THE QUARTERBACK QUESTION : RAIDERS : Hilger Wants to Make the Team, Davis Wants Him to Make the Franchise

A rookie’s progress:

Everyone knows young quarterbacks have a lot to learn in pro ball, none more than Rookie Rusty of the Raiders, who started with the basics.

Like learning to buckle his chin strap.

“We’re at Seattle,” Rusty Hilger remembered, smiling. “National TV. Marc (Wilson) gets hurt for like one play. We’re down on the goal line. I go in, and for some reason, my chin strap just does not want to close.

“It wouldn’t fit. I’m fumbling with it in the huddle, and all the linemen are trying to help me. (Of) course, I look like a kid out there, anyway, and now the offensive linemen are taking care of me, like a puppy. Everyone had their joke about that one.”

Laughs around the quarterback position grew hard to come by. Raider veterans report Thursday, and Coach Tom Flores has declared it a competitive position, the first time it’s been so listed--or, put another way, up for grabs--since Flores was one of the quarterbacks.

The first depth chart showed: 1. Marc Wilson; 2. Jim Plunkett, and 3. Hilger.

Is Hilger a distant third or what? Is he in the running?

Hilger has heard that Al Davis, who has been one of Hilger’s boosters since drafting him in the sixth round a year ago, has said, “We don’t want to destroy him.”

Flores says Hilger will get a shot “depending on how far we feel he’s come.” A Raider official says that Flores isn’t just being polite, and Hilger is being watched closely. His play in today’s scrimmage against the Dallas Cowboys could mean a lot.

Flores has already had a this-is-the-situation meeting with his older quarterbacks.

And what has Hilger been told?

“Absolutely nothing,” Hilger said a couple of days ago. “Absolutely nothing. But they really don’t need to. Gosh, ever since I came in here, you could always tell the situation, just by what was going on on the field. There’s no need for a lot of talk.

“Right now, I’m trying to make the damn team. It’s not like I’m vying for a starting job.”

Does he pick up happy vibes on the field?

“No sir,” he said. “No sir. It’s funny. If some of the people I talked to in the off-season were coaches, I’d have a good feeling.

“Here, if I do something wrong, I hear about it. If I do something right, they say, ‘Good job.’

“That’s how it is throughout the organization. They’re not here to pump you up. If you can win for them, fine. If they don’t feel you can, then you suffer the consequences. It’s kinda weird.

“It’s not a big thing, whether people are saying, ‘Rusty’s competing for the starting job.’ My biggest fight is to become good enough that everyone knows I’m competing. I don’t want it to be a case of the fans saying, ‘Put the kid in, everything else has gone wrong.’ ”

A year ago, they put the kid in twice when Wilson was hurt. At New England in his first appearance, Hilger sprayed six incompletions all over Foxboro, Mass., before Todd Christensen scooped up a sinking fastball in the end zone that sealed a 35-20 Raider win.

Two weeks later, when the New Orleans Saints’ Bruce Clark buried Wilson at midfield, Hilger came in and was the quarterback for a 2-play, 50-yard scoring drive.

The fans booed when Wilson came back in with his separated shoulder taped down. Afterward, Hilger, the new people’s choice, pointed out that he was still kind of on the lost side.

But he’s finding himself.

“It’s different now,” Hilger said. “I know what they want. I feel comfortable with this whole organization. I feel comfortable with the offense.

“But I’m just raw. I haven’t had to deal with all the adversity in the game. What happens when it’s third and 25 and they bring everybody? Can I handle that? We’re not working on that right now, but the point comes, can you pick up a blitz like some of the great ones like Ken Stabler did?”

Stabler, of course, sat for three seasons before making the Raider lineup. If Wilson had been unable to start the game after that one against the Saints, which then seemed possible, Hilger would have become the first rookie quarterback ever to start for the Raiders. That tells you something about Davis’ preferences.

On the other hand, Hilger consoles himself with the knowledge that he has fought his way up before.

“My sophomore year at Oklahoma State, we’re playing Nebraska, and our quarterback gets hurt,” he said. “The coach comes up, stands in front of me, looks both ways and says, ‘Do the best you can.’ How’s that for confidence? That was Jimmy Johnson, now of the Miami Hurricanes.

“That was after getting the last scholarship they offered. And that was because two kids who they wanted went to other schools. They asked me if I’d walk on. I said, ‘No can do.’ Even the NAIA schools didn’t offer me a scholarship.

“I just needed to be taught some things. My first year, I had a quarterback coach named Bob Leahy. He was an East Coast guy who’d scream at me, ‘You (bleep), where did you learn that?’

“The next year, he became a born-again Christian. My confidence was so low after my freshman year, I had to go under the door rather than through it.

“Nebraska beat us something like 56-7. However, I scored the touchdown. It was a great feeling. That was the first touchdown anyone had scored against them in 24 quarters.

“The next game I started, and it was the 13th-best passing game in Oklahoma State history. After all was said and done, I won more games than any quarterback in Oklahoma State history. I had the highest rating they ever had. I set nine school records.”

Think of all he’s learned since then, including how to put on his helmet in times of stress. It all helps.