Two Sophomores Are Ahead of the Class

During the summer, Steve Clarkson, the private quarterback coach for Jimmy Clausen of Westlake Village Oaks Christian, offered this assessment of his pupil:

“If there were a LeBron James in football, it would be Jimmy Clausen.”

Clausen had never started a varsity football game, so Clarkson’s comment was considered hype at the extreme. But hindsight makes Clarkson look like a visionary.

On Saturday night, the 6-foot-4 Clausen completed his sophomore season by connecting on 19 of 25 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions to help the Lions wrap up a 14-0 season with a 39-21 victory over Oak Park in the Southern Section Division XI championship game at Thousand Oaks. Clausen ended up with 3,659 yards and 57 touchdown passes.

As if Clausen’s season wasn’t extraordinary enough, Marc Tyler, Oaks Christian’s other “once-in-a-lifetime” player, as Coach Bill Redell puts it, scored his 28th touchdown of the season before being sidelined at the end of the first quarter because of an ankle injury.

“College coaches tell me those two guys are the finest running back and finest quarterback for sophomores in the country,” Redell said.

Redell coached running back Russell White at Encino Crespi in the late 1980s, before the Internet and before the onslaught of high school athletes appearing regularly on television. Even then, there was a deluge of media coverage for White. Now Redell must figure out a game plan to handle the stampede that figures to engulf Clausen and Tyler over the next two seasons.

Fortunately, both are used to the attention. Tyler’s father, Wendell, played nine years in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers. And Clausen’s two brothers, Casey and Rick, have been starting quarterbacks at Tennessee. No reporter with a notepad is going to intimidate them and no cameraman with a microphone is going to make them flee.

But there are going to be people wanting to embrace them, use them, even profit from them, so they better be on alert and focus on enjoying their high school experience before sports becomes simply a business.

They are teenagers with strong core values, good support systems and have the maturity to understand they must keep getting better to reach their potential.

Casey Clausen, who started for four years at quarterback for Tennessee, saw early on the gift his youngest brother possessed.

“I said when he was in sixth grade he was going to be the best of all of us,” he said. “The things we did as a senior or junior, he’s doing just as good if not better as a sophomore. Physically and mentally, he’s way above where I was.”

Coaches at Oak Christian believe they are dealing with a college quarterback when Clausen is on the sideline. He knows how to read defenses and make adjustments as if he had been playing the game for years. Yet, this is only his second year of tackle football.

“His intellectual knowledge goes beyond his years,” Redell said.

Having a father who was a high school coach and two brothers who played college football prepared Clausen to perform immediately, along with four years of private instruction from Clarkson.

“The expectations were real high for me,” Clausen said. “I wanted to fulfill those expectations.”

Tyler, 6-0 and 205 pounds, would be the No. 1 choice of any fantasy football fan because he’s capable of scoring touchdowns so many different ways. This season, he has scored on a fumble recovery, an interception return, a kickoff return, a punt return, 12 rushing and 12 receiving . . . . He averaged 16.5 yards per carry and 22.9 yards per catch.

“Every time I get the ball, I try to make something happen,” Tyler said.

Tyler’s father was one of the fastest running backs when he played at Los Angeles Crenshaw and UCLA.

“My Dad knows what it takes to get [to the next level], so he keeps challenging me,” Tyler said. “He was fast and quick. I don’t think I’m faster, but I’m bigger.”

Clausen and Tyler have become close friends, with Tyler staying at Clausen’s house during the week because his sister attends school in Lancaster, where his family lives.

Together, Clausen and Tyler are taking on new roles.

“I told [Jimmy], ‘Every time you go on the football field, you have to perform,’ ” Casey said. “There might be some parent or kid from Bakersfield in the stands coming to watch you.”

It’s the life of a public figure, and that’s what Clausen and Tyler have become.

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.