Imagine UCLA quarterback Drew Olson in shorts, shades and a
driver in hand on the opening tee-box of Pebble Beach.
That’s where he sees himself on NFL Draft Day, away from
all the media and television.
But he’ll have his cell phone on him.
Olson, who led the Bruins to their first 10-win season since
1998, is slated to be a second-day pick in the upcoming draft.
It’s a position he never saw himself in before the 2005
season began.
“This last year really set me up for a better opportunity
at the next level,” Olson said. “I don’t think I
saw myself having as a good a season as I did, but then again I
wasn’t surprised by what we did and what I did. I
didn’t foresee it going that well. … It’s a dream
come true.”
As the days tick away before the 6-foot-3-inch, 225-pound Olson
discovers where he’ll land, he has to sit and wait.
He’s gone through the Combines and Pro Day at UCLA with
success.
During his Combine experience, Olson did say he wasn’t the
biggest of fans on the format. His biggest criticism was arm
strength, but he proved otherwise during Pro Day.
“I don’t think (the Combines) show you as a good
football player, but it does show you as a good athlete,”
Olson said. “Pro Day was important because I got to throw
quite a bit and have a variety of throws. I thought it went really
well. Couldn’t have asked for it to go much
better.”
Among the teams that popped up on Olson’s radar these past
months have been the Kansas City Chiefs, St. Louis Rams and
Baltimore Ravens. Two weekends ago, Olson also made a trip up to
San Francisco to work out with the 49ers.
Olson was able to get some positive feedback from teams across
the league, but he still has no clue who will pluck him out of a
field of hundreds of college players.
“It’s so hard to tell. It’s kind of
frustrating now. There’s no certainty,” Olson said.
“But any time I get to go in front of a team and interact
with coaches is a good opportunity. I look forward to that.
It’s an advantage for me.”
But Olson isn’t going to get caught up in any of the
predraft talk. For now he’s working out three days a week.
His regimen includes lifting on Tuesdays and Thursdays, along with
speed work and cardio every day.
“It’s just going to drive you crazy trying to read
into everything. I just kind of try to put it in the back of my
mind,” Olson said.
“Nothing is certain until they call me up and say,
“˜We’ve just picked you.’ Until then it’s a
funny and kind of cool situation, but it is crazy at the same time,
not knowing where you’re going to be next year, who is going
to take you, where or when.”
In his final season, Olson had one of the most successful
seasons any Bruin quarterback has ever had.
His list of accomplishments include being named a 2005 Heisman
Trophy candidate, shattering Cade McNown’s 25-touchdown
record with 34 of his own (second-best in the nation), and throwing
for a school-record six touchdowns against Oregon State.
“It was a great run, and I had a lot of fun,” Olson
said.
“Whenever you can win and have personal success as well,
that’s the ultimate. That helped all of us coming out in this
class and heading into this draft. We put ourselves in a good
situation.”
But the season didn’t end as well as Olson would have
liked ““ there are two things that still irk him even though
the season ended over four months ago.
“Beating USC and winning the Pac-10 Championship would be
the two things that eluded us. They were very much in our grasp,
but it slipped out of our hands,” Olson said.
“Those are the two things, if you were to have over again,
you’d like to win those two.”
Olson still has two more quarters to finish out his degree in
history. It’s been a long four years, but in just a couple of
days he will find out the next step in his football career.
“It’s all come pretty fast, but at the same time it
definitely can’t have come quicker,” Olson said.