Smith’s Best Isn’t Good Enough as Lincoln Tumbles From the Top : High school football: Quarterback has been hotly recruited, but some of his teammates aren’t doing their part as Hornets open season with 0-5 mark.

Quarterback Akili Smith’s passing talents have college recruiters from Westwood to Ann Arbor, Mich., poring over Lincoln High game films this year.

Smith, 6 feet 3, 190 pounds, is a big-time prospect. Rolling out of the pocket in his green, black and white Hornet uniform, loping into the flats with long-legged strides and firing a pass 30 yards upfield, Smith looks like a high-school Randall Cunningham.

Dick Loscala of the Scouting Evaluation Assn. in Fallbrook rates Smith one of the best in the state. He outshined four of the most highly touted quarterbacks in the state at a summer camp at the University of California, prompting the Golden Bears to jump into the recruiting war for Smith, a senior from Southeast San Diego.

But each time a Division I recruiter comes calling--and they do almost daily--Smith cringes.

“Sometimes I’m scared to talk to them . . . and tell them that I’m 0-5,” Smith said.

Smith, 17, is blessed with all the tools for a promising future, but he has been stunned by a most uncharacteristic Lincoln season.

Would anyone kid about being 0-5?

The Hornets, for decades perennial winners and frequent visitors to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium for Section championship games, have come no closer than six points from winning any game.

Smith, the linchpin of the Hornet offense, has completed a modest 49 of 120 passes, but more than 25 of them have been flat out dropped. Turnovers, bad snaps, costly penalties, blown assignments, you name it. The Hornets’ season has been a chain reaction of gridiron implosions.

Smith, touted as a potential all-American, could rat out his teammates when explaining his senior year of discontent to recruiters. He doesn’t.

“I really have no answer,” he said. “I can’t tell them nothing.”

There is unrest in the proud Lincoln football community. Coaches, players and alumni all seem to agree that, like most Lincoln teams, this one has talent to burn. But when it comes to heart, the vital signs are weak.

“It looks like the guys don’t care,” said All-Central League nose tackle Ben Lilo, who returns Friday after being academically ineligible for the first five games. “They just want to get out of the game.”

Oh and five?

The Hornets have had only one losing season since 1974, when they were 4-7 in 1990. Losses are strange phenomena.

Vic Player has served two tenures as Lincoln’s head coach, the first in 1974. His record over 15 seasons is 127-38-2, a .760 winning percentage. Player has led Lincoln to four section 2-A titles. The 1977 team, with quarterback Marcus Allen, finished 12-0-1 and held the opposition to an average of 4.1 points per game. The 1986 team (12-1) scored a section-record 554 points.

In all these years, games with Morse have been special.

Last year’s Morse game was Smith’s coming-out party. He threw two bombs to Shaun Greene for touchdowns--the second coming on the last play of the game--to key a 34-28 come-from-behind victory.

Two weeks ago, Lincoln was shut out by Morse for the only the third time in 23 seasons.

“We were in the ballgame until the fourth quarter, and the kids just . . . they didn’t mind losing,” Player said. “I never thought I’d say that as a coach at Lincoln. There was no fire. None whatsoever.”

Which brings us to the strangest twist to the 1992 season. Lincoln, for all its troubles, will likely win yet another Central League championship . . . the 11th for Player.

Because Central League teams continue to be plagued by low numbers, small linemen and under-stocked talent, defending champion Lincoln still is likely to beat Madison at home Friday in its league opener and recover to 5-5 and playoff status by the end of the season.

Lincoln carried a 3-3 mark into league play last year, then destroyed its opponents, 155-3.

But how this Lincoln team responds is anybody’s guess, including Player’s.

“The thing I always called Lincoln Mystique,” said Player, “is not there. When ballgames were close, our kids always found a way to win. With this particular group of fellas, it’s just the opposite. They’re in all the ballgames, but they find some way to lose.”

Before Monday’s practice, Player held a meeting and his 36 players shocked him when he asked how many had memorized all of their assignments in the playbook.

Only five raised their hands.

“I said, ‘OK, fellas. You got me,’ ” Player said. “ ‘What am I doing wrong? You tell me.’ They said, ‘Coach, you’re not doing anything wrong.’

“I said, ‘OK. I know the problem. You know the problem. You give me some solutions.’

“You could have heard a pin drop.”

Player, sitting in his office, laughed as he recounted the meeting three hours later. He has been around too long to panic when the heat is on. But if the Hornets lose to Madison Friday, it won’t be such a laughing matter.

“We have the talent to have beaten four of the five teams that we’ve played,” he said. “My worst nightmare is they’re not going to play any better when we get into league. That’s my biggest fear.

“The last time we were 0-5, we had no talent at any position on the field. We’ve got talent all over the place (this year).”

The advent of magnet curriculum may have weakened this Lincoln Mystique. Only seven of the top 24 players grew up in the neighborhood. The others have come from the Hoover, Madison, Clairemont, Crawford, Mt. Miguel, Morse and Sweetwater enrollment districts, Player said.

Akili Smith is shouldering the disappointment in 1992.

In 1991, he passed for 1,346 yards, averaged 21 yards per completion and threw for 12 touchdowns. His 120 passes this year have produced those 49 completions for 551 yards and five touchdowns as well as four interceptions.

“I’m trying to run a little bit,” Smith said, “and I’m trying to force the ball into zones and throwing interceptions sometimes. I’m trying to do too much. There’s a lot of pressure.”

And his frustration has shown often enough on game films that it has become a concern to Player.

“He’s got all the athletic ability in the world,” Player said, “but I got to tell him that, regardless of how this team goes, he’s got a future at quarterback.

“People are going to see on film that he’s doing his job. But they don’t want to see him pouting. He’s got to keep his cool. We go round and round about that.”

Those films show an uncovered receiver twice dropping passes in the end zone in a 14-6 loss to Castle Park. Those films also show how good Lincoln should be with a quarterback like Akili Smith.

Said Player, “We should be 4-1.”

Losing Seasons Since 1965

Year Rec. Comment 1969 2-7 Scored 70 points total. 1970 3-6 Two one-point losses. 1974 2-7 Victories in first and last games. 1990 4-7 Opened the season 0-5.

Championship Years

Year Rec. Comment 1965 10-1 Lost opener to USDHS, 14-12. 1967 10-1 Two titles in 3 years under Shan Deniston. 1977 12-0-1 Marcus Allen-led team allowed 4.1 points per game. 1979 12-0 Two titles in 3 years under Vic Player. 1980 10-2 Beat La Jolla in final 5 weeks after losing to Vikings. 1986 12-1 Team scored a section-record 554 points.