Motivated O’Neil Wins Job : College football: Competition at Oregon brought out the best in former Mater Dei quarterback.

Danny O’Neil will line up behind the center Saturday afternoon, just as he has done for the past year with the Oregon football team.

There will be only one difference--he won’t be wearing a scout-squad uniform.

O’Neil, a redshirt freshman from Mater Dei High, will start at quarterback on Saturday in the Ducks’ season-opener against Washington State in Eugene.

A year ago, O’Neil was a reserve but was eventually redshirted and demoted to the scout squad.

“I think my redshirt year really hurt me,” he said. “I traveled with the team at the start of the season, then got bumped down after five games to the scout team.

“I just quit concentrating in practice. I wasn’t pushing myself 110%. I wasn’t working on my drops and reading the defense.”

But O’Neil got a wake-up call from his coaches, who recruited junior college standout Brett Salisbury last spring. Suddenly, O’Neil realized he would be in a battle for the starting spot.

“Bringing Brett in definitely made me work harder,” O’Neil said.

He needed to. O’Neil replaced Bill Musgrave, who led the Ducks to consecutive 8-4 records and a Freedom Bowl appearance. Once doormats of the Pacific 10, the Ducks were 25-10 in three seasons with Musgrave as a starter.

This season, with Musgrave in a Minnesota Viking uniform, O’Neil was the winner in a well-publicized, four-player race for the starting job.

O’Neil, 6 feet 1 and 178 pounds, got the job over Salisbury, redshirt freshman Kyle Crowston and Doug Musgrave, Bill’s younger brother, who eventually transferred from Michigan.

After earning the top spot in spring practice, O’Neil solidified the starting role with two strong scrimmages in August.

In his first scrimmage, he completed 10 of 13 passes for 170 yards and a touchdown. In his second scrimmage, he completed 13 of 22 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown, but three touchdown passes were nullified because of penalties.

Then Salisbury, O’Neil’s main competitor for the starting job, suffered a hernia when he slipped on wet grass during practice.

Salisbury, a transfer from Palomar Junior College and the brother of Vikings’ backup and former USC quarterback Sean Salisbury, underwent surgery last week and is expected to be out six weeks.

The day of Salisbury’s surgery, O’Neil was named to start the opener.

Was O’Neil surprised?

“The word isn’t surprised, but excited,” O’Neil said. “I wasn’t expecting it, but I’m No. 1. The major reason I came here was I knew Bill Musgrave was going to graduate. And now I’ve got my shot.”

Mark Slymen, a former Mission Viejo High standout who shares a condominium with O’Neil, said competition for the quarterback position made his roommate a better player.

“Danny expected to be in a position to start when he came up here,” Slymen said. “But the competition was tough, and it got a lot of attention around here. Danny was in a position where if he messed up, Brett could have stepped in.

“And Doug and Kyle are pretty close, too. Danny can’t go in and say, ‘I’ve got the job now.’ He has to hold onto it.”

In high school, O’Neil figured he had a better shot at playing college basketball than football.

He transferred to Mater Dei from Corona del Mar after his sophomore year because he wanted to play for the Monarchs’ nationally ranked basketball program.

“I changed my mind about football when I went to John Elway’s summer camp that summer,” O’Neil said. “I watched all these films of Elway and Joe Montana and I decided I wanted to play college football.”

As a senior, he threw for 2,198 yards, 19 touchdowns and had only two passes intercepted. He averaged 11 points a game as the sixth man on the Monarchs’ state Division I basketball championship team, played golf and was the Angelus League’s MVP in volleyball.

Although talented in all four sports, it was O’Neil’s football statistics that attracted college recruiters. He was wooed by several schools, including USC, California, New Mexico State and Alabama.

While Oregon doesn’t have the tradition of USC or Alabama, it has a wide-open passing offense that caught O’Neil’s attention.

“I thought I would have a chance to play here,” O’Neil said. “I wanted to contribute early.”

After his redshirt year at Oregon, he returned home to Newport Beach and trained three times a week with quarterback coach Steve Clarkson, who has worked with the Raiders’ Todd Marinovich and UCLA’s Tommy Maddox.

“Steve helped me a lot with my technique,” O’Neil said. “He worked with me on my throwing motion and got me ready for this season.”

O’Neil is surrounded by some familiar faces at Oregon. Slymen is a second-string defensive end with the Ducks. Kealii Clifford, a former Mater Dei teammate, is coming off a redshirt season and is a backup running back with Oregon. Dave Cuttrell, a redshirt freshman from El Toro, is a second-string offensive tackle.

“It’s good to have some Southern California boys around here. We all hang out together, and you can relate to one another a little easier.”

One of O’Neil’s favorite targets is tight end Jeff Thomason, a former Corona del Mar player who’s back after breaking his ankle last season.

“Jeff’s an incredible receiver,” O’Neil said. “He has 4.68-second speed in the 40 and can catch the ball. I can’t imagine having a better tight end.”

O’Neil couldn’t imagine having a better defense, either. The Ducks return nine starters on defense, and Slymen said they won’t disappoint.

“I think a lot of people are overlooking us this year,” Slymen said. “Our defense is going to be good. And if Danny and the offense can come through, we should do well.”