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SportsJune 11, 2002

IRVING, Texas Chad Hutchinson stands in the glaring sun long after most of his teammates have left the practice field. He keeps flinging footballs, trying to solve the flaw in his motion that keeps sending them wide of his target. The rust on his powerful right arm is understandable. The 25-year-old rookie quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys hasn't played a football game in four years. He's spent the time away trying to throw fastballs past major and minor leaguers...

By Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press

IRVING, Texas

Chad Hutchinson stands in the glaring sun long after most of his teammates have left the practice field. He keeps flinging footballs, trying to solve the flaw in his motion that keeps sending them wide of his target.

The rust on his powerful right arm is understandable. The 25-year-old rookie quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys hasn't played a football game in four years. He's spent the time away trying to throw fastballs past major and minor leaguers.

Still, the Cowboys felt strong enough about his ability that they outbid several other clubs and immediately made him the backup to unproven second-year starter Quincy Carter.

"There is no question that he is raw," said quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson. "But he certainly has a ton of upside and potential, and that is what we are hoping to tap. It's an ongoing process."

Hutchinson is no eager-eyed rookie. He's already had a close-up view of the circus surrounding Mark McGwire when he was baseball's single-season home run king, and he's spent time with Roger Staubach, who also took time off from football between college and a Hall of Fame QB career with the Cowboys. Troy Aikman has watched him practice and Hutchinson's locker is next to Emmitt Smith's.

In September 1999, Hutchinson was called up to the majors by the St. Louis Cardinals and became teammates with McGwire, who was on his way to hitting 65 homers one year after becoming the first player to reach 70.

"It was one of my all-time favorite experiences in sports, being around him and the team in that situation," Hutchinson said. "To learn to deal with that, dealing with the pressures, it was big."

Three years guaranteed

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Even though Hutchinson hasn't played football since his sophomore season at Stanford in 1997, the Cowboys have guaranteed him $5 million for three years and cut Ryan Leaf to clear a spot on the depth chart. Hutchinson said the team's confidence in him is "a mystery to me, too."

The belief starts with his size (6-foot-4, 225 pounds) and solid mental makeup.

Questions start with him never having faced a blitzing NFL linebacker at full speed. At offseason minicamps, the latest being the past week, Hutchinson hasn't had to worry about getting hit while learning plays and making throws.

He's also adjusting to having moving targets, such as the swift duo of Joey Galloway and Raghib Ismail, instead of trying to throw 96 mph fastballs.

While he has impressed the Cowboys with his strong arm and ability to throw deep, he is still trying to regain his accuracy and relearn the football routine. The adjustments are frustrating, yet Hutchinson knows he still has time to get back in the groove.

Race against time

"It's not like baseball where you need 300 innings pitched to really know what you can be as a pitcher," Hutchinson said. "You can make up ground a lot quicker in football because you are out there practicing, where in baseball it's a game-time thing."

In learning the offense, Hutchinson is on equal footing with Carter, an eight-game starter in an injury-plagued rookie season. New offensive coordinator Bruce Coslet, hired days after Hutchinson signed in January, is installing a West Coast offense.

The system is much more complex with its multiple formations, but the basics are similar to what Hutchinson ran at Stanford. In 23 college starts, he completed 379-of-627 passes (60 percent) for 4,235 yards with 20 touchdowns and 22 interceptions.

"With a new system going in, that's an advantage," Cowboys coach Dave Campo said. "It's not like you have to take a guy that's been doing something and change the way he drops. He's moldable."

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