Loveland Finds Place for Quarterback to Grow at Palomar : Football: Coach Tom Craft has a history of developing young players into outstanding passers.

When Andy Loveland met Tom Craft in January, he was a quarterback without confidence, without technique and without a clue.

He already had flunked out of Colorado State and lost his scholarship. He thought other people were branding him a loser when he returned home to Southern California, just another jock who couldn’t make it.

But the quarterback’s detractors didn’t factor in Craft, Palomar College and a second chance.

Or Andy Loveland.

They have helped transform Palomar into a community college football power.

The Comets are ranked fifth nationally by J.C. Grid-Wire, much of it because Craft is a veritable David Copperfield when it comes to quarterbacks and offensive performance.

The Comet offense, however, is no illusion. They averaged a state-leading 509 yards per game last year. They are near that this year, 495 yards.

Palomar is 7-1 with seven consecutive victories. The Comets also have put together one of the most impressive string of victories around, beating in successive games: Riverside, 43-14, the country’s preseason No. 2 team; Mt. San Antonio College (sixth-ranked nationally), 44-38; Pasadena (fourth), 26-21; and Golden West (16th), 28-21.

Guiding the team has been Loveland, the kind of guy then-San Pasqual High defensive coordinator Mike Dolan wanted to turn into a linebacker his sophomore season.

Loveland twice led San Pasqual to the San Diego Section finals, passing for more than 1,000 yards and rushing for more than 700 in 1989. He captured the fancy of Colorado State Coach Earle Bruce and accepted a full scholarship to Fort Collins.

Loveland was a redshirt freshman his first year and spent his second on academic probation. Academics and Loveland never mixed in college. His grade-point average was 0.8 his first semester, and he had to build on that. When he was told by quarterback coach Kit Cartwright last December to not bother showing up for the Freedom Bowl and that his scholarship wouldn’t be renewed, his GPA had risen to 1.8. Einstein was safe.

“I wasn’t going to class, wasn’t doing the things I needed to do,” said Loveland, who has a 3.0 GPA through two grading periods at Palomar. “There were too many good times and not enough good study habits. I was a hellraiser. There’s a lot of fun little places around Fort Collins and I found them all.”

There were other problems too. Loveland didn’t get along with Cartwright, a “personality clash,” and he resented Bruce’s coaching style.

“He cuts you down and doesn’t build you back up,” Loveland said. “He’s the first one to nail you when you do something wrong. I thought he was going to teach me about football, and more often than not, he taught me about being the kind of person that I didn’t want to become. I can take an ass-chewing as well as anybody else, but I wanted someone to coach me, and I didn’t get that.”

Bruce couldn’t be reached. Cartwright, who recruited Loveland, was surprised at the assessment.

“There was no personality clash as far as I was concerned,” he said. “I was very fond of Andy. We were all under the opinion that, with time, he would be a very good player here. His problem was with going to class. He failed in going to school. No one asked him to leave. Coach Bruce did not dislike Andy. He was fond of Andy and demanded of him like other players.

“Andy was very popular. He was one of the best squad guys around. Everyone liked Andy.”

Apparently, Loveland didn’t pack that feeling into the trunk of his car when he returned to get his belongings. He left CSU discouraged, disappointed, disconsolate.

He sulked at the Oceanside home of his mother, Leslie. She had followed Palomar’s football program and got hold of Craft. Then Loveland got hold of Craft. After that, history.

“I wasn’t ready to go away (to college) like that,” Loveland said. “I couldn’t handle the responsibility of getting things done on my own. I didn’t do what I needed to do. It wasn’t anybody else’s fault. It wasn’t Bruce’s fault. It wasn’t Cartwright’s fault. I basically blew it.

“Now I’m leading the state in passing and recruiters (Clemson, Tulane, Iowa State and Utah State among them) are starting to come around. I think when I go away again, I’ll know what I need to do and I’ll be ready for it.”

The concept of Andy Loveland leading the state in passing would have been unthinkable a year ago. He emerged from a high school program that passed sparingly, and he went to a college program that passed just as judiciously. He said Bruce and Cartwright assumed he already knew about pass coverages and what it took to break them down.

He didn’t.

Loveland began working out four times a week in January, twice a week with Craft, twice on his own, mostly with teammate Donny McCallum. As quarterbacks go, he was an infant, but Craft was the patient parent.

“I was horrendous,” Loveland recalled. “I couldn’t even throw a simple five-yard out.

“I didn’t know how to pass a ball. I didn’t know any passing strategy. Technically, I didn’t know much about defense and manipulating routes. Physically, my mechanics were really bad. A lot of it wasn’t my throwing mechanics, so much, but my footwork. I was real slow, and that caused my ball to sail a lot. When I changed my footwork, my arm motion became more adequate and my elbow wasn’t hurting anymore. (Craft) tried to calm me down and not try to drill everything; now I’ve got a lot more touch on the ball.”

There was something else, too, missing from Loveland’s game. The playbook and the scheme at Palomar are pretty heady.

“The difficult part of our offense is the diversity of it,” Craft said. “It’s not an offense that has similar reads throughout the offense or has a single passing tree. Our passing game has a number of passing trees that are different for inside and outside receivers, and route adjustments based on coverages change the passing trees and our routes. Sometimes that changes the drop of the quarterback and the timing of the quarterback. Basically, we’re a timed passing attack.”

That’s a cranium full. And for good measure, it’s all done without a huddle.

“The first time I looked at it, I was in awe,” Loveland said. “It was crazy. I thought, I’ll never get this. I kept plugging away and (Craft) was right there. He probably explained it 50 times, but at least he did it, and now I’ve got it.”

And how he has it. Loveland has been battling for the distinction of being the state’s leading passer week-to-week. Loveland has completed 190 of 317 for 2,548 yards, 22 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Through the same number of games, he has thrown for more yardage, more touchdowns and fewer interceptions--with 18 fewer pass attempts and 20 fewer completions--than the man who preceded him at Palomar, Brett Salisbury, who led the nation in passing.

In fact, Loveland can surpass the three previous Palomar quarterbacks, all of whom led the nation in passing. And Loveland is doing it though he is getting fewer snaps than the others. In the Palomar offense, he occasionally lines up at split end and lets Vista’s Choo Choo Walker run the option. And he has given way to Walker for entire halves, as well.

Loveland’s proficiency is also showing up in the numbers of his receivers. His roommate, Jerry Garrett from Oceanside, is the state’s leading receiver with 62 receptions for 998 yards and 12 touchdowns. Myron Wise leads conference in average yards per catch, 16.8.

Loveland has completed 60% of his passes, but Craft said that number should be higher.

“I’ve never seen us drop more balls than we have this year,” Craft said. “He could be over 70%.”

It would be unfair to credit Palomar’s success this season solely on the quarterback. There’s the defense, which has given Palomar the opportunity to win, and the offensive line, which has allowed Loveland to be sacked only twice through the first seven games despite more than 317 pass attempts.

Craft said this team’s success is greater than those he’s had in the past because the athletes attending Palomar are finally on the same level with the traditional powers.

“Before, we were overmatched and (the passing offense) provided a means to be competitive,” Craft said. “Now, it allows us to be one of the better teams and a more prolific offensive team than anybody in the state.”

The three quarterbacks who preceded Loveland were already accomplished passers when they reached Palomar. Duffy Daugherty (1988) and Brett Salisbury (1990) came out of Orange Glen High School, and Scott Barrick (1989) came from the run-and-shoot at Fallbrook. All went to four-year colleges, all became disenchanted, and all went to Palomar, each building upon the other’s national marks.

“I never had any quarterback make the commitment to try to learn the position that Andy made,” Craft said. “I’ve been blessed with (Daugherty, Barrick, Salisbury) and now Andy. All were really good guys, very articulate, hard workers, and they deserve the success that they’ve had. But I don’t think anybody’s come as far as Andy Loveland.”

“Being that he didn’t come from a passing program in high school or college, he had to work a lot harder at how to be a good passer, to learn the fundamentals and techniques to learn to play the position.”

And there’s no doubt that Loveland wouldn’t have achieved his newfound skill without Craft.

“I probably have more respect for him than any other coach I’ve had because he’s taught me more about the game than any other coach I’ve had,” Loveland said. “I had a great relationship with Coach Dolan at San Pasqual; football-wise, everything I learned I learned from him until I got here. Now there’s so much more that I’ve tapped in to. And also, he kind of fished me out when I was down, when I had no confidence and was throwing the ball like hell.”

Craft, an illusionist and fisherman, has equal respect for Loveland, who seems to have shown that anything really is possible with countless hours of work.

“I think that his success is the direct result of himself and his hard work,” Craft said. “We felt like we’ve given him the tool, with our passing game offense, to be successful, and he’s the one that’s made it happen. I see him as the one who deserves all the credit for what’s happened to Andy Loveland.”