STEREOTYPES GOING SOUTH RACE TAKES DECREASED ROLE IN SELECTING STARTING ALABAMA QUARTERBACK.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

In Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus. George Wallace practiced his politics of division and Shoal Creek Country Club played host to the PGA Championship before it played host to an African-American member. It is not hard to find issues there that can be simply defined in black and white.

The quarterback debate at the University of Alabama - where unheralded Andrew Zow, a junior who is black, has held off hometown hero Tyler Watts, a sophomore who is white - merely seems to be the latest.

Except that it is neither black nor white. It's a story with varying shades of gray.

When Watts, a four-year starting quarterback at Birmingham's Pelham High, decided to attend Alabama three years ago, he was hailed as the messiah of a struggling program.

Watts was, by most accounts, the most hyped quarterback to ever come out of a state that has produced a Heisman Trophy winner in Pat Sullivan and former NFL quarterbacks Kenny Stabler and Richard Todd.

The only problem is that Watts hasn't been able to beat out Zow, a little-known recruit from Florida whose only other scholarship offer to play quarterback came from Central Florida, the school most known for producing Minnesota Vikings starter Daunte Culpepper.

Zow, who won the job for the second consecutive season, will start for No. 3-ranked Alabama on Saturday at the Rose Bowl against UCLA, though Watts is also expected to play.

In football-mad Alabama, it's a story that's never far off the radar of fans or the front pages of the six newspapers that regularly cover the Crimson Tide.

``It's an interesting situation,'' said Clyde Bolton, a columnist for the Birmingham News who has covered Alabama football since 1961, 10 years before its first African-American player.

``You have this kid who came out of nowhere who wins the job from probably the most highly publicized recruit in the history of the state. That's a dramatic situation, the kind of story that captures people's imagination. People still read Cinderella after hundreds of years. I think it would be just as interesting if both were white or both were black.''

Bolton says this is the mainstream view, also. Alabama fans don't care if their quarterback is white, black, blue or green - as long as the team wins.

``I haven't heard anybody say one guy ought to play because he's black or white,'' Bolton said. ``You do hear the code words sometimes on the talk shows and I can't speak for every guy who's got time to pick up the phone and call (a talk show) before he goes to cook hamburgers on the night shift, but I don't think generally that it's an issue.''

It was an issue, however, with some factions within the team last season.

It was no secret that former star tailback Shaun Alexander, who is black, privately lobbied for Zow. However, later in the season, most players agreed that Watts - who led the team to victories over LSU and Auburn while Zow was hobbled by an ankle injury - deserved to start.

Managing such a predicament will be particularly dicey this season. Zow and Watts are the only two quarterbacks on scholarship and Alabama can't afford to have either one leave.

``At such a school as Alabama, if you don't play 'em, they don't stay very long,'' said Alabama quarterbacks coach Charlie Stubbs, who came from UNLV in 1998 to open up the offense. ``It's not just quarterback, but other positions. We want them both to be leaders of this team on offense, but the toughest thing for me is to keep 'em happy. I can't rotate 'em in like receivers.''

Of course, it wasn't supposed to be like this.

Zow, who quarterbacked Lake Butler (Fla.) Union County High to back-to-back state titles, originally committed to Auburn, which recruited him to play linebacker or defensive back, as most schools did. When Alabama said it would give him a shot to play quarterback, he jumped at it.

When Watts signed, Zow wondered if he'd get the chance.

``No doubt I did,'' Zow said. ``I wondered and kind of worried at first. But as I evaluated myself, I felt like if I got a fair shot I could show I could play.''

Zow, as a redshirt freshman, took over from ineffective senior John David Phillips because the Tide weren't going to sacrifice Watts. At the time, Watts was a freshman behind a young line in what appeared - at 2-2 - was going to be a disappointing season.

But Zow performed spectacularly, leading Alabama to five wins - including a victory over rival Auburn - in its final seven regular-season games.

``The expectations were so high that Tyler would take it over,'' Stubbs said. ``Andrew was recruited as an athlete, but all of a sudden he comes in and grasps the offense pretty well and kind of took off.''

While Watts looked better at the end of the season and through the spring, Zow had an outstanding fall camp and was awarded the job early last week. Watts, who declined an interview request, acknowledged that Zow deserved the job but vowed to continue competing.

``I know (Watts) is there,'' Zow said. ``I don't worry about political things. Hopefully that won't have any impact on it. I know some people might not like it that I'm black and the quarterback, but that's their opinion. I just have to keep playing like I'm capable of and I don't have anything to worry about.''

Dr. Amilcar Shabazz, an American Studies professor at Alabama and the chair of the African-American studies program, says he is pleased that both players have been dismissive of race baiting.

``I have to salute them for the maturity they've both demonstrated,'' Shabazz said. ``They actually poo-poo any racial edge or tension. That's not to say that they're Pollyannish. . . . I just see it as a promising sign that they're not feeding whatever (division) may exist.''

Zow says he laughed last year when a TV commentator remarked that Zow was the better athlete and Watts was the better passer. In fact, they do not fit the black/white quarterback stereotype.

``I'm not saying we're completely opposite,'' Zow said. ``But Tyler's able to use his legs to get himself out of trouble, while I try to sit back and wait on things and let my arm help me out.

``There's still misconceptions, but I think it's changing. Hopefully, people in the college world will see a black quarterback in high school who has some ability and give him a chance at what he's been doing instead of just moving him to another position. I think we're moving beyond that.''

The same could be said for much of the rest of the Deep South.

``I think we're finally getting to a point, in the 21st century, where the idea of Alabama as the worst place on earth for race relations is finally becoming passe,'' Shabazz said. ``The most gruesome racially-motivated murder of the late 1990s wasn't in Mississippi, it was in Jasper, Texas. The beatings of blacks by police are in Philly, New York and L.A., not Alabama or Mississippi. Those of us in Alabama definitely have our problems, but they're problems that have resonance all over the U.S.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) Tyler Watts

(2 -- color) Andrew Zow

(3) Alabama quarterbacks Tyler Watts, left, and Andrew Zow warm up during a recent practice in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Dave Martin/Associated Press