A Numbers Racket : Free Agent From Occidental Joins a Crowd in Quest for a Spot in the Raider Secondary

Todd Stoney pulled off the road at a tiny bar on the outskirts of Santa Maria. He couldn’t just listen to this Los Angeles Raiders exhibition game on the radio, he had to see it.

Raider rookie Vance Mueller, a graduate of Occidental College, needed a Marcus Allen-esque performance at tailback that night, not only to impress the coaches, but to silence the cynics who deemed him a wasted draft pick.

The bar was empty, but Stoney was too excited to sit.

“He’d catch a ball or make a run and I was on the table jumping up and down,” said Stoney, 23, who played his freshman and sophomore seasons with Mueller. “I was saying, ‘Yeah, I know that guy.’ ”

So it was fitting that Mueller was on the sidelines when Stoney made his debut with the Raiders in last week’s rookie scrimmage against the Dallas Cowboys.

It was Mueller’s speed which prompted Raiders’ owner Al Davis to select the Division III player in the fourth round of the 1986 National Football League draft. Mueller averaged 21.8 yards per kickoff return last season to rank third in the AFC, and gained 4.7 yards per carry in limited backfield duty.

Stoney, too, caught the attention of the Raider coaching staff with his speed. A defensive back, he was timed in 4.4 seconds in the 40-yard dash. And though, at 5 feet, 10 inches, and 185 pounds, he is small by NFL standards, the coaches like his aggressive play.

“He’s a kid who ran impressive times and can fit into a situation,” said Jimmy Warren, the Raiders’ defensive backfield coach. “He’s a little spark plug. If he keeps improving and hustling he has a chance.”

However, Stoney’s optimism about making the cut is, at best, guarded. Just three months ago he felt the pain of draft-day exclusion.

“After Vance, people weren’t asking me, ‘Do you think you’ll get drafted?’ They were saying ‘What round do you think you’ll go in?’ ” said Stoney, who, on draft day, waited by the phone with Mueller and other friends to no avail. They finally decided to give up and play basketball.

“I was wondering, ‘Should I just take the hint now?’ ” he said.

Draft day was not only a big disappointment for Stoney, a four-time Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference first-team selection, but also for Occidental Coach Dale Widolff.

“We had been led to believe that he had a good chance to be drafted,” Widolff said.

One reason scouts might have overlooked Stoney is he had just four interceptions. However, Widolff says, other teams didn’t throw to Stoney’s side of the field.

While they were passing on Stoney, the Raiders drafted three Division I defensive backs: Tennessee’s Terry McDaniel in the first round, Dennis Price from UCLA (fifth) and Oklahoma’s Derrick Crudup (seventh). Stoney signed a free-agent contract with the Raiders a few days later.

With veteran Mike Haynes set at one cornerback spot and with three highly touted draft picks battling over the other spots, Stoney’s fight to make the roster is all uphill.

But simply being in camp is a victory in itself. Stoney turned his back on football after high school, electing to attend UCLA to pursue an engineering degree. But his Westwood dorm room was on the “sports floor” and his roommate and most of his neighbors were involved in athletics.

“The first week I thought it was great because I didn’t have to go to practice,” he said. “The guy next door would have to get up and go to track practice and I could sit in my room and have a beer. But after the first week you start missing it. In high school you play three sports a year and never slow down and you get used to it.”

The desire to return eventually became too intense for Stoney and he decided to start anew at Occidental. But his 140-pound frame did little to impress the coaches, who immediately put him on the third-string defense.

“I was thinking, ‘Great. I had everything set up at UCLA. I had friends and I transfer to Oxy and here I am. What are (my parents) going to say when I want to transfer back?’ ”

But Stoney stayed and the Tiger football program profitted.

He was the team’s most valuable player as a senior after sharing the honor his junior year. His freshman season, he was named co-rookie of the year. But success in college didn’t prepare Stoney for what he’d be facing in the NFL. In his first day at camp he participated in a one-on-one drill, receiver versus cornerback.

“I looked down and it was James Lofton,” he said. “That just blows you away right there.” So instead of focusing on who he is defending, Stoney concentrates on his assignment. That, he said, is the biggest improvement in his game.

The difference between pro football and small-college football is all too obvious, Stoney said.

“Not only is the receiver 10 times faster and runs a great pattern, but as soon as he whips his head around the ball’s humming in,” he said. “Even if you guard him he’s still going to catch it.”

Practices, too, are different. Workouts are shorter and more intense than those at Occidental.

“Things there happen so quick,” he said. “They have two offenses going and one defense and it’s just play after play after play. By the end of the practice you’re exhausted--there’s just a real high turnover.”

Mueller, too, sees Stoney maturing on the field.

“You would think he’s not in a very good situation,” Mueller said. “But you look at the things that he’s been doing on the field and you’ve got to give him all the credit for that and think that he can make it.”

When Stoney transferred to Occidental, he and Mueller became fast friends. So fast, in fact, that their 4x100-meter relay team won the Division III national championship in 1985.

Stoney often looks to Mueller for advice and the two spend a lot of time together away from football. A favorite hangout is Mueller’s home at the beach in El Segundo.

But Stoney is careful to downplay his professional aspirations.

“I don’t consider myself a Los Angles Raider,” he said. “I’m trying to be one. That’s the category I put myself in right now. I think the people who’ve made the team and played for a year can call themselves Raiders.”