Slings and Arrows of Perfect Fortune : College football: A grudge builds as Klingler masters 8-0 Houston’s offense.

Starting the season as the replacement for 1989 Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware, University of Houston quarterback David Klingler had one simple goal.

Said Klingler: “To basically not let there be a drop-off from what Andre did last year.”

Has he accomplished his mission?

In eight games as the point man in Houston’s run-and-shoot offense, Klingler, a junior, has completed 270 of 463 passes for 3,553 yards and 34 touchdowns, numbers similar to--and, in some areas, better than--what Ware was posting a year ago en route to winning the Heisman.

What’s more, as the season moves into its final weeks, Klingler’s Cougars are 8-0, the only team in Division I-A without a loss or a tie, and ranked No. 3.

Should they defeat 14th-ranked Texas Saturday night in Austin, the Cougars will have blown through the Southwest Conference without a defeat and, with only Eastern Washington and Arizona State (in Tokyo) remaining on their schedule, will be in excellent position to have an 11-0 regular season.

NCAA sanctions--for violations committed during the tenure of former Coach Bill Yeoman--will prohibit Houston from playing in a bowl game this season, as they kept the 9-2 Cougars of 1989 out of the bowls and off live television.

But, as was the case a year ago, the Houston offense is producing spectacular numbers and making a surprise Heisman candidate of its quarterback.

Klingler’s candidacy, boosted by seven-touchdown performances in each of his last two games, raises the possibility that two players from the same school could win the award in consecutive years for the first time since Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis did it at Army in 1945 and ’46.

The prospect of a Ware-Klingler Heisman double is not going to inspire any lyrical musings in the Mr. Inside-Mr. Outside vein, however.

Despite its unblemished record, Houston is ranked behind Notre Dame and Washington, both with one defeat, this week, and many of the 60 writers and broadcasters who vote in the Associated Press poll have indicated that they won’t make the Cougars No. 1 or award them the national championship even if they finish 11-0.

The skeptics have been put off by Houston’s schedule--the Cougars beat Nevada Las Vegas, 37-9, in its only game so far outside the SWC--and by the fact that they will end the season without the test of a bowl game. Mike Francesa of CBS told the Dallas Times Herald this week that, even if the Cougars could go to a bowl, “what Notre Dame, Miami, Florida State would do to Houston would be embarrassing.”

Not surprisingly, such talk leaves Houston supporters shaking their heads and talking about the national media and its Notre Dame fixation.

“If Notre Dame did what we’ve done, Andre and I would be the best two quarterbacks to ever walk the earth or something,” Klingler said. “If Notre Dame is undefeated, they’re No. 1 no matter what, no matter who else is undefeated.”

Houston has, with the run-and-shoot, broken more than 250 NCAA, SWC and school offensive records since 1987, when Jack Pardee, who had used the formation with the Houston Gamblers of the USFL, took over for Yeoman.

After last season, during which he threw for 4,699 yards and 46 touchdowns, Ware decided to give up his final year of eligibility to go through the NFL draft, during which he was selected in the first round by the Detroit Lions. Pardee also left the university for the NFL, becoming coach of the Houston Oilers.

But with Klingler, Ware’s backup, moving up on the depth chart and John Jenkins, Pardee’s offensive coordinator, moving into the head coaching position, the Cougars haven’t missed a beat. They are averaging 564 yards of total offense and 42.8 points, and Klingler has already found a place in the record books, setting an NCAA record for completions in a game--48 Oct. 20 at Southern Methodist.

Like Ware, an option quarterback in high school who was considered a defensive back prospect by Texas and Texas A&M;, Klingler did not come to Houston with much of a reputation, at least not as a passer.

Klingler was a wishbone quarterback at Stratford High in Houston and missed about half his senior season because of an ankle injury. Still, Houston coaches were impressed enough by his size, athleticism and arm strength to project him as a run-and-shoot quarterback. At 6 feet 3 and 205 pounds, he high jumped 6 feet 9 and got basketball feelers from Kansas, Pittsburgh and Ball State.

Now, in discussing Klingler’s physical ability, Jenkins says: “With continued maturity--I’d say four to five years’ time--he’s going to have the strongest arm in the NFL.”

Perhaps more significant in Klingler’s immediate success, however, he spent three years learning the run-and-shoot, sitting out as a redshirt in his first year and backing up Ware in 1988 and ’89.

Klingler spent the time honing his throwing mechanics in practice--which, at Houston, typically calls for a quarterback to throw between 200 and 300 passes a day--and absorbing the nuances of the run-and-shoot in meetings and film sessions with Jenkins.

“There are so many players who know what their offense is supposed to do, but they don’t know anything about the defense (they are facing),” Klingler said. “Here, all we do is watch defenses. What’s the weakness of this coverage? What’s the weakness of that coverage? How do we get receivers into the weakness of it? Every play we’ve got, we run it hundreds of times against whatever’s out there (defensively), so eventually it becomes old hat.”

Is the Houston run-and-shoot, which Jenkins refers to as “this operation of mine,” making average throwers look great? Is it the quarterback or the system?

Both, Jenkins says.

“It is a misconception to say, ‘Aw, it’s just the system,’ ” he said. “If it is, how come nobody else in the country has done it? Why hasn’t this been done before?

“My other thought on that question is that at one point in time, not too long ago, Marcus Allen, O.J. Simpson, Mike Garrett, those guys came out of a system, the I-formation tailback system at Southern Cal.

“What’s to say the Houston quarterbacks of the present and future won’t be recognized in the same regard? We’re talking about a quarterback (Ware) who, a year ago, went beyond all points any quarterback had ever reached in the history of college football. And I’ll be danged if the next guy isn’t doing the same thing.”

Last season, Klingler completed 68 of 114 passes for 865 yards and eight touchdowns--four in Houston’s 95-21 victory over SMU--during mop-up duty and, perhaps more important for the program, made his dormitory room available for Ware--who was “tired and rundown,” as Klingler remembers him--to hide out in as the Heisman hype mounted.

Now, as his own numbers soar, Klingler finds himself in a similar situation.

Nicknamed “Slinger” (by Jenkins) not long after he arrived on campus, he recently submitted to a photo for the school newspaper, the Daily Cougar, in gunslinger attire, a football on each hip.

For the most part, however, Klingler, as modest and soft-spoken as Jenkins is cocky, is content to leave the explaining and promoting to others.

And, yes, he says, he will return next year for his senior season. He will, after all, have another goal.

“I feel like I’m still learning, getting experience,” he said. “And I think we’ll have something to prove next year. We play Miami and Illinois early. We’ll be off probation. No sanctions. A strong schedule. So there will be no excuses next year for somebody to hide behind and not give the national championship to us.”

AERIAL ASSAULT Eight-game passing statistics of Houston’s David Klingler (1990), BYU’s Ty Detmer (1990) and Houston’s Andre Ware (1989). DAVID KLINGLER 1990

Opp Cmp Att Int Pct Yds TD UNLV 30 54 1 .555 426 5 Texas Tech 29 54 0 .537 435 5 Rice 34 56 2 .607 454 2 Baylor 35 68 0 .515 405 2 Tex. A&M; 24 51 2 .470 352 1 SMU 48 76 1 .631 461 5 Arkansas 34 51 3 .667 457 7 TCU 36 53 4 .679 563 7 8 games 270 463 13 .583 3553 34

TY DETMER 1990

Opp Cmp Att Int Pct Yds TD Tex. El Paso 33 46 2 .717 387 1 Miami (Fla.) 38 54 1 .704 406 3 Wash. St. 32 50 2 .640 448 5 San Dgo St. 26 38 0 .684 514 3 Oregon 33 57 5 .579 442 2 Colo. St. 26 38 3 .684 316 4 New Mex. 26 41 2 .634 464 5 Air Force 30 43 0 .698 397 3 8 games 244 367 15 .665 3374 26

ANDRE WARE 1989

Opp Cmp Att Int Pct Yds TD UNLV 30 48 1 .625 390 5 Arizona St. 40 68 4 .588 497 2 Temple 30 45 0 .667 413 7 Baylor 34 54 1 .630 520 5 Tex. A&M; 28 52 3 .538 247 1 SMU 25 41 1 .610 517 6 Arkansas 34 46 0 .739 352 4 TCU 42 63 0 .667 477 6 8 games 263 417 10 .631 3413 36 11 games 365 579 15 .630 4661 46