PACIFIC 10 FOOTBALL / DAN HAFNER : Even Among This Group, Stanford’s Stenstrom Stands Out

In the year of the quarterbacks in the Pacific 10 Conference, Stanford’s Steve Stenstrom has emerged No. 1.

Seldom has one conference had as many outstanding quarterbacks as the Pac-10 has this year.

When USC and UCLA battle for a Rose Bowl berth Saturday, the game very well may hinge on which quarterback, Rob Johnson of USC or Wayne Cook of UCLA, has the better day.

The local passers have had big seasons, and so has Danny O’Neil of Oregon. Until Dave Barr injured his shoulder, California was unbeaten. In fact, injuries to quarterbacks have been the key to the season.

Cook was hurt and couldn’t play last week and UCLA’s winning streak ended after seven games.

Injuries suffered by Arizona State sophomore Grady Benton and Washington State’s Mike Pattinson probably knocked both teams out of the title race.

The Bears lost four in a row while Barr recovered from injuries, then bounced back last week to knock Arizona out of the running when Barr had a big game.

Stenstrom, though, has been the standout. On a Stanford team that was equally inept at stopping the run or the pass, he kept the Cardinal in most games.

In his finest effort in an illustrious career, Stenstrom passed for 407 yards and three touchdowns to lead Stanford to a wild 38-34 upset of Oregon last week and knock the Ducks out of contention for a bowl bid.

It also enabled the junior from El Toro to set a Pac-10 record of 3,281 yards passing for the season with another game left. The previous record of 3,242 was set by Stanford’s John Elway in 1978. Stenstrom also set a Stanford record with 271 completions.

“It’s a great honor because John Elway is a guy I followed when I was growing up,” Stenstrom said. “When I got here, I thought his numbers were insurmountable.”

The Cardinal is only 4-6, but all four victories resulted from Stenstrom’s passing. With Stanford unable to run the ball much of the season, there was extra pressure on him. He often took a beating, but he always came back.

The match between Stenstrom and O’Neil was an indication of the conference’s quarterback strength.

Stenstrom completed 28 of 37 passes and was only slightly better than O’Neil. The Oregon sophomore from Newport Beach completed 31 of 44 for 386 yards and four touchdowns. It was the most spectacular aerial battle of the season in the Pac-10.

At one point, Stenstrom completed 19 consecutive passes.

“A year ago, Steve held the ball too long,” Coach Bill Walsh said. “It’s one of the reasons that, despite not throwing the ball nearly as much, we had twice as many sacks.

“He’s a much better player than he was a year ago. He’s one of the best passers in the country. When you consider our schedule and the lack of a running game, he’s the best in the country. It hasn’t been a case of getting all those yards late against prevent defenses or after games were decided, either. We’ve been in all but two games this season. He has earned his records. Also remember we don’t have a big-play receiver, so he’s set the records the hard way.

“He is ahead of two-thirds of the NFL quarterbacks in three categories--knowledge, command and execution. I’m not saying he has better ability than two-thirds of them, I’m just saying in those three things he’s ahead of them.”

Stenstrom needs only 11 completions against Cal on Saturday to break the conference record of 283 completions in a season, and four touchdown passes would break the record of 29. Both were set by Mike Pagel of Arizona State in 1981.

And O’Neil needs only 10 yards passing against Oregon State to equal Elway’s old mark. Both Stenstrom and O’Neil are far ahead of the total offense record of 3,155 yards set by Timm Rosenbach of Washington State in 1988.

Barr, who sat out two games and parts of others because of his injury, is still the efficiency leader. He is slightly ahead of USC’s Johnson, 156.31 points to 156.19.

Next year probably figures to be the year of the quarterback revisited. Although Stenstrom will graduate in June, he has another year of eligibility and says he plans to return. Also expected back are O’Neil, Johnson, Barr, Cook and both Arizona State quarterbacks--true freshman Jake Plummer, who filled in notably, and the injured Benton, the most efficient passer in the Pac-10 last season.

*

It is the longest series on the West Coast, but the 97th meeting between Oregon and Oregon State on Saturday at Eugene is simply another battle for state bragging rights. The schools first met in 1894.

With Stanford having ended the Ducks’ bowl hopes, Saturday’s game merely serves as a chance for O’Neil to add to his brilliant season. It will be his passing against the Beavers’ option attack, which has produced the second-best rushing average in the country, 303.7 yards.

Coach Rich Brooks of the Ducks has been a successful participant on both sides of the “Civil War.” As a player and an assistant, he was 8-0-1 at Oregon and is 13-2-1 as Oregon’s coach. The Ducks won under monsoon-like conditions a year ago, 7-0, when O’Neil passed to Willy Tate for three yards and a touchdown just before halftime.

*

After three consecutive appearances in the Rose Bowl, this has been a bitter, disappointing year for Washington. With the sanctions imposed on them by the conference just before the season, the Huskies couldn’t have gone to any bowl game this season, but their record is good enough.

Despite all the problems, not the least of which was Coach Don James’ resignation, the Huskies, with a victory at home against Washington State in their traditional regular-season finale, would finish at 7-4. And that would give Jim Lambright the best record ever for a first-year Husky coach.

The injury to Pattinson and three consecutive defeats have ended Washington State’s hopes of a bowl bid, but a victory would give the Cougars a winning season. One of their six victories, however, was against Montana State, which is not a Division I-A school.