Another Muhammad Takes Reins at Fairfax : Prep football: Hasan Muhammad has stepped forward to replace his brother, Rahim, as the Lion quarterback.

MID-CITY — For two seasons, Hasan Muhammad of Fairfax High played football in the shadow of his older brother, Rahim.

It seemed whenever Hasan would make a play, Rahim would make one better.

Rahim became one of the area’s best players and was a two-time All-City Section selection. Now that Muhammad has graduated and is attending Oregon State, it is Hasan’s turn to lead Fairfax.

“It’s been kind of hard playing in the footsteps of my brother the last two years,” said Muhammad, a 16-year-old senior. “Since I’ve been in high school, I’ve always been looked at as his little brother and I’ve had to work hard to make sure everyone knew me for me.”

Muhammad earned a name for himself as a defensive back. At 6-feet and 170 pounds, his heady play in the secondary was a key to the Lions’ 8-2 record in 1991.

This fall Muhammad is starting at quarterback and safety. First-year Coach Terrel Ray is counting on him to help the Lions bounce back from their 0-2 start.

“He’s the man, or should I say the person, on the team all the players look up to,” said Ray, who was a co-coach at Crenshaw when the Cougars won the 1991 City 3-A Division championship. “He’s very intelligent and works hard all of the time.”

As a quarterback, Muhammad is making the adjustment to Ray’s new passing system. After a sluggish start in the Lions’ opening-season loss to Gardena, Muhammad rushed for two touchdowns and passed for another in Fairfax’s loss Friday night to Cleveland of Reseda.

As in recent years, the lack of experienced players has been a problem for Fairfax. Against Cleveland, the Lions had nine players playing both ways and Muhammad rarely came off the field.

“We were just winded at the end of the game,” Muhammad said. “But we know that things will start to come together soon.”

This past summer, longtime Fairfax co-coaches Earl Smith and Ron Price retired. When the school waited to name a successor, many of the returning players tried to transfer to other schools, including Muhammad.

“At one point, several of us even started practicing at Beverly Hills, and we would be there if we hadn’t came back once Ray was named to see how he was,” Muhammad said. “Once we saw that we liked his system, we decided to come back.”

Ray, who was named coach in August, is optimistic about the Lions’ final seven games.

Despite their lack of depth, the Lions are talented. Along with Muhammad, Fairfax has junior wideout/defensive back Az Hakim and linebacker Andre Rhodes.

“We’re working on the passing game, but the key for us is to just relax and play football,” Ray said. “Hasan’s just learning how to read defenses from a straight dropback and our receivers are adjusting to how to run pass patterns.”

Muhammad says he is ready for the challenge and knows that whatever he does will help dictate the success of the team.

Although he played his best game as a quarterback in the loss to Cleveland, Muhammad is looking to improve his play Friday night when Fairfax travels to Jackie Robinson Stadium to play Dorsey, the defending City 4-A Division champion.

“We might not have a lot of players like Dorsey, but I think that we are getting better,” said Muhammad, who is being recruited by most of the schools in the Pacific 10 Conference. “We’ll surprise some people before the year’s out.”