Take It From Big Brother

The handoff has been made, Van Raaphorst to Van Raaphorst.

Mike Van Raaphorst, a 19-year-old redshirt freshman, will start at quarterback today for USC--for the first time in his college career--against seventh-ranked Washington, armed with all the knowledge his brother can provide.

Jeff Van Raaphorst, the most valuable player of the 1987 Rose Bowl, was Arizona State’s starting quarterback for three seasons and visited Husky Stadium only four weeks ago as a radio analyst for the Washington-Arizona State game.

As as soon as Mike learned that he’d gotten the nod over John Fox, the seminar began.

Everything Jeff knows about playing at Husky Stadium has been passed on over a phone line between Phoenix and Los Angeles.

“I tried to paint him a mental picture of what to expect,” Jeff said. “I described to him which end [of the stadium] is open, which end is closed. Where the noise comes from. And that horn, or siren. When they score, it’s going to be kind of like a Coast Guard horn revving up.”

A hard place to play for a young quarterback who has completed four of seven passes for 44 yards?

Jeff laughed. Make that the hardest place to play in the Pacific 10 Conference.

“Bar none,” Jeff said.

His brother is getting the chance to start because Coach John Robinson and offensive coordinator Hue Jackson believe Fox hasn’t been consistent at the helm of a sputtering offense.

So Van Raaphorst gets his shot, though Fox is also expected to play.

But Van Raaphorst gets his chance against Washington, a team whose only loss was to No. 1 Nebraska on a day when quarterback Brock Huard missed more than half the game because of a sprained ankle.

“In order to beat Washington, we have to play at our very best the entire game, both emotionally and physically,” said Robinson, whose team goes in as a 17 1/2-point underdog.

Jeff understands clearly how difficult a game it might be.

“My hope is, Mike will go in and play well, distinguish himself and show the things I know he can do,” Jeff said. “He’s going to make some mistakes. But the mark of a good quarterback is how he handles adversity. . . .

“I’ve admired the way John Robinson and Hue Jackson have given John Fox a lot of chances and really stood by him. I hope now that they’ve made the decision to go with Mike, they’ll stay with the same approach with him.”

Jeff still thinks of Mike as his little brother, even though Mike is 6 feet 5, 220 pounds--and maybe still growing.

When Jeff led Arizona State back to beat Michigan in the 1987 Rose Bowl, 22-15, after trailing, 15-3, Mike was just another kid hanging around outside the locker room.

“I ended up going to get stitched up after the game,” Jeff said. “He was 11 or 12 at the time, running around, throwing balls and stuff. It’s funny to think back now.”

It was funny to think back only three weeks ago. Jeff was sitting in the broadcast booth at Sun Devil Stadium, talking into a microphone, and suddenly Mike was in the game.

“My mom was in the press box that day, and I’m calling the game and I look over there at her and she’s got white knuckles,” Jeff said.

“The question became what to call him. I always call him Mike, obviously. But I made the decision to call him Van Raaphorst on the air. As soon as he came in, though, I reverted to a quarterback’s mentality. I usually try to look at the big picture but I was focused entirely on Mike. I was thinking, ‘Now, Mike’s seeing the blitz . . .’ ”

Even though Jeff has a family of his own--at 33, he’s the father of three--he and Mike still get together to go hiking and talk frequently about football. They just don’t talk football the week before the Trojans play the Sun Devils.

“We kind of have an agreement not to talk that week,” Jeff said. “I don’t want anybody to think I’m telling him what we’re going to do or vice versa.”

Last spring, Jeff went to Los Angeles to watch USC work out. Mike was a distant third in the quarterback derby then led by Quincy Woods, but Jeff saw that improvement had begun.

Jeff and Mike aren’t the only football players in La Mesa’s Van Raaphorst family. Their father, Dick, was an All-Big Ten kicker at Ohio State and the third brother, Bill, was an offensive lineman at San Diego State until knee surgery recently prompted him to hang up his cleats.

Jeff passed for 193 yards and two touchdowns in the 1987 Rose Bowl, helping Arizona State beat Michigan and fulfilling a long-deferred dream of his father. Dick was on the Ohio State team that qualified for the Rose Bowl in 1962 but the university chose not to send the team in a decision murkily remembered as an attempt to show that Ohio State didn’t overemphasize football.

Now the next generation is talking football.

“We were talking to Mike the other night, and my 6 1/2-year-old son, Jacob, gets on the phone and says, ‘Mike, just go up there and smoke ‘em!’ ” Jeff said.

“I said, ‘Jacob, where did you hear that?’ And then my 4 1/2-year-old girl, Haley, gets on the phone. ‘Yeah, Mike. Smoke ‘em!’ ”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NEXT FOR USC

WHO: Washington

WHERE: Husky Stadium

WHEN: Saturday, 12:30 p.m.

TV: Channel 7

RADIO: KLSX-FM (97.1)