City of Brotherly Dislike : USC Quarterback Rob Johnson Would Love to Beat UCLA After What Happened to Bret

Rob Johnson chooses his words carefully, not wanting to provide added motivation for the opposition during this big-game week.

But it is clear that the USC quarterback’s distaste for UCLA runs deeper than the rivalry between the two schools.

A year ago, when he was a freshman, Johnson told a reporter that he had “harsh feelings” toward the school from which his brother bolted two years ago.

Bret Johnson, saying that he was not given a fair chance to maintain the starting quarterback position he held throughout a 3-7-1 season in 1989, walked out of camp before the 1990 season, transferring to Michigan State.

The circumstances surrounding his departure scarred the Johnson family, including Rob, the youngest of Bob and Debbie’s two sons.

“Tremendously,” Rob said. “It’s kind of like, you don’t trust coaches anymore. You’ve grown up with a coach (Bob Johnson coached both of his sons at El Toro High), and you respect coaching, but then something like that happens. . . .

“It made me want to go to a school with coaches who gave fair shots. I’m not saying UCLA didn’t. . . . I just didn’t like the way they handled (Bret).”

Harsh feelings?

This time, Johnson says no.

He doesn’t care for UCLA, he said, but neither does he have affinity for any of the Trojans’ other opponents. Still, he admitted, “I dislike UCLA a little more than the rest because it’s a big-time rivalry. Throwing in Bret’s situation just adds to it.”

Three years ago, at the start of his junior year at El Toro, Rob dreamed of succeeding his brother as the Bruins’ quarterback.

But he soured on the Bruins even before his brother left.

“When he was redshirting (during the 1988 season), I thought I’d probably end up at UCLA,” Johnson said. “But once he was playing and I saw what their offense was doing and how the coaches handled the situation with a bad year, I didn’t want to go there.”

Saturday at the Rose Bowl, Johnson will face the Bruins for the first time.

“It’s a very important game for me,” said Johnson, who wasn’t used last season as Reggie Perry led the Trojans in a 24-21 loss to UCLA at the Coliseum. “It’s something I’ve looked forward to ever since Bret left.”

UCLA made a pitch for Johnson even after his brother left.

“They called me once and I told them no,” he said.

A two-time Orange County high school athlete of the year, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Johnson excelled in football, basketball and baseball at El Toro.

After signing with USC, he was drafted in the 16th round of the major league baseball draft by the Minnesota Twins, who offered a package worth $150,000.

Johnson, intent on playing college football, held out for an offer of $250,000, which never came.

“That’s way more money than I was worth,” said Johnson, who appeared in two games as a relief pitcher for the Trojans last spring. “I’m a good pitcher. I have a lot of potential. That’s what they saw. But for a 16th-round draft pick, ($150,000) is a lot of money. It was a generous offer.

“I would have loved to play in the minor leagues, but I wanted to go to college and get an education and play football.”

He made football recruiting trips to Notre Dame and Penn State before choosing USC.

“Notre Dame was real cold,” he said. “They don’t throw much there. I thought Rick Mirer was very good, and they don’t throw with him, so why would they change and throw with me?

“Penn State: I loved it. It was a great town, great coaches. Real nice. (But) they had three quarterbacks in the class above me. I’m not afraid of competition, but I thought I could pick a better place to go to school.

“Why go in fifth on the depth chart, instead of coming in and being second or third?”

At USC, his ascent was quick.

Before Johnson enrolled, Todd Marinovich left, giving up his final two years of eligibility to make himself available to the NFL.

“I was hoping that he would stay,” Johnson said. “Everyone I talked to said it was better to go into a situation where you can sit out a couple years and learn the offense, get bigger and stronger, and then play.

“But it’s worked out fine.”

Expecting to be redshirted as a freshman, Johnson was surprised when he was summoned from the bench in the second half of USC’s eighth game last season, a 52-30 loss to California.

He played in three games, completing 19 of 36 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns, with two interceptions.

“The thinking was, ‘What have we got to lose?’ ” Coach Larry Smith said. “We’re not playing for four years from now. If a guy is a great quarterback, he’s only going to be here for four years anyway, so why worry about a fifth year?

“They were good learning opportunities for him, and we just felt that if our future was going to depend on him, we needed to get him into the ballgame now and get him some experience now.”

Johnson used his experience to win the starting job from Perry last spring and summer.

He has helped the Trojans rebound from a 3-8 season, their worst in 35 years, by completing 58.3% of his 194 passes for 1,555 yards and 11 touchdowns, with 10 interceptions.

Second in the Pacific 10 Conference in passing efficiency, he has led USC to a 6-2-1 record and into contention for a major bowl bid.

Smith has compared him to Marinovich in terms of passing touch and to Rodney Peete in terms of field presence and leadership ability.

“He has played very well,” Smith said. “He’s been better than most young quarterbacks.”

The low point of the season occurred two weeks ago, when Johnson threw three interceptions during a 23-9 loss to Stanford.

“It was the worst game I’ve ever had,” Johnson said. “I’ve never thrown three interceptions in one game. It’s tough to take, but you look through the stats on Sunday and (see that) every quarterback has a bad day. You try to keep them to a minimum.”

Johnson has done that.

Earlier this season, Johnson told the Orange County Register: “Sometimes I think I’m playing for the whole family. . . . I’m trying to show something to those people who attack my family.”

But of this week’s game, he said: “I’m playing for the Trojans.”

He is trying not to let his feelings toward the Bruins alter his focus.

“I’m going to try to calm myself down,” he said. “I got a little too pumped up for the Stanford game because of some of the comments (Bill) Walsh made, and playing against Steve (Stenstrom, another former El Toro quarterback).

“I wanted to do real well. I tried to make too many big plays, and it ended up hurting me.”

Come Saturday night, he’d like to put the hurt on the Bruins.