Bill Redell knows quarterbacks. And he knows Jimmy Clausen is a good one.

Redell is Clausen’s head coach at Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, Calif. Redell spent seven years in the Canadian Football League playing quarterback after attending Occidental College in Los Angeles. In 2001, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame alongside John Elway.

Since his playing days, Redell has coached two years in pro football, three years in college, and 18 years at the high school level.

Now, Redell is coaching the youngest Clausen, Jimmy. Jimmy’s oldest brother, Casey started four years at Tennessee from 2000 to 2003. His other brother, Rick, is a UT quarterback.

Redell discussed Clausen’s talents and how the junior quarterback has handled the national attention.

Q: What are Jimmy’s strengths at quarterback?

A: Obviously he has a great arm. He’s got great touch. He has a very fast release of the ball. Brian Sipe, formerly the NFL Player of the Year from the Cleveland Browns who coaches Santa Fe Christian High School here in San Diego, said that he has the fastest release of anybody he’s ever seen, including Dan Marino. So I’d say he has all the passes: long, short, and tremendously accurate. He sets up very quickly and gets rid of the ball very quickly.

Q: What is his demeanor like on the football field?

A: He’s very much in control of the game. He understands the game. Probably because of three reasons: probably his two brothers, he’s been around the game for a long time and he has a very fine quarterback coach in Steve Clarkson. It’s kind of a private coach that he goes to that his parents have taken him to. And then we have a very fine offensive coordinator here at Oaks Christian named Mark Bates that has helped him a lot.

Q: How much has it helped him to watch his brothers, Casey and Rick, go on to play at the college level at quarterback?

A: I think that’s helped him tremendously because he’s seen all this happen with his brothers in the way they were recruited. He’s much more heavily recruited than his two brothers were. But that’s obviously got to help the family. They kind of know what to expect. I think that’s very much a positive thing. Also, he keeps his ego down. He recognizes that everybody is telling him what he wants to hear right now.

Q: How has he reacted to all the attention he has received?

A: He’s a very modest, humble guy. He’s very confident. You have to be confident to play quarterback. But he’s a humble guy. It hasn’t gone to his head at all. He hears all this stuff but his comment is ‘I have to play every day and get better.’ And that’s what we think he’s doing.

Q: What advice have you given him about handling the attention?

A: I told him he’s got to keep it all in perspective. I’ve had some other guys, a guy named Russell White that was probably the most highly recruited player back in 1987. I was able to talk to him and tell him similar things. You’ve just got to keep it all in perspective and focus in on getting your grades and school work down and kind of let me and his mom and dad handle all the press stuff.

Q: He has been compared to Lebron James on the high school football level. What is your reaction to hearing that?

A: That was done by Steve Clarkson. I’ve heard other people say that. I don’t know what my feeling about that is. That would be hard to jump from high school to the National Football League. If there’s anybody that probably could, it would be him. But I think that’s a little bit blown out of proportion.

Q: What do you think of so much national attention going to high school athletes?

A: I’m a little surprised by it to be honest. Maybe if he were a senior, but he’s just going to be a junior. I coached in the USFL for a couple of years and I had Marcus Dupree and I understand that when he came out of high school they were writing books on the recruiting of Marcus Dupree. I’m a little surprised about the national attention he’s received. But if anybody can handle it and if anybody deserves it, it would be this kid.

Q: What has he said to you about the recruiting process and his thoughts of it so far?

A: He’s used to it from the standpoint that he’s seen his brothers go through it. It’s really not an issue. It hasn’t become an issue. We kind of coordinate everything at Oaks Christian. There’s a lot of TV hype here locally. ESPN Outside the Lines had that program on him. We try to control it all right here so it really hasn’t been a problem.

Q: Has he talked to you about the possibility of following his two brothers at Tennessee?

A: We’ve never really even discussed that. Obviously Tennessee is a very fine university. Coach (Phillip) Fulmer has done a tremendous job with the two older brothers. So I’m sure they have great respect for coach Fulmer. But I really don’t think that’s going to play into it. I think it may play into it a little bit. I think Tennessee obviously is probably one of the five or six or seven schools that he’s interested in. But at this point I don’t think there is a clear-cut school that he could say, ‘I’m going to this school.’

Q: Do you think the idea of following in his brothers’ footsteps is a turnoff at all?

A: No I don’t think so in my judgment. I’ve never talked to him about that but I don’t think that would be an issue at all.

Q: What kind of work ethic does Jimmy have?

A: He works very hard. He has this quarterback coach that he’s been going to for many years. He’s probably been going to him since he was 10 or 11 (years old). And his work ethic on the field, he works as hard as anybody or harder than anybody at practice. He’ll stay afterwards and run if he doesn’t feel like he got enough running in. So he has a very good work ethic.

Q: Does he remind you of any other quarterback you’ve seen?

A: No, he just does a lot of things differently. He’s got an arm like John Elway. Now he’s not going to be a runner like Michael Vick. I can’t think of just some quarterback that stands out. He does everything very well.

Q: What does he need to continue to work on to raise his game?

A: I just think he needs to continue to study the game, study the coverages and just continue to improve on all aspects of the game and try to get better. There’s not just one single thing. He could probably work at making sure he sets up quick. If you say one thing, I would say continue to work at setting up quick, which he does anyway. But I think you can always get a little faster there.

Q: How good do you think Jimmy can be?

A: I have not seen every high school quarterback in America obviously. But if there’s one better in high school, I would be shocked. I’ve coached this game for 18 years. I coached pro football for two years. I played pro football at quarterback for seven years myself in the Canadian Football League. I’ve never seen anybody as good.