COLLEGE FOOTBALL ’92 : PACIFIC 10 CONFERENCE PREVIEW : Washington’s Story a Tale of Two Former Starting Quarterbacks : Football: James names Hobert to start opener at Arizona State but indicates Brunell will play.

Any college football team would love to have a quarterback who was named most outstanding player in the Rose Bowl.

Washington has two.

That’s only one reason why the Huskies are favored to win a third consecutive Pacific 10 Conference championship after finishing unbeaten and sharing the national title with Miami last season.

The question facing Coach Don James is, how does he make the best use of senior left-hander Mark Brunell and junior right-hander Billy Joe Hobert?

Brunell led Washington to the Pac-10 title, a 46-34 Rose Bowl victory over Iowa and a No. 5 ranking two seasons ago.

Then, after Brunell injured a knee in practice during the spring of 1991, Hobert took the Huskies to a 12-0 season that included a 34-14 rout of Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

The situation is so unique that “you could probably coach 100 years and wouldn’t have it occur like this again,” James said.

He has named Hobert to start in Saturday night’s opener at Arizona State, but said that Brunell probably will make his first appearance in the second quarter.

James has indicated that both quarterbacks will play.

“I think it would be a situation where we’d lay out a plan with them before kickoff, and then maybe come in at halftime and re-evaluate,” James said. “The key thing is, you don’t want any quarterback going out there looking over his shoulder and thinking, ‘If I make a mistake, I’m going to come out.’ I don’t want them playing that way. That’s a different kind of pressure I’d rather they not have.”

The Huskies have similar depth at several other positions, although they must replace 11 players who were taken in the NFL draft last spring, including No. 1 pick Steve Emtman, a two-time Pac-10 defensive player of the year who skipped his senior season.

“I don’t think we have a lot of real average players,” James said, “but we do have players that really lack experience.”

Holes must be filled on both lines and at wide receiver, but offensive tackle Lincoln Kennedy ranks among the nation’s best, and the Huskies are three deep at tailback with seniors Beno Bryant and Jay Barry and sophomore Napoleon Kaufman.

The top defensive starters include linebackers Dave Hoffmann, James Clifford and Jaime Fields, cornerback Walter Bailey and free safety Shane Pahukoa.

“I don’t think they’re going to be as awesome as they were,” Oregon Coach Rich Brooks said. “They’re still going to be awesome.”

A look at the teams, other than USC and UCLA, that will try to knock Washington down and send the Huskies somewhere other than Pasadena this winter:

ARIZONA (Last season--4-7 overall, 3-5 in conference): Quarterback George Malauulu, a fifth-year senior who missed five games because of a shoulder injury last season, is back to help improve a passing offense that produced only 113.9 yards a game.

“George Malauulu has, at times during the last three years, looked like an outstanding college quarterback, but something’s always happened to keep that from happening,” Coach Dick Tomey said.

Versatile Chuck Levy, who filled in for Malauulu last season, will be allowed to concentrate on playing tailback.

Nine defensive starters return, but the Wildcats allowed 32.8 points and 405.3 yards a game last season.

ARIZONA STATE (6-5, 4-4): Coach Bruce Snyder moves over from California after a top-10 season.

“In terms of talent, we’re ahead of that first team at Cal,” said Snyder, who left after five seasons in Berkeley to take over a team that ranked second in the Pac-10 in total defense last year. “We have some real strengths, but then there are some other areas that are virtually nonexistent in terms of having enough talent to win in the Pac-10.

“Our job is to try to fill in those holes as best we can.”

He doesn’t have a lot of time. The Sun Devils open against Washington on Saturday and play at Nebraska late in September.

CALIFORNIA (10-2, 6-2): Into Snyder’s former job steps Keith Gilbertson, who was offensive coordinator at Washington last season after leading Idaho to a 28-9 record in three seasons.

In the absence of quarterback Mike Pawlawski, Gilbertson’s team will be built around a strong group of runners, led by tailback Russell White.

But Gilbertson talked more about his defense during a meeting with reporters last month. “It’s probably been a long time since a Cal coach sat in front of you and said, ‘I’m really excited about our defense,’ ” said Gilbertson, who welcomed back seven starters from a unit that ranked second in the Pac-10 in sacks and turnover margin last fall.

OREGON (3-8, 1-7): Ravaged by injuries--Brooks used five starting quarterbacks--the Ducks fell hard last season, losing eight of their last nine games after making bowl appearances after the ’89 and ’90 seasons. “We feel we have the ingredients in place to be more of the type of team we were in ’89 and ’90 than we were in ‘91,” Brooks said. “But talk is cheap. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Back at quarterback is Danny O’Neil, who was a starter in the Ducks’ first five games last season before being injured.

OREGON STATE (1-10, 1-7): In its first season under Coach Jerry Pettibone, Oregon State lost its first 10 games before defeating Oregon in its season finale.

“We are a struggling football team,” defensive coordinator Rocky Long said.

“We can put 22 players out there who can play with anybody in this league. But if we get injuries in particular spots, we drop off dramatically. We have to play young players who aren’t ready to play, or we have to play players who can’t play in this league.”

STANFORD (8-4, 6-2): It’s not often that a Stanford coach is more concerned about his offense than his defense, but that was the case last week after the Cardinal lost to Texas A&M;, 10-7, in the Disneyland Pigskin Classic at Anaheim Stadium.

“I’m not used to this,” Coach Bill Walsh said after the Cardinal was limited to three first downs and 77 yards passing after halftime. “I was frustrated. I haven’t been frustrated for a long time in coaching.”

The Stanford defense performed well against Texas A&M;, holding the Aggies to 65 yards rushing.

WASHINGTON STATE (4-7, 3-5): Led by junior quarterback Drew Bledsoe, the Cougars should be potent offensively with all 11 starters returning, along with two from ’90 who missed last season because of injuries.

“We think we’re going to be outstanding on offense,” Coach Mike Price said. “We think we’re going to be improved on defense.”

They ranked last in the Pac-10 in total defense last season, giving up 410 yards and 30.9 points.

1991 Standings

Pac-10 Overall TEAM W L W L Washington 8 0 12 0 California 6 2 10 2 UCLA 6 2 9 3 Stanford 6 2 8 4 Arizona State 4 4 6 5 Washington State 3 5 4 7 Arizona 3 5 4 7 USC 2 6 3 8 Oregon 1 7 3 8 Oregon State 1 7 1 10