Zeddies Brings Bright Touch to Kingsmen Offense

The young, blond quarterback with the rifle arm drew a crowd when he worked out at the Dallas Cowboys’ Thousand Oaks camp.

Standing on the Cal Lutheran practice field, hitting receivers racing under the summer sun, he elicited admiring glances from the knot of fans who had gathered to watch him from the sidelines.

What these fans didn’t know was that they were looking at the future. The future, that is, of Cal Lutheran football.

That strong-armed, blond quarterback is Tim Zeddies, and he just happens to bear enough resemblance to a certain Dallas Cowboys’ rookie that reporters and fans confuse the two.

“Some reporters have come up to me and said ‘Hey, Troy, have you got a minute,”’ said Zeddies, one of several Cal Lutheran players who worked at the Cowboys’ camp. “And I say, ‘I’ve got a minute, but I’m not Troy.’ At first it was kind of fun. After about 100 times it got old.

“When we’re out here about 10 people watch me thinking I’m Troy Aikman, so I’ll get my teammates to call me Troy and get them to say things like ‘Hey, Troy, nice pass.’ ”

Those who have seen both quarterbacks can testify that, despite the Southern California beach boy looks, Zeddies is no Troy Aikman. At 6-feet-4 and 220 pounds, Aikman is larger in both name and physique than the 6-2, 190-pound Zeddies, yet both have shouldered the responsibility of resurrecting moribund programs.

Entering the season as the starter, Zeddies will attempt to lead the Kingsmen out of the wreckage of a 2-8 record. Not many teams entrust their future to a sophomore quarterback, but then not many freshmen play as much as Zeddies did last season.

Zeddies was barely out of La Mesa Helix High when he took control of the Kingsmen offense. After starter Jim Bees threw four first-half interceptions at St. Mary’s in the third game of the season, Cal Lutheran Coach Bob Shoup called on Zeddies.

Bells didn’t ring, but Zeddies did complete eight of 20 passes for 106 yards in a 30-23 loss. He went on to play in five other games and was named the team’s most valuable freshman.

Now that Bees has left the program, Zeddies has more experience leading the Cal Lutheran offense than any other quarterback on the roster.

“I only wish they would have used him more last year,” wide receiver Art Black said.

During the 1988 season Zeddies passed for 381 yards, completing 40 of 102 passes. He finished second on the team in total offense, but his efforts were overshadowed by a season-ending, eight-game losing streak.

“I lost more games in one season than I did my whole career,” said Zeddies, who twice led Helix to the San Diego Section playoffs. “It’s hard to climb over that psychological barrier.”

As a psychology major, Zeddies is familiar with the mental aspects of athletics. Most football players’ idea of intellectual discovery doesn’t go much beyond locating the classrooms, but Zeddies found something else.

“In college, the professors have spurred my intellect,” said Zeddies, who turned down a full athletic scholarship at Vanderbilt to attend Cal Lutheran. “I grew fond of learning.”

Zeddies wasn’t exactly a tabula rasa when he entered Cal Lutheran. When asked in a sports information questionnaire whom he admired, Zeddies listed Henry David Thoreau and Timothy Leary. That’s not, by the way, the Tim Leary who pitched for the Dodgers.

Zeddies attends CLU on an academic scholarship and last year produced a 3.86 grade-point average. His idea of a playbook is the collected works of Arthur Miller.

Reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X for a class provided him with an intellectual epiphany.

“It was the first time I had read anything different from my perspective,” Zeddies said. “It kind of shook me up.”

Unfortunately for Zeddies, he was shaken up on the football field as well. A hard-charging Portland State player hit him so solidly “I thought I was going to die,” and Zeddies was a marked man whenever he entered a game.

“He came in late in ballgames when everyone knew he was going to pass,” Shoup said. “Under the circumstances, I thought he performed well.”

The fiercest blitz Zeddies faced last year came not from a defensive lineman but from a patient at the Camarillo State Hospital and Developmental Center where Zeddies and teammate Chris Vargas worked as volunteers.

“This guy was a little, short guy,” Zeddies said. “But he picked up a table that must have weighed 200 pounds and threw it across the room. Yeah, I was scared. He didn’t have anything to do but come at me. Maybe the average defensive lineman won’t seem so scary now.”

Working at the hospital “gave me an insight into one aspect of psychology and the real world. I learned about how people, if put in the wrong situation, can end up like that,” he said.

Zeddies worked with schizophrenics, which isn’t bad training for a guy expected to quarterback a football team. Despite being one of the youngest starters, Zeddies will be counted on for leadership.

“He has great leadership qualities because of his take-charge attitude,” Black said. “He has kind of an infectious attitude. It will rub off on anybody. He knows what it takes to get it done on the field and that he’ll get the job done.”

Sometimes, though, trying too hard to get the job done gets Zeddies in trouble. A mobile right-hander who throws well on the run, Zeddies said his main weakness is “probably trying to force the ball when we’re behind. I want to catch up right away.”

The Kingsmen may use some option plays this season to take advantage of Zeddies’ speed and intelligence. Shoup said that Zeddies has “good command in the huddle,” and Zeddies will have to prove himself in the barely more than two weeks of practice the Kingsmen have before their opener Sept. 9 at Sonoma State.

“Being kind of selfish, I’d like to see my name in the record books,” Zeddies said. “As far as team goals, I’d like to see myself leading us back to winning ways.”

Who knows, in a few years, youngsters hanging around the Cowboys’ training camp may approach Troy Aikman and ask him for Tim Zeddies’ autograph.