In a stunning turn of events, UCLA football coach Karl Dorrell
has developed a flair for the dramatic.
Dorrell, without warning and fittingly flanked by Dan “The
Axman” Guerrero (no relation to Steve), relieved quarterback
Drew Olson of his duties Monday by naming Matt Moore the starter
for Saturday’s big home game against Arizona State.
This was the right move.
Moore, who has played the role of the hard-luck hobbler since
bruising his left knee in the first quarter of the season opener
against Colorado, has the bigger arm to go along with an even
bigger attitude.
Therefore, he gives the Bruins their best chance to beat
upcoming top-10 opponents at Washington State and USC.
Olson, meanwhile, has been consistently mediocre in his six
starts since Moore went down. He has struggled with his accuracy at
times and always failed to avoid the rush.
He has, of course, led the Bruins to four straight wins.
So maybe Dorrell isn’t so conservative after all.
But before worshippers of the Matt Moore cult declare a
bobblehead day for him, ask yourself this: The move ultimately was
the right one, but was it a reckless one as well?
The change at quarterback will come at a cost. Prepare to deal
with the growing pains of a quarterback who has all of a few
combined collegiate games worth of experience.
And with a talented Arizona State team coming to town, can UCLA
afford to put up with the mistakes of an inexperienced quarterback
that might very well lead to a loss that would derail its Rose Bowl
run?
Don’t be fooled by the fact that Olson and Moore are both
sophomores. Olson has far more game experience, as Moore only
played one year of quarterback in high school.
Moore also fumbled and threw an interception in his two series
against Arizona, and he was not given any playing time against Cal
that would have gotten him used to game speed.
But I’ll save the rest of my cynicism for a later
time.
This move is like one of those trading deadline deals that
injects life into the team. It’s a bold move that tells the
rest of the team the coaches are not just going to stand by, sit
tight, and wait for this offensively stagnant team to get
better.
The passing game will surely, OK, maybe, open up with Moore at
the helm. The running game will, too, with opponents now unable to
stack the line as much as they have been able to.
And the defense is there as usual.
In choosing Moore over Olson, Dorrell is making a defining
decision in his coaching career. If all goes as planned, and
that’s a big if, Moore will start for the remainder of his
career and win a couple bowl games.
And Dorrell will look back on the move that seemingly came out
of nowhere and finally got the Bruins somewhere.
We shall see.
Leung was a football beat writer in 2002. He can be reached
at dleung@media.ucla.edu.