Despite Record, They Grin With Barrett : Football: Former Santa Monica College quarterback is earning praise at Brown University.

Jeff Barrett, Santa Monica College’s record-setting quarterback of a season ago, is now winning praise a continent away not only for his football ability, but his personal traits as well.

After winning a six-person preseason battle for the Brown University starting job, Barrett is second in the Ivy League with 53 completions, third in passing yards with 605, fourth in total offense with 592 yards and sixth in passing efficiency with 108.2 points.

But the Bears are 0-3 entering Saturday’s game against 3-0 Princeton. Some Brown fans called for Barrett’s demotion after he threw three interceptions in a 36-20 loss at Yale in the season opener Sept. 21.

Despite Brown’s record, Coach Mickey Kwiatkowski is standing behind Barrett.

“He’s my guy,” Kwiatkowski said. “I don’t see any reason right now that’s going to change. The experience he got was invaluable and I know it’s only going to grow. He’s going to become better.”

Barrett was disappointed by his performance against Yale.

“Statistically I did well, but a loss is a loss any way you look at it,” said Barrett, a junior who completed 27 of 49 passes for 285 yards and a touchdown while being intercepted three times. “I made too many mistakes. It was the little mistakes, I don’t want to say ruined, but it was one of the reasons we lost.”

Barrett said those “little mistakes” were “misreads, interceptions, not being able to punch it in on the goal line, little things that add up over the day.”

Barrett acknowledged that the scene in the Yale Bowl was very different from what he had been used to.

“Just standing on the field knowing that I was 3,000 miles from where I grew up and playing football was a really, really exciting type of atmosphere,” he said. “There’s lot of history behind these games. At Yale, it was their 119th season opener. There are so many alumni. As we walked in, one man said, ‘Good luck, I’m from the class of ’36.’ It’s a really tight-knit family.”

Since the loss to Yale, Brown was routed by Marshall, 46-0, and edged by Rhode Island, 38-36, on Saturday as Barrett threw for two touchdowns and ran three yards for a third score.

Although the Ivy League’s high academic standards and lack of athletic scholarships limit the number of top athletes participating in the conference, Barrett said it does offer a high level of play.

“There’s good size on the teams and they’re generally fast and strong,” he said. “They’re not like USC or UCLA. It’s a step down, but they do play good, fun, hitting football.”

This is Barrett’s second stint at a four-year school. After throwing for 6,083 yards at Burbank Burroughs High, the fifth best total in Southern Section history, he redshirted at Nevada in 1988. Philosophical differences with the coaching staff and problems adapting to Reno prompted him to transfer to Santa Monica.

Although Barrett has had to acclimate himself to life on an Ivy League campus, he is enjoying the experience.

Kwiatkowski searched California’s community colleges to find a quarterback after Brown finished 2-8 last season, his first as coach. He was confident he could find an individual with the necessary football skills to master the pass-oriented offense he was installing and the academic qualifications needed for admittance.

In December, Kwiatkowski came west from Providence, R.I., to scout several community college bowl games, including the Western State Bowl. Although the Corsairs lost to Moorpark, 69-34, Kwiatkowski was impressed by Barrett and knew he had found a player he could build his program around.

“I knew we had a real gem,” Kwiatkowski said. “I needed a winner behind the center. All Jeff had ever done was win and all that the Brown players had ever done is not win.”

At most colleges, that would be enough to get a football recruit into school. But not the Ivy League.

“I brought him back to our admissions people and presented his credentials to them,” Kwiatkowski said. “Our dean of admissions spent some time with him and everybody hit it off really well.”

Barrett was not promised the starting job. In fact, Kwiatkowski said Barrett was handicapped by his unfamiliarity with the offense and personnel.

“We said to the quarterbacks, ‘The fellow who throws the best is going to be our quarterback,’ ” Kwiatkowski said. “That’s how Jeff won the job.

“He is the most consistent person to put the ball in the receivers hands. We have stronger quarterbacks, we have faster quarterbacks, we probably have more athletic quarterbacks, but Jeff is on the money just about every time he throws the football.”

What Kwiatkowski likes most about Barrett is his personal traits, which include being a devoted husband and father.

“We call college players young men, but they’re really kids,” Kwiatkowski said. “They do things most adults normally don’t do. They’ll do things that drive you crazy and you’ll have to constantly monitor them, corral them and put guidelines on them.

“Jeff came in a man, not a young man, a man. Here’s a guy who could not shirk he’s responsibilities to his wife or child. When he moved out here, they moved out here. That kind of maturity is unheard of anymore. That in itself to me is the mark of a tough kid.

“He’s a got more problems off the field than any blitz or multiple coverage on the field could ever present to him. He handles those situations very, very well. He’s an inspiration to me.”