His first seven passes, all completions for first downs,
whispered it.
His perfectly placed touchdown pass to Marcus Everett in the
fourth quarter made it plain.
His final totals of 318 yards and three touchdowns screamed
it.
Yes, Ben Olson is good. Very good.
The redshirt sophomore quarterback, whom many expected to have a
rusty first start after not taking a serious snap in five years,
looked sharp in Saturday’s season opening 31-10 victory over
Utah at the Rose Bowl.
His passes were crisp and mostly on target. He made good
decisions, rarely throwing into tight coverage. And, perhaps most
importantly, he didn’t need much time to get going. When
asked how long it took to shake the rust off, Olson had just two
words: “first pass.”
“It’s tough practicing against your same guys every
day,” Olson said. “Things are gonna be open (when they
go up against a defense that is unfamiliar with the
offense.)”
Things were most definitely open. Olson completed 25 of 33
passes, and that included multiple drops from redshirt senior wide
receiver Junior Taylor and a dropped touchdown pass to sophomore
tight end Logan Paulsen. Against a Utah defense that seemed to
stack against the run, Olson picked apart the Utah secondary.
“They did a good job messing up our run reads, but they
couldn’t stop the pass,” running back Chris Markey
said. “We can pick any defense apart. You try to take away
one thing, we’ll beat you with the other.”
“The other” on Saturday was Olson throwing to 10
different receivers. Three different receivers caught touchdown
passes, and Paulsen, who caught five passes for 90 yards, and
backup tight end Ryan Moya, who caught a touchdown pass, proved
there is tight-end life after Marcedes Lewis.
“We knew with certain plays we’d have an opportunity
to get (the tight ends),” Olson said. “We knew our
tight ends could run. Those young guys got a lot of experience
today.”
The Bruins led at the half 14-10 behind a strong passing
performance from Olson, who went 15 of 20 in the first half, and
not much else. The running game, which was expected to be
consistently decent for the Bruins this year, could not get
anything going, gaining just 47 yards at the half and only 107
total in the game.
“I think our run game didn’t perform as well as we
would have hoped,” coach Karl Dorrell said. “I saw some
misreads from the backfield, and some mixed assignments.
“That’s something we have to look at the tape and
get better at.”
The Bruins averaged just 2.6 yards per rush attempt. On a night
when this Olson was just as good as the preceding Olson (Drew), it
did not seem to matter.
Moya, redshirt senior Matt Willis, and Everett all caught
touchdown passes from Olson, with Everett’s leaping catch in
the end zone essentially sealing the game with 7:41 to play in the
fourth quarter and the Bruins up 31-10. The three touchdowns by
Olson tied him with Steve Bono and Scott McEwan for the UCLA record
for touchdowns in a first start.
While the offensive line did not do well in run blocking, it was
excellent in pass protection, rarely allowing much heat on Olson
and never allowing a sack. Olson, however, was eager to take his
first hit of the season on a short run in the first quarter.
Because of the worries over injuries, quarterbacks generally wear
red shirts during practice, signaling that they are not to be
hit.
“I needed to get hit,” Olson said. “I
haven’t been hit in a while. I’m kind of feeling it on
my shoulder right now, but the guy didn’t lay me out, so
it’s all good.”
It would be difficult to be anything but all good on a night
when Olson was nearly perfect. All the talk of quarterback
controversy and rust basically vanished with Olson’s first
nine passes (all completions).
“I am not surprised,” Dorrell said of Olson’s
play. “I see him every day. Since we named him the starting
quarterback two weeks ago, he got better and better in practice
each day.”
Olson is still looking to improve. The one sentiment he
expressed over and over in the locker room after the game was the
need to get better.
“I am still thinking about the drives we didn’t
score on, really,” Olson said.