After Saturday’s win over Oregon, the starting quarterback spot this weekend at USC appeared to be Ben Olson’s to lose.
However, after Olson sat out of Tuesday’s practice with soreness in his left knee, the Bruins’ signal-caller position for their final regular season game has become a little more interesting. The coaching staff will announce who their starter will be later in the week, coach Karl Dorrell said, but on Tuesday it was Pat Cowan who was taking the starter’s reps.
“(Cowan) did a nice job orchestrating things, made some nice throws, moved around pretty good and had no respiratory problems,” Dorrell said. “So he looked and felt good.”
Cowan has not appeared in a game since he suffered a concussion and a partially collapsed lung against Arizona on Nov. 3. In practice on Tuesday, his rustiness was evident, as he at one point threw an interception to a lineman on an attempted screen play.
Despite Cowan’s lack of practice in recent weeks due to injuries, he owns the second highest completion percentage on the team at 53.2 percent, behind only wide receiver Brandon Breazell. However, in Cowan’s four starts he averaged 135 yards in the air, behind Olson’s 173.3.
Osaar Rasshan is also in the quarterback mix for Saturday, despite his ineffective first half against Oregon, in which he suffered an injury of his own.
“Osaar, he tweaked his ankle in the game, and he’s still a little bit sore from that,” Dorrell said. “So he’s hobbling some, but he’ll be OK.”
Going into practice on Tuesday, Dorrell had planned on giving each of the three quarterbacks plenty of reps in practice, suggesting that the coaching staff would like to see how each responds to his respective injuries.
Rasshan will likely head into Saturday as the Bruins’ third string, and Dorrell was hopeful that Olson would be ready to practice by today.
Injuries have also shaken up the Bruins depth chart at the running back position, with Craig Sheppard, who started three weeks ago against ASU, sitting out of practice on Tuesday with an injured groin. He was responsible for the Bruins’ lone touchdown last week with a 20-yard dash against the Ducks, and he will be needed on Saturday against a formidable Trojan defense.
“We need to give him more rest,” Dorrell said. “So we’ll see about him. It’s not a significant groin injury, but it is an injury and we want to get him ready to play on Saturday.”