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Simply Speaking . . . It Works - Football: Whimsical Del’Andrae also brings a strong arm to Portland State.

MIKE HISERMAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Darren Del’Andrae’s eyes turned skyward and his facial expression went blank. The quarterback stuttered. Then he stammered. His teammates in the Portland State huddle giggled.

The play, called from the sideline last week and relayed by a series of hand signals, was a short pass involving the wide receivers.

But the formation and its attendant intricacies careened through Del’Andrae’s brain like a runaway pinball and never came to rest.

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Finally Del’Andrae, shooting a glance at his receivers, improvised and said, “One of you guys run a turn-in.”

Fortunately for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Portland State’s opponent, Del’Andrae remembered the play as a relatively simple pass pattern. Had he recalled the play in detail, it probably would have gone for a touchdown instead of a short gain.

Portland State has one of the most complicated offensive schemes in college football, and the team’s coaches go to great lengths to make sure it is understood.

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There are daily meetings and pop quizzes on the formations and options of each play. Typed scripts are circulated detailing which plays will be used in certain situations.

But, like a good stand-up comic, Del’Andrae sometimes strays from his written material, often with spectacular results.

After sharpening their act in four consecutive road engagements, Del’Andrae and his Viking teammates will take center stage tonight before a home crowd at Civic Stadium that is expected to reach 10,000. And Cal State Northridge may have to play the straight man.

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Del’Andrae, from Calabasas High, enters the game as the Western Football Conference leader in passing yardage (1,596) and interceptions (10).

Consider both those statistics a hint.

Alan Borges, Portland State’s offensive coordinator, uses a points system to grade a quarterback’s performance each game.

A play that goes off without a hitch results in a zero. A point is taken away for mistakes such as poor footwork, calling the wrong formation or missing an open receiver. Only the extraordinary--a scramble away from heavy pressure and a pass completion--results in a point on the plus side.

A solid quarterback will break fairly close to even in Borges’ system. A graph would reveal an almost-straight line of zeroes with few marks above or below.

Del’Andrae’s printout would resemble a Richter-scale reading for an 8.0 earthquake.

Pokey Allen, Portland’s coach of four years, summed up Del’Andrae’s style in a sentence.

“Darren does a lot of things wrong,” he said. “And most of them work.”

It has been that way throughout the career of this 5-foot-11, 190-pound junior.

Calabasas is to high school football what Columbia is to the college game, but in the two years Del’Andrae called signals there the Coyotes were 14-8-1. They won the Frontier League championship in 1986, his senior season.

However, even Del’Andrae couldn’t breathe life into College of Marin, his next team. Marin was 1-18, although Del’Andrae completed 406 passes in two seasons, a national junior college record.

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“It got to the point where we didn’t even think about winning,” Del’Andrae said. “When we played Shasta, it was like, ‘Let’s keep them under 60 points and let’s us score a touchdown.’ ”

Portland State’s balanced offensive structure contrasts to what Del’Andrae experienced at Marin, where, he says, “We’d try to run three or four times a game just to see what would happen.”

Marin employed a variation of the run-and-shoot offense used by Portland State under former Coach Mouse Davis. It’s called the run-like-hell-and-shoot-if-you-can.

“He was doing incredible things with absolutely no help,” Borges said. “He’d be back there just running for his life. He’s just a little squirt, and he was still bigger than most of his offensive line.”

Borges says that Del’Andrae was “a coach’s nightmare” during his first spring practice with the Vikings.

“We used to do an impression,” Borges said, preparing to do his best impersonation of a laid-back Southern Californian. ‘Hey, I got a ball, got some receivers, couple of backs. Let’s play. Let’s go wing it. I can make it happen, man . . .’ ”

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As a result, Del’Andrae entered the opening game against Cameron University as the No. 2 man on the depth chart. The starter was Don Bailey.

Bailey, a solid 6-1, 210 pounds with closely cropped hair and an impeccably prim practice outfit complete with bright white sweat bands, has a strong arm and a near-perfect throwing motion. Plus, he knows most of the plays.

Del’Andrae, who has shoulder-length brown hair, wears his knee pads around his ankles, warms up wearing a baseball cap and throws a ball that wobbles, concedes that Bailey was the better practice player.

But when Portland struggled early against Cameron, Del’Andrae entered the game in the second quarter. He has been the starter ever since, and, last week against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, threw for a career-best 370 yards and three touchdowns.

“Every so often he’ll go into a College of Marin flashback, like a Vietnam guy,” Borges said. “He sees Vietnamese coming out of the bushes, only they’re defensive linemen.”

But even Del’Andrae’s severest critic acknowledges that his student has shown vast improvement.

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“He’s starting to get it,” Borges said. “And it’s a good thing too. Because he was about to drive me crazy.”

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