Lowery Measures Up as Fierce Competitor

San Diego State has a new mold for its starting quarterback.

The guy no longer has to stand 6-feet-5 or 6-feet-7 or 6-feet-8 and have arms long enough to reach for a first down. He doesn’t have to look like a power forward or Liz Taylor’s bodyguard.

The Aztecs have this new guy who looks more like a linebacker, which he used to be, than a quarterback. He might even bring to the position more of a linebacker’s mentality. Heck, he probably would play special teams, like wedge-buster on the kickoff team, if they would let him.

David James Lowery has given SDSU a new look . . . and a passing attack.

What’s maybe more important is that Lowery seems to bring a new attitude to the offense. Call it confidence. He made his first start as a collegiate quarterback Saturday in Hawaii and the halftime score was 33-0, Aztecs.

“I know how to win,” he said. “I’m 13-2 now as a starting quarterback. I want to keep that going here.”

The two losses were his senior year at Trabuco Hills High School in Orange County. That was the year he made the transition from linebacker to quarterback . . . and passed for 3,325 yards and 29 touchdowns.

Indeed, his competitive fires are so intense he is still nettled by a 9-7 loss to Laguna Beach that year.

“Laguna Beach,” he said with disdain. “I don’t think they ever got inside our 30 and they beat us 9-7 on field goals. That was the most frustrating thing that’s ever happened to me in sports. A bunch of guys from my frat went to Laguna Beach, and they rag on me about it.”

This is one tough kid.

Once, when he threw a pass for an interception, he hit the culprit so hard with the tackle that he knocked himself out.

“I hit the receiver in the hands,” he said, “and the ball was tipped into the air. I hit the guy pretty hard, but what got me was that the guy landed on my head.”

The guy who intercepted the pass was Steve Rudisill, who happens to be a free safety for none other than San Diego State. Yes, this was in a scrimmage.

“You’re not supposed to intercept my passes,” he said simply.

When I arranged to interview Lowery, I expected a character who looked a little bit like Jake LaMotta. I figured him for a pug nose and maybe a scar.

After all, he missed most of spring practice because his jaw was broken when he and some fraternity brothers tried to break up a fight. It’s a good thing for the other guy that he never saw the punch coming.

Sitting in the football offices at SDSU, I watched with little interest as a pleasant-faced blond kid walked through. I figured he got lost on the way to choir practice.

“That’s him,” the secretary said.

“That’s him?” I responded.

He looks more like he should be in “Leave It to Beaver” than a starting quarterback for a major college football team.

What you see is not what you get. It’s what’s in the heart and in the head with this kid.

“I can take a hit and get up and keep going,” he said, sounding much like he relished taking (or giving) hits. “In practice, if a guy can’t stop and hits me, I tell him, ‘Good for you.’ Football’s a physical game.”

But those guys hitting him can be rather monstrous.

“Hey,” he said, “I have my line too. I got so comfortable in Hawaii that it was incredible. I dropped back just knowing I’d have time to get the ball off.”

The problem, with a guy all of 6-feet-0, is throwing over all those big guys. At least, that’s the notion. It has haunted 6-foot-tall quarterbacks forever. Just ask Pat Haden.

Naturally, Lowery doesn’t buy any of that baloney.

“You don’t throw over the line,” he said. “No quarterback can throw over the line unless he’s 8 feet tall, not with all those guys with their arms in the air. You have to find throwing lanes.”

He notes that Brigham Young’s Ty Detmer, last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, is not exactly one of those big, tall guys with a strong arm. Detmer, to be sure, is likely all of 5-feet-10, though the image-conscious media guide lists him at a “lanky” 6-feet-0. Tacking on a couple of inches veritably underscores the concept that quarterbacks should be taller, even if only in someone’s imagination.

“And,” Lowery said, “what about the guy (Jason) Verduzco at Illinois? What’s he, maybe 5-9?”

It does not appear that Lowery needs to be any taller than he is, though folks in Hawaii may well be insisting he must be 6-feet-3 or 6-feet-4 to do what he did to the Rainbows. This 6-footer can darn well play like a giant.

David Lowery makes his first start at home Saturday against New Mexico. Given his confidence, he figures to be looking at New Mexico like Carlson Leomiti, a 340-pound teammate, might look at a hamburger. New Mexico, after all, gave up 94 points in its last game.

“We can’t be thinking we’re gonna kill ‘em,” he said. “We can’t have that attitude. Besides, I’ll always have that Laguna Beach game in the back of my mind.”

David Lowery cannot stand coming up short . . . literally or figuratively. Not that it happens very often.