keep me into practice. I guess I need somebody pushing me like that all the time.

“He says I am not ‘fastidious.’ He wants every move just so. Every foot placed exactly. He’s very military in his approach. I really try to do things Coach Smith’s way--I had to, if I was ever going to get into a game--but I’m not as good at getting things just right in practice as I am at reacting once I get into a game.”

Still, Norrie managed to practice well enough last spring--despite two minor automobile accidents that cost him some playing time--to pass Stevens and win the starting job for the opener at BYU.

Stevens came off the bench to pull out the victory that ended BYU’s 25-game winning streak, and Norrie had to celebrate the big victory with a big lump in his throat.

“I was happy that we won, and I didn’t want any of the other players to have their happiness spoiled by me, but I was trying to deal with the thought that, after one game, I was through,” Norrie said. “I really didn’t think I’d ever get another shot.

“I was so ticked off at myself that I decided if I ever got in a game again, I would just rip the ball around and go for it instead of being so careful like I was against BYU. In that first game, I was afraid of making mistakes instead of just going out to hit some passes.”

Stevens started the next game, at Tennessee, but Norrie got another shot. Norrie came off the bench to throw two touchdowns passes in the furious, late rally that gave UCLA a 26-26 tie. “When I got in the game at Tennessee, I wasn’t thinking of how many points it would take to come back or anything like that--I was just thinking about hitting some passes,” Norrie said.

Going into the Rose Bowl game, Norrie has completed 136 of 214 passes (63.6%) for 1,819 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Smith, for one, is not surprised that Norrie had that kind of success in his fifth season after not playing for four seasons. Smith said: “Remember, he had an untold investment in preparation. He had spent countless hours preparing himself.”

But Smith is not going to perpetuate the image of the well-drilled, mistake-free, five-year project who is filling a role for the Bruins despite a lack of talent. “David has some gifts,” Smith said. “He does a lot of things that make him appear to be, maybe, not as good as he really is. He doesn’t run as well as some, for example. But he has a positively gifted throwing arm.

“He has the ability to drop a ball in, just where he wants it. He can put a little lift on it and make it drop right in. It takes a little push. I’ve tried to teach that kind of touch, but I don’t think it can be taught. It’s a gift.”

Smith also dispels the myth that it takes four years in his system for a quarterback to be ready to direct the Bruin offense. After all, Norrie is the fourth straight senior quarterback to take UCLA to a New Year’s Day bowl game.

“Coincidence,” Smith said. “Tom Ramsey was a senior when he played quarterback in the Rose Bowl game (after the 1982 season) but he had been our quarterback for three years. The next year, we expected it to be Steve Bono (then a junior), but he was hurt and it became Rick Neuheisel. Then it was Bono.

“This year, David Norrie won the job.”