Q(uarterback) & A Session for Robinson

It’s not the only question of USC’s preseason, but it sure is the biggest.

“I can’t go to the grocery store without being asked, ‘Who’s going to be your quarterback?’ ” Coach John Robinson said.

With Brad Otton gone, the Trojans will open fall practice today with no heir apparent and three candidates--sophomores Quincy Woods and John Fox and redshirt freshman Mike Van Raaphorst.

Woods has thrown three passes in his career, completing one. Fox has thrown two, and the only one that was caught was intercepted. Van Raaphorst hasn’t appeared in a college game.

“We have three people we like,” Robinson said. “We don’t know how they’re going to be, but we like them.

“I don’t have a favorite. . . . People seem to think, or maybe infer, that Fox and Woods are the two guys. But Mike Van Raaphorst has improved a lot and he’s certainly capable.”

With such uncertainty at quarterback and a rebuilding job on the defensive line after a tumultuous 6-6 season that included a win over Notre Dame but no bowl game, USC is talking about its suddenly veteran offensive line and a return of its running game.

And the winner of that quarterback battle? He gets this prize: The first start of his career will be Sept. 6 at the Coliseum against Florida State.

That is, if there is a winner.

“We’ll try to make a decision prior to the first game and play one quarterback,” Robinson said. “If two are even, obviously it worked for us two years ago. . . .”

That’s the last thing the three quarterbacks want--a repeat of 1995, when Otton and Kyle Wachholtz shared the job.

“I would not want a two-quarterback system,” Woods said. “You can’t get into a rhythm.”

Fox agrees.

“I don’t have a choice,” he said. “But if I had a choice, I’d go with one quarterback.”

But which one?

Woods is 6 feet 1 and 185 pounds. “Athletic, dynamic,” Robinson said. “He’s a guy who can scramble around and is becoming a much better passer.”

Fox is more of a pro-style prototype, at 6-4 and 205. “He came to us as a more sophisticated passer than Quincy Woods,” Robinson said.

And there’s Van Raaphorst, a drop-back passer Robinson and new offensive coordinator Hue Jackson insist should not be discounted, especially since he honed his 6-5 frame from 226 pounds to 214 and improved his footwork.