Mike Price, Washington State's football coach, had barely let go of Brad Otton's handshake when his office in Pullman was teeming with steamed quarterbacks. There were five of them, all quarterbacks like Otton. All on scholarship.
Only minutes before, Otton had consented to join them, to make it an even half-dozen, to walk with the crowd in Drew Bledsoe's footsteps.This, however, was no gang backslap for Price and his ability to draw Otton, a record-setting passer from Weber State, into the Washington State fold. This was five angry quarterbacks, intent on blackballing Otton and anyone else who dared throw a football overhand for the Cougars. A few hours later, Otton was a reserve quarterback at USC.
Now Otton is a friendly sort who only wanted to play a little quarterback. When Division I-AA Weber State's football program showed signs of disintegrating and Otton fled, Price invited him for a tour of Washington State, for a better-than-even shot at the No. 1 job.
Otton, who also visited USC and Fresno State, chose Price and the Cougars on the condition that he wouldn't be alienating too many already in the program.
"(Price) assured me that wasn't going to happen," Otton said.
It happened, and it happened in a hurry. On the telephone later that same day, Price told Otton he was not welcome at Washington State.
"That was a stressful time, but (Brad) was the calmest," said Sid Otton, Brad's father and, at Tumwater (Wash.) High School, his football coach. "I think his head was spinning for quite a while after that."
With his first preference financially unstable and his second preference emotionally unstable, Brad Otton came to USC to play football. He will play for offensive coordinator Mike Riley, whose father, Bud, coached Sid Otton at Lewiston High School in Idaho.
Just off a two-year Morman mission in Rome, Otton passed for 2,307 yards and 15 touchdowns in seven starts for Weber State as a redshirt freshman last season. In a game against Northern Arizona, he threw for 540 yards, a Division I-AA freshman record.
He is 6-foot-6, 205 pounds, though somehow he looks more lanky than that. However, in spring football practice he has moved with unexpected ease.
"I saw the film and passed it around to everybody," Mike Riley said. "And everybody was very impressed. We felt like that was one area in our recruiting where we didn't get `the guy.' And he'll fill that void for us."
Otton will compete this season with Kyle Wachholtz to back up starter Rob Johnson, then again next season to replace Johnson. While Wachholtz has the advantage of an extra year in coach John Robinson's complex offense, Otton already has shown a strong, accurate arm.
"The hardest part is putting the last few months behind me," Otton said. "The decision to leave Weber and all that garbage.
"I wouldn't have decided to leave just to prove I could play at a Pac-10 school. The decision to leave was based solely on football. (Weber State) almost disbanded the program. Nobody could guarantee me what the future would bring."
Sid Otton was an All-America back at Weber State in the mid-'60s. Brad's brother, Tim, a defensive end, was Weber State's defensive player of the year in 1992. Sid met his wife, Marjean, while at Weber State. And Brad's decision to transfer to Washington State was due, in part, to the fact Mike Price coached at Weber State from 1981-88.
"I think if they had not had the financial problems he would have stayed at Weber," said Sid, the coach at Tumwater since 1974.
The Trojans gained a 22-year-old quarterback who carries a season's college experience with him, along with three years of eligibility. Their recruiting class, though ranked among the best in the nation, was remarkably free of a top quarterback. Heck, of any quarterbacks. Otton, then, provides instant depth, without the pressure of instant results.