THE NFL DRAFT : L.A. Has Bookends at Quarterback

And now for the cross-town quarterback-hype duel of the ages:

UCLA’s Troy Aikman is considered the next great college quarterback, but pro scouts give USC’s Rodney Peete a chance of making the first round of next year’s draft, too. Not since the days when O.J. Simpson was a Trojan and Gary Beban a Bruin has each school had a star so glamorous at the same time.

“It’s a very unusual situation to have two such fine quarterbacks in one city at the same time,” said personnel director Gil Brandt of the Dallas Cowboys. “I don’t even think there’ve been two quarterbacks who have that much ability in the same conference at the same time before.

“I think Rodney Peete is an excellent football player. Troy’s a year older. They’ve probably played the same amount of games, but Rodney hasn’t had spring practice.”

Peete is an infielder on the baseball team in the spring.

Brandt added: “I think the difference right now is, Aikman is a scratch golfer; Rodney is a 2-handicapper. There’s very little difference between a scratch golfer and a 2-handicapper.”