In Stoney Case, Longhorn Loss Is New Mexico Gain

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - At heart, there's still a lot of the boy in quarterback Stoney Case - the one who grew up in West Texas, fully confident he would find a home in Austin and a career in Dallas.

Mention his name and the NFL in the same breath, and Case's face takes on the look of a quarterback who has just spotted a wide-open receiver.

"I always said I was going to go to Texas and eventually play for the Dallas Cowboys," Case said. "That's the main reason I wanted to play football. I used to think that was the only reason to go to college."

Case never got to be a University of Texas Longhorn, but he's come a long way from the teen-ager who had a change of heart and direction in his senior season at Odessa Permian High School.

Instead of Austin, Case headed west to Albuquerque to be a pre-med student. In the process, he and New Mexico second-year coach Dennis Franchione have produced a pulse in a football program given up for dead.

Week-to-week excellence

New Mexico (3-3) is off to its best start since 1984. Without question it has been Case's week-to-week excellence that has the Lobos thinking they can end a string of nine straight losing seasons.

He is fifth nationally in total offense with an average of 308.3 yards a game, has thrown for 1,612 yards and has accounted for 22 of New Mexico's 26 touchdowns: 13 passing and nine rushing.

In the Lobos' 42-35 victory over Utah, Case passed for 336 yards, threw for four TDs and ran in the game-winner with 3:25 left.

"He has all the ingredients that you want in your starting quarterback," Franchione said. "He's a winner, he's a leader and he's a good person. I told someone he's the kind of guy you want your daughter to bring home someday."

So how did this sleeper of a quarterback elude Southwest Conference schools after playing in their backyard for the top-ranked high school team in the nation?

Texas signed Steve Clements, the state's 1989 player of the year who had thrown for more than 8,200 yards during his career at Huntsville High. Clements eventually transferred to Brigham Young, where he now is a backup quarterback.

Other SWC schools wanted Case to walk on.

`You start in seventh grade'

Case went 25-0 as a starter at Permian, and in 1989 led the team to the Texas 5A state championship. But as the quarterback of a run-oriented team, Case had little opportunity to display his passing arm.

"You start in seventh grade learning that offense," Case said. "It's pitch to the right and fullback up the middle. I threw when we needed a big play, but otherwise I handed off and was the lead block."

The fact that Permian went undefeated and routed most of its opponents didn't help Case's exposure.

"My senior year, out of 16 games, I played until halftime in about 12 of them and never saw action in the second half."

Even Franchione, at the time the coach at Southwest Texas State, didn't recruit him.

"They had such a dominant team that he just had to hand it off and throw a few passes," Franchione said. "You weren't sure as a scout if they were winning because of Stoney Case or winning with him. At the time we were running the option at Southwest Texas and I concluded I didn't want him to run the option."

Case didn't want to run it either, and that's where New Mexico came into the recruiting picture.

"They were throwing it 30 to 40 times a game. They'd throw it more in one game than I would in five at Permian," he said.

Most embarrassing night

Case also believed he could help former New Mexico coach Mike Sheppard turn the program around.

"New Mexico hadn't won very many games and I wanted to go to a school where I could make a difference. It was obvious the program couldn't go any lower."

Case was wrong.

As a redshirt freshman, he watched from the sidelines as Fresno State rang up one touchdown after another on the hapless New Mexico defense in a 94-17 rout. Case rates that his most embarrassing night on a football field.

"I'm thinking to myself, I'm the third-string quarterback on a team that's getting beat 94-17. We lost more games in the first half of my freshman season than we had in my four years at Permian."

Case said he considered transferring after Sheppard was fired near the end of the 1991 season. It became more of a possibility with the hiring of Franchione, who had a reputation for preferring the option offense.

But Franchione went with a more balanced offense, gave Case plenty of freedom to throw, and found a quarterback who can also run the option on occasion. His three rushing touchdowns against Hawaii came off the option.

A change in style

With success has come a change in Case's wardrobe. When he arrived in Albuquerque in fall 1990, he had at least 50 Texas T-shirts and a handful of matching caps.

"My love affair had always been with Texas and it lasted through my first two years here," he said. "One day, I decided I had to get out or get into New Mexico. I put all my Texas stuff away and now I have just about everything New Mexico has to offer."