Maddox Ahead of Game Again : Pro football: Former UCLA quarterback will get the starting call against Raiders if Elway can't play.

By STEVE SPRINGER

Nov. 19, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

On Saturday, Tommy Maddox will be in the Rose Bowl, reliving the biggest game of his collegiate career.

On Sunday, he will be in the Coliseum, perhaps playing the biggest game of his young pro career.

It didn’t figure to happen this quickly for Maddox, but it always seems to. For Tommy Maddox, life has been on fast forward for several years.

At 19, he was a star in perhaps the most explosive game in the history of the UCLA-USC rivalry.

At 20, after leading the Bruins to a 9-3 record and a victory in the John Hancock Bowl as a sophomore All-American, Maddox became a first-round draft choice of the Denver Broncos.

And at 21, Maddox, who was not expected to play for several years, has become the youngest player to throw a pass in the NFL since Elmer Angsman did it for the Chicago Cardinals in 1946.

“I was surprised there was somebody younger,” Maddox said. “I thought I had a record.”

Nothing seems to faze the former Texas prep star. Not even the thought that he might be back in Los Angeles as a starting quarterback Sunday, filling in for injured John Elway (bruised shoulder) when the Broncos face the Raiders in the Coliseum. The Raiders expect to see Elway.

“If John can play, that’s great,” Maddox said. “If it happens that I have to start, before the game I’ll be excited and a little nervous. But once the game starts, you have to go out there and perform.”

Maddox always has.

He was a redshirt freshman for UCLA in 1990 and third on the depth chart behind Bret Johnson and Jim Bonds before the start of training camp.

But by the time the Bruins faced the Trojans at the end of that season, Johnson was at Michigan State, Bonds was on the bench and Maddox was the starter.

USC came into that game 7-2-1, UCLA 5-5.

The Trojan quarterback that day was Todd Marinovich, who, in his brief career at USC, had a reputation for playing well in big games.

He did that day as well. But so did Maddox.

Maddox completed 26 of 40 passes for a school-record 409 yards and three touchdowns, but he took no delight in those numbers. Not that day and not for a long time afterward.

Because for all his heroics, Maddox was on the losing side in a game that ended 45-42.

In the furious finish, each side produced 21 points in the fourth quarter, with Marinovich connecting with Johnnie Morton on the 23-yard, game-winning touchdown pass play with 16 seconds to play.

Time, however, has given Maddox some perspective on that afternoon.

“It was just a great game,” he said Wednesday. “At first, you just hate it because you lost. But now, you look back and you realize, there’s not many of those games and it was nice to be able to play in it.”

Because the Broncos are scheduled to arrive early Saturday afternoon, Maddox hopes to be able to rush over to the Rose Bowl to watch this year’s edition of the rivalry.

He has kept in touch with the Bruins since opting to forsake his junior and senior years. Oh, he gets a certain amount of kidding from his Westwood friends about how much they miss him, especially this season.

“I don’t think there’s any bitterness toward me there,” Maddox said. “I’ll be excited to see everybody and, hopefully, everybody will be excited to see me.”

The Raiders would be excited to see Maddox on Sunday, because that would mean they wouldn’t have to face Elway, who beat them with one of his many end-of-the-game drives in the season opener.

The New York Giants were not too disappointed when Elway was knocked out in the second quarter last Sunday night.

They had to be eager to face a 21-year-old whose only NFL appearance consisted of two completions in eight attempts against the Washington Redskins in Denver’s sixth game, a game the Broncos lost, 34-3.

But Maddox showed no hesitancy or nervousness when he got his chance. His only question when he realized he would be going in: “Where’s my helmet?”

Maddox found his helmet and his poise, completing nine of 13 passes for 134 yards. He led his team to three second-half scoring drives to hold onto a 14-3 lead he inherited from Elway. Denver won, 27-13.

Maddox began the season as the Broncos’ third quarterback behind Elway and Shawn Moore. But when Coach Dan Reeves decided to use Maddox as the holder for kicker David Treadwell, it moved Maddox up on the depth chart. His increased activity in practice moved him up in Reeves’ estimation.

“He’s more comfortable with what he’s doing now,” Reeves said of his young quarterback. “He at least has a chance to look at the defense and get some idea of what’s coming. I think the biggest problem a young quarterback has is what happens after the snap of the ball. You get up to the line of scrimmage and everything looks like the Keystone Cops. I think the game has slowed down some now (for him), so that he’s more comfortable trying to execute.”

It may appear to Reeves that the game has slowed for his rookie quarterback, but it doesn’t necessarily look that way to Maddox.

“The overall speed of the game is a lot different (than college),” he said. “Not just from the secondary, but from the linebackers and the linemen. The game just goes by a lot quicker and you have to get used to that.”

That should be no problem for Maddox. His whole life between the white lines has gone a lot quicker than he or anyone else ever imagined.