Neuheisel Again the Ugly Duckling : Former UCLA Quarterback Stands Out at Charger Camp

It was Picture Day at Charger training camp and Rick Neuheisel was being given a hard time about his shiny uniform pants.

It seems he’d gotten the odd pair in the barrel. Neuheisel laughed along with the players who teased him, and admitted he would rather be in the plain white pants everyone else was wearing.

“You like to blend in,” he said.

Neuheisel, 26, is still trying to look a little taller, a little quicker, a little more like the kind of guy you’d entrust your offense to in the big game.

At UCLA, Neuheisel didn’t blend in, either. Instead, he emerged as a star. He overcame what he considers a lack of height--the Chargers list him at 6 feet 1 inch, but he says he’s shorter--and the fact that he had been a walk-on as a freshman, to set a National Collegiate Athletic Assn. passing record and lead the Bruins to a Rose Bowl victory.

Neuheisel is in Charger training camp, an underdog again, to compete with three other quarterbacks for a spot on the team behind starter Dan Fouts and backup Mark Herrmann.

“I’m the ugly duckling again,” Neuheisel said, smiling. “Realistically, I’m a longshot.”

Given Neuheisel’s history, those humble words should strike fear into the hearts of his competition--Tom Flick, Mike Moroski and Mark Vlasic.

Flick, last year’s No. 3 quarterback, did well in his three National Football League starts. Moroski proved himself a valuable backup with the Atlanta Falcons and the San Francisco 49ers. Vlasic’s performance at Iowa made him the Charger’s fourth-round draft selection.

But they haven’t thrived on the underdog role the way Neuheisel has throughout his career.

And he’s doing it again.

Last Thursday, in the Chargers’ scrimmage against the Rams, Neuheisel outperformed the three other quarterbacks.

In the 11-on-11 match-up, Neuheisel completed all five of his passes for 77 yards. In the 7-on-7 scrimmage, he was 5 for 8 and finished with 124 yards passing and no interceptions.

“I think I bought myself another week,” Neuheisel said.

He also bought some praise from Coach Al Saunders.

“In 11-on-11, he never had a third-down situation,” Saunders said. “He showed he has the spark to lead a football team. He showed leadership and ingenuity.”

Neuheisel, who starred at McClintock High School in Tempe, Ariz., passed up offers from other colleges and decided to take his chances with UCLA. After making the team as a walk-on freshman, he redshirted his sophomore year. He had little playing time in two years as a backup, but finally got his break in 1983, when Steve Bono was injured.

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” he said. “There were a ton of other guys with just as much talent.”

Neuheisel set an NCAA single-game record for completion percentage when he hit 25 of 27 (92.6%) for 287 yards against Washington that season. In the 45-9 Rose Bowl victory over Illinois, he was named player of the game.

“It was a storybook season,” Neuheisel said.

He signed a two-year contract with the San Antonio Gunslingers of the USFL. After two seasons, he signed a three-year contract with the Arizona Outlaws, but the USFL went out of business before he ever played with the team.

Neuheisel met Roger Theder, the Chargers’ quarterback coach, during his two mini-camps in Arizona, when Theder was the Outlaws’ offensive coordinator.

“I thought he had real talent and was very bright,” Theder said. “I thought he’d be ideal for the offense.”

Theder didn’t think Neuheisel’s height necessarily limited him.

“He makes up for it with the great mind he has. I’m impressed with his understanding of the game,” Theder said. “And he has a much stronger arm than I had thought.”

Last year, Neuheisel was in his second year at USC law school and was a volunteer coach at UCLA.

In the spring, Neuheisel got a call from Theder. Neuheisel told the Chargers he had a law school final (he didn’t, really) as an excuse to buy an extra week of training time, and he worked out with the UCLA wide receivers.

The Chargers sent receiver coach Charlie Joiner to Los Angeles to critique Neuheisel. Joiner liked what he saw.

Neuheisel plans to finish law school, but he thinks a career in coaching may be ahead of him. So any extra knowledge he picks up--even knowing how it feels to get cut from an NFL team--will come in handy.

“Football is a great career, but I’m not going to chase it to the extreme,” he said. “Regardless of what happens, this experience is a valuable one.”

“There’s little Rick Neuheisel couldn’t do,” Theder said.

What he wants to do right now is make the Charger team.

“I’ve been a longshot before,” Neuheisel said. “That’s when I’m dangerous.”