Ducking Marinovich, O’Neil Leads Oregon : College football: Family ties are to USC, but he spurned Trojans because he didn’t want reserve role.

Growing up in Newport Beach, cradle of USC football fanaticism, Danny O’Neil dreamed of one day playing for the Trojans.

His friends were Trojan fans. His parents, Dan and Bonnie, were Trojan fans. His neighbors were Trojan fans. His brothers, John and Kevin, were Trojan fans and are students at USC.

But when it came time to pick a college, during his senior year at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, O’Neil barely gave USC a chance to recruit him.

An All-Southern Section quarterback at Mater Dei, he made an unwritten commitment to Oregon after making his only recruiting trip to Eugene.

“It was really kind of shocking,” said his oldest brother, John, a business major at USC. “At the time, it was very disappointing.

“We were really pushing him to go to USC, but it looks like he really made a good decision.”

A second-year freshman, O’Neil is Oregon’s starting quarterback.

Tonight, he will oppose USC for the first time.

“To play against them is just going to be an incredible feeling,” said O’Neil, whose reason for snubbing the Trojans could be summed up in two words: Todd Marinovich.

At the time O’Neil was being recruited, Marinovich was leading USC to victory in the Rose Bowl as a redshirt freshman. He figured to be the Trojans’ No. 1 quarterback for three more years.

Last winter, when USC was left without an experienced quarterback after Marinovich made himself available for the NFL draft, O’Neil thought about what might have been.

“That enters your head,” O’Neil said. “One of the reasons you turn down a school is because they had a quarterback there, and then he ends up leaving and they have a wide-open spot.

“It would have turned out good there, too, but it turned out picture-perfect for me up here, and I’m very happy. I love the people and I love this program.”

O’Neil succeeded Bill Musgrave, a four-year starter who led the Ducks to bowl games in his last two seasons while setting 16 school records. O’Neil withstood a strong challenge by transfer Brett Salisbury, brother of former USC quarterback Sean Salisbury.

O’Neil started strongly:

--In a 40-14 victory over Washington State in the Ducks’ opener, he completed 10 of 23 passes for 129 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 50 yards and a touchdown in five carries.

--The next week, in a 28-13 victory over Texas Tech he completed 19 of 35 passes for 292 yards, with no interceptions, and equaled a school record by throwing for four touchdowns.

Not even Musgrave had done that. O’Neil equaled a record shared by Dan Fouts, Chris Miller and Tom Blanchard, all of whom went on to play in the NFL.

But O’Neil and his teammates faltered last Saturday night in a 24-17 upset loss to Utah at Salt Lake City. O’Neil, sacked eight times, completed only nine of 23 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown, with one interception.

In three games, the boyish-looking quarterback--”The real Doogie Howser,” one reporter noted--has completed 46.9% of his 81 passes for 524 yards and seven touchdowns, with two interceptions.

His passing efficiency rating is 124.83.

“His first two games, he got progressively better, then he took a step backward against Utah,” Oregon Coach Rich Brooks said of O’Neil. “He threw an interception on his first pass and then was reluctant to pull the trigger the rest of the night.

“But he’s a good scrambler, he’s mobile, he’s got a good, soft touch and a good, strong arm. I think he’s got a bright future, obviously.”

O’Neil gave himself a much harsher critique than his coach.

“My goal for the season was to improve each game one level,” he said. “I felt I did that the first two games, but then I dropped about 20,000 levels the last game. Unfortunately, I had a pretty tragic game, and I wasn’t very happy with my performance. It was a horrible feeling after the game.”

O’Neil, 20, is more accustomed to success than failure.

Proficient in several sports, O’Neil made a controversial transfer from Corona del Mar High to Mater Dei High after his sophomore year so that he could play for the Monarchs’ nationally recognized basketball team.

As a senior, he was the sixth man on a Mater Dei team that won the State Division I basketball championship. He also played golf and was the Angelus League’s most valuable player in volleyball.

But even before he transferred, O’Neil said, he knew he wanted to play college football.

In the summer before he switched schools, O’Neil attended a football camp at Stanford, where he was shown videotape of former Stanford quarterback John Elway.

Said O’Neil: “I thought, ‘Hey, that looks like a lot of fun. It looks like something I’d like to do.’ ”

He got the chance to do that on the collegiate level after a senior season in which he passed for 2,198 yards and 19 touchdowns, with only two interceptions.

He scheduled recruiting trips to Alabama, California, New Mexico and USC, but canceled them all after visiting Oregon.

His brothers were indignant that he hadn’t given USC a chance.

“They were very unhappy that he didn’t go there-- very unhappy,” said their mother, Bonnie. “They did what they could to try to convince him that he should at least go up and talk to them. But by that time, Danny had made up his mind. He was pretty emphatic in his decision.”

O’Neil was convinced that, with Musgrave leaving, he would have a chance to be a four-year starter.

So far, things have worked out as he thought they might.

Last winter, though, his family was concerned when Oregon recruited Salisbury, a junior college All-American last season at Palomar College outside San Diego.

But O’Neil welcomed the challenge and probably had the starting job won even before Salisbury suffered an abdominal hernia 10 days before the start of the season.

O’Neil has made an Oregon fan out of even his oldest brother.

“In the summer, I said, ‘I’ve got to root for my alma mater (this week),’ ” John O’Neil said. “But I went up to his first game, and I said, ‘There’s no way I could root for SC.’ ”

In Newport Beach, they thought they never would see the day.