As heartless, cruel and insensitive as it might be to say it,
Drew Olson’s knee injury may have come at the ideal time for
the UCLA football program.
Yes, it’s a devastating setback for Olson, a two-year
starter at quarterback and by all accounts a class act and one of
the fiercest competitors on the team.
But losing Olson for at least the next eight months does not
cripple the program like it would have if the junior had sustained
the injury during the regular season.
Instead it gives UCLA coach Karl Dorrell an opportunity to hand
over the offense to heralded freshman Ben Olson in spring practice
without alienating his team or igniting a messy quarterback
controversy in the process.
The top high school prospect in the nation three years ago at
Thousand Oaks High School, Ben Olson, no relation to Drew, has been
touted as the antidote for the six years of mediocrity UCLA has
endured at the quarterback position since the days of Cade
McNown.
The 21-year-old’s decision to come to UCLA is the best
reason Bruin fans have to forgive Dorrell for last month’s
embarrassing Las Vegas Bowl loss to Wyoming.
Better days are ahead for UCLA with Ben Olson, or at least the
Westwood faithful are hoping there are.
Well, it might not be politically correct to say this, but Drew
Olson’s torn ACL and MCL only means those days will come
sooner.
Ben Olson, who originally signed with BYU in 2002 but changed
his mind after a two-year Mormon mission and committed to UCLA last
month, could be the quarterback the program has been lacking
recently.
Drew Olson, like Cory Paus before him, has been exposed as an
ordinary passer.
Ben Olson, on the other hand, has the potential to be
special.
Clocking in at 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, Big Ben is more physically
gifted than any other Bruin quarterback in the past decade has
been.
Recruiting experts continue to hype Olson as a left-handed John
Elway even though he spent two years on a Mormon mission in Canada
and has yet to play in a college game.
But arm strength alone won’t win football games, which is
why UCLA is very fortunate that Ben Olson likely will be taking the
bulk of the snaps this spring.
Game experience is the one area in which he is lacking, but a
month of practice as the starter in April and then another in
August should help Olson shake the rust off.
There’s no question that Drew Olson’s injury will
hurt UCLA’s depth at the quarterback position if he cannot
play at all next season. But it’s easy to see how Dorrell
could transform the situation into a positive.
Dorrell badly bungled the yearlong battle between Drew Olson and
Matt Moore in 2003, failing to stick with one quarterback when he
had the chance, which ultimately hurt the team in the process with
his indecisiveness.
Olson’s injury offers the coach a chance to prove
he’s learned from that mistake.
If Ben Olson demonstrates that he is even close to the player
UCLA fans believe he will be in practice, Dorrell should take a
chance, insert him in the starting lineup next season, and put the
fate of the program in the hands of its top recruit.
“I feel badly for Drew,” Dorrell said. “He is
a great young man and one of our team leaders.”
And that’s what makes it even harder to do.
Eisenberg was the 2004 football columnist. E-mail him at
jeisenberg@media.ucla.edu.