Henigan and Kopp Spark Friendly Fire : Football: Former Orange County quarterbacks continue their rivalry at the University of the Pacific, where they are competing for the same job.

Every day at practice is an opportunity for David Henigan and Troy Kopp, an opportunity to gain an edge, and a chance to lose one.

Henigan goes in for one play, Kopp for the next.

Kopp, the starter, steps to the line, spots something in the defense’s alignment, and makes a change.

Wrong choice, Coach Walt Harris tells him.

Henigan stands on the sidelines and waits for his chance, just as he has during the past three games. It was Kopp who had to wait during the first two games, when Henigan started. Now it is Henigan who waits, while Kopp puts a more and more certain stamp on the starting quarterback’s job at the University of the Pacific.

Henigan and Kopp were rivals on paper before they met. Kopp was the top-rated quarterback in Orange County last season. Henigan, always at his heels, finished third after the regular season.

Their teams met on the field twice, and Kopp’s Mission Viejo High School team beat Henigan’s Fountain Valley team in the players’ junior and senior seasons. But by the end of their senior season, Henigan had done Kopp one better, leading Fountain Valley to the Southern Section Division I championship.

When it came time to pick a college, Kopp chose first. He picked Pacific, a place where Harris is telling young quarterbacks he can make them into first-round National Football League draft choices.

Henigan chose second. And with all the cocksureness of an 18-year-old quarterback, he chose Pacific, too.

“I figured anywhere I was going to go in Division I, I was going to have competition,” Henigan said.

They met for the first time at Pacific, and now they are locked in a rare contest between 18-year-olds: to be the starting quarterback at a Division I school.

“Both have a lot of confidence in themselves,” Harris said. “They just thought they could get it done. They weren’t worried about competition.”

Henigan won the first round, and started the first two games of the season. Kopp started the next four, and seemed to put an end to the challenge when he passed for 320 yards against Cal State Long Beach.

A week ago, the battle seemed to be over. Henigan hasn’t played a down since the third game of the season.

“Troy’s our starter,” Harris said. But Harris also says that Henigan will go in for the third series against Cal State Fullerton Saturday in Stockton.

“We’re going to play Dave and give him a chance,” Harris said. “We have settled on Troy, but Dave could put himself back in the contest if he makes things happen.”

The contest started out very differently. Pacific opened preseason practice with five quarterbacks.

“It really wasn’t very close,” Harris said. “Dave was just far superior to all of them. He’d make the right call in the huddle and make the right checks.”

In his final game as a high school player last December, Henigan faced Bishop Amat. On Sept. 2, in his first game as a college player, he faced Pittsburgh.

That’s a tough position for a freshman quarterback.

“Hard to put a senior into that one,” said Harris, who came to Pacific last year after five seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Tennessee. “It was tough. Real tough.”

Henigan did well enough against Pitt, even in a 38-3 loss.

Kopp, who has the stronger arm, had no quarrel with the decision to start Henigan.

“It was the best decision,” Kopp said. “I wasn’t ready to play against Pitt. Dave came out ahead. I didn’t understand good enough. He learned his stuff.”

Henigan started the next week against Auburn, and didn’t do as well in a 55-0 loss.

He had left an opening, and the next week, against Fresno State, Kopp started. Henigan replaced him in the second quarter. Then Kopp came back in the third and fourth, and guided the Tigers to two touchdowns, their first of the season.

Henigan had come into fall practice ahead of Kopp. He had spent a week last spring in Stockton, watching the Tigers practice, picking up the offense. He got a playbook early, and studied it.

Kopp, who played baseball last spring, hadn’t done that. Harris says he wasn’t nearly as well prepared.

“Troy thought it would be like high school, maybe a little harder,” Harris said. “That attitude got him smoked for a little while.

“When a guy doesn’t know what to do, it makes him look like he doesn’t know how to throw the ball. . . . But Troy started to catch on. His ability started to show.”

Against San Jose State the next week, Kopp started and passed for 270 yards and four touchdowns in a 41-32 loss. Henigan didn’t get into the game.

The next week, Kopp started against Cal State Long Beach, and passed for 320 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-25 comeback victory, the Tigers’ only one in six games this season. Again, Henigan was on the sidelines.

“Troy had earned his right,” Henigan said. “I hadn’t been making anything happen.”

But Kopp was getting his shot against Big West Conference teams, a considerable drop-off from the level of Pitt and Auburn.

“I thought it wasn’t real fair,” Henigan said. “I got my chance against two of the Top 10-rated teams in the nation. At the same time, Troy did earn his shot.”

Last week, Kopp started again, in a 30-7 loss to Nevada Las Vegas. For the third game in a row, neither Henigan nor any other quarterback got in the game.

“He played every snap,” Henigan said.

But Kopp didn’t play well, finishing with 158 yards passing, one touchdown and one interception.

“Last week was a setback for me, but it’s not the end of the world,” Kopp said. “I’m only a freshman.”

Henigan was on the sidelines, waiting for a call that never came.

“Last week, he didn’t do that well,” Henigan said. “I thought I should gotten my shot.”

Harris said he meant to put Henigan in, but time got away from him. He started to send Henigan in with two minutes left, but decided that it would be “disrespectful” to put him in with so little time.

After the game, Harris sought out Henigan at the team’s buffet dinner.

“I’m real proud of how you handled yourself on the sidelines,” he told him. “You’ve been brought up right. I know that doesn’t help you out right now. I know you feel bad.”

Henigan looked back at him.

“You’re right,” he said.

So now, partly to make amends for not getting him in last week, Harris says Henigan and the second offense will go in for the third series Saturday.

“We’re both gonna play,” Henigan said.

Harris says he is determined not to play “musical quarterbacks.”

Henigan is determined to make Kopp’s victory a temporary one.

“We could rotate for the rest of the year, rotate for the next four years for all I know,” Henigan said.

Kopp doesn’t think so.

“That’s not gonna happen,” he said.

But this year’s winner might not be safe next year.

Daryl Hobbs, a talented community college transfer, is redshirting this year and will be fighting for playing time. And Harris will try to recruit another quarterback.

“They will face a challenge from him, and maybe from a freshman,” Harris said.

In the midst of competition, Henigan and Kopp have become friends. They room together on the road and will drive home to Orange County together at Thanksgiving.

“Off the field, I never look at him as my competition,” Kopp said.

But someone will win this battle, and the other, though neither is willing to consider the possibility now, might as well look for another school.

Until then, they are at once rivals and partners, running sprints together and doing chin-ups after practice before calling it a day.

Then Kopp heads across the field after a long afternoon practice, and Henigan calls after him.

“Hey, Troy! Wait up.”