VALLEY / VENTURA COUNTY SPORTS : KEEPING TABS : Boller’s Debut Isn’t a Snap, But He Delivers the Big Play

Getting a handle on impossibly high expectations consumed Kyle Boller’s preseason at California.

Getting a grip on the football was tough enough Saturday.

Boller, a freshman quarterback who set state and section passing records last season at Hart High, began the Golden Bears’ opener against Rutgers watching from the sidelines as teammate Samuel Clemons played the first few series.

However, Clemons suffered the signal-calling equivalent of writer’s block early in the second quarter, resulting in two delay-of-game penalties. Boller replaced him to the delight of a Cal student section that had been yelling, “Boller, Boller, Boller,” from the first snap.

Boller’s first snap was forgettable--he fumbled it and fell on the ball. On second down, he made a poor handoff that resulted in a three-yard loss.

But before the crowd could begin chanting for Clemons, Boller rifled a pass for a 26-yard gain on third down and went on to lead Cal to a 21-7 victory.

Boller’s numbers won’t begin a Heisman buzz (eight of 15 for 89 yards and one touchdown), but Coach Tom Holmoe already is trying to dodge a quarterback controversy.

“Both our quarterbacks went out and made mistakes,” Holmoe said. “Kyle also threw a couple of nice passes. But I can’t say one guy is the guy and one guy is not.”

An ability to convert on third down might give Boller the edge. He connected with Mike Ainsworth for a 17-yard touchdown against a blitz on a third-and-eight play in the third quarter.

Still, he knows he has plenty of room for improvement.

“I didn’t play well,” Boller said. “I missed stuff, reads, throws you have to make. You have jitters the first time. But it was pretty neat and pretty exciting.”

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A Pac-10 quarterback with far more experience than Boller exhibited enough maturity to keep Arizona from beginning the season 0-2 for the first time in Coach Dick Tomey’s 13 seasons.

Keith Smith led Newbury Park High to an unbeaten season when Boller was in junior high in 1993. On Sunday, Smith again displayed a winning touch.

Arizona trailed Texas Christian by three points with less than four minutes to play when Smith began an eight-play, 77-yard drive that was capped by a 31-yard touchdown pass to Dennis Northcutt with 2:10 left that produced a 35-31 victory.

Before the winning march, Smith hadn’t played since struggling in the second quarter, giving way to Ortege Jenkins in the Wildcats’ quarterback platoon system.

“Keith Smith had a tough first half, but he has a lot of heart and came back and played an exceptional game and led us on the game-winning drive,” Tomey said. “Smith is our main man, but we know O.J. can come in and do a great job, which he did [against TCU].”

Smith, who led the Pac-10 with a 68% completion percentage last season, was 12 of 16 for 174 yards. He threw an eight-yard scoring pass to Bobby Wade in the first quarter.

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Stanford was humiliated in a 69-17 loss to No. 16 Texas, but the blowout gave Joe Borchard a chance to take some snaps.

Borchard, a junior from Camarillo High better known at Stanford for his exploits on the baseball diamond, completed three of six passes for 53 yards after Texas took a 48-10 halftime lead.

Cardinal starting quarterback Todd Husak was only 15 of 39 for 205 yards.

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Foot-notes: Waking Bailey (Kennedy) caught one pass for 18 yards in San Jose State’s 29-21 loss to Louisiana State. . . . Ted Iacenda (Hart) gained three yards on three carries and had two receptions for two yards in his debut for New Mexico, a 13-10 loser to Texas El Paso. . . . Leaford Hackett (Poly) caught four passes for 33 yards in Washington State’s 21-7 loss to Utah.