Otton Stays in the Picture : Sophomore Fills Tall Order With Rob Johnson Injured

Trouble in Tumwater.

Last Saturday afternoon in Tumwater, Wash., Sid and Marjean Otton were relaxed, leaning back on their sofa, watching the early going of the USC-Stanford football game.

Their son, Brad, is the USC sophomore backup quarterback. He didn’t figure to play Saturday, though. Starter Rob Johnson was back in action, after a weekend off with a sprained ankle.

In the second quarter, however, Johnson tumbled to the ground, having re-sprained the ankle. He couldn’t walk, and was helped off the field.

Otton’s parents were suddenly on the edge of the sofa.

The camera focused on son Brad, hurriedly warming up on the sideline.

They saw him direct one running play.

Then: Pop!

The Tumwater cable system crashed. No picture.

“I went leaping to the phone and asked someone out of town to record it for us, then we ran for the car, drove eight to 10 miles outside of town to a friend who was on another cable system, and watched it.

“We only missed his first couple of passes.”

Bradley Michael Otton, like the player he has temporarily replaced, is the son of his high school coach.

Sid Otton was seated in the stands at Oregon State when his son went all the way for the Trojans in a 27-19 victory, and as luck would have it, the guy seated right in front of him was Bob Johnson, the El Toro High coach, and Rob Johnson’s father.

Asked to evaluate Brad’s quarterbacking in the Oregon, Oregon State and Stanford games, Sid Otton cautioned that such analyses by fathers might be suspect.

“On the football field, Brad’s always had a special charisma about him that’s made him a good field general,” he said.

“He’s always had poise, and he’s showed that in the games. I guess I’m most happy about that.”

Funny, USC Coach John Robinson said much the same thing at his Tuesday media luncheon.

“Otton’s play has really been a boost for us,” he said.

“The most important thing a backup quarterback has to do when he has to play is go in there and not look scared, to play like he enjoys it. And Brad’s done that--creating a sense of ease. He’s even giggled at times in there.

“He missed a couple of throws Saturday that might’ve broken the game open for us, but I have a very positive feeling about him.”

Otton, who expected to play only in late-game, mop-up situations when this season began, is 30 for 56 in passing, having done most of that in the last two games. He has thrown two touchdown passes and no interceptions.

At 6-feet-6, he’s the tallest USC quarterback ever.

And he fell out of the Big Sky onto the USC campus last spring.

Otton was a freshman starter at Weber State in the Big Sky Conference last season, when the university trustees began making noises about curtailing--or even dropping--the football program.

Otton was a 58% passer--he had thrown for 536 yards in a 67-28 victory over Northern Arizona--and had thrown 16 touchdown passes. “I was in a situation where I had three years left and I was in a program where I felt the administration wouldn’t give a commitment to the football program,” Otton said.

“If I was going to transfer, that was the time I had to do it.”

Otton and his father talked with Brigham Young, Montana, Idaho, Washington State, Fresno State and USC.

Mike Riley, USC’s offensive coordinator, figured he had an edge. Sid Otton had played high school ball in Idaho for Riley’s father, Bud.

“Brad and his dad contacted us, and we got a film of his 500-yard game with Northern Arizona,” Riley said.

“I watched it with John, and he said, ‘Recruit him.’ ”

But Otton, who visited three schools in five days in late January, first committed to Washington State.

“The day after I told Coach (Mike) Price I’d come to Washington State, he called me,” Otton said.

“They already had six quarterbacks in school and when they heard I was coming, they were all in (Price’s) office the next day, he said. He also said the quarterbacks’ parents were calling him. So we agreed it wouldn’t be a good situation, and I called Coach Riley and told him I’d come to SC.”

So Otton enrolled for the spring semester and, because he was transferring from a Division I-AA school to a I-A program, was not required to sit out a year. He joined the Trojans for spring practice and did well, Riley said.

But even at that, he was a distant No. 3 on the depth chart. The backup then was junior Kyle Wachholtz. But Wachholtz became academically ineligible, making Otton No. 2.

Otton still had little expectation of getting serious playing time this year. Johnson came into the season as a Heisman Trophy candidate . . . and began encountering misfortune in Week 1.

Speared in the back in the Washington game, he was slowed somewhat for two games with a sore lower back. Then he suffered a high ankle sprain--the slow-to-heal kind--against Oregon.

Otton came on to complete seven of 15 that night, in a 22-7 USC loss.

He was solid and consistent at Oregon State, completing 13 of 21 for 208 yards and two touchdowns.

But against Stanford, Otton said, he wasn’t satisfied with his play after Johnson suddenly went down again.

“I’m happy we won, but my performance was mediocre,” he said.

“I wasn’t mentally ready. I didn’t throw real well. Rob had come back during the week, it was going to be his show. I kind of took a step back, mentally. I wasn’t even paying close attention early in the game.

“I won’t make that mistake again.”

Tuesday, Robinson said Otton probably would start against Cal on Saturday at the Coliseum, that Johnson might suit up and play “in an emergency.”

USC players have remarked on Otton’s poise under fire in his limited duty this season.

“He’s cool,” tailback Shawn Walters said. “He makes everyone at ease.”

A 22-year-old sophomore, Otton is old enough to be in the NFL with his old Washington prep rival, Drew Bledsoe. But he had a redshirt year at Weber State, then went on a two-year Mormon mission in Italy.

Playing for his father, Otton was a backup in his junior year of high school, on a team that went 11-1.

“I still hear about that from his mother,” Sid Otton said.

“We had a great team Brad’s senior year, when he started. We were 13-0 and didn’t have a close game. And Brad was upset with that, that we weren’t challenged.”

Otton threw 29 touchdown passes that season, but Bledsoe, from Walla Walla, got most of the recruiting attention.

Sid Otton urges Robinson to be patient with his son. The best is yet to come, he says.

“Brad’s physically a late bloomer,” he said. “When he was 16, he was 5-7, 128 pounds. He was 6-1 and 145 as a junior, and 6-4 and 175 as a senior.”

Might be that by Otton’s senior season, USC fans will remember Otton’s sophomore year as the year he was “only” 6-6.