When quarterback Ben Olson went down, UCLA coach Karl Dorrell
simply turned to Pat Cowan and smiled.
Cowan stepped in for the injured Olson Saturday evening and,
with the help of a dominant defense, led the Bruins to a solid 27-7
victory over Arizona, preserving an unblemished home record.
“I told Pat that (he’s) always a play away,”
Dorrell said. “You never know when that time is, so we kind
of smiled at each other when it happened and I said, “˜This is
your shot.'”
Midway through the first quarter, the redshirt sophomore Olson
went down with a knee injury, falling to the turf motionless for
several minutes while a deafening silence came over the 65,644 in
attendance at the Rose Bowl. With Olson gone, the responsibility of
captaining the offense fell on the shoulders of redshirt sophomore
Cowan, who proved to be up to the challenge, manufacturing several
productive drives.
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“I just ran what the coaches called,” Cowan said.
“We prepared for everything that we ran. I just go out and
have fun and play football.”
UCLA (4-1) seemed to catch Arizona (2-4) off guard on
Cowan’s first drive, as the coaches decided to get his feet
wet immediately. Cowan came out gunning, completing his first four
passes and marching the Bruins into the end zone on a strike to
Marcus Everett to take an early 7-0 lead.
The Wildcats had injury problems of their own when starting
quarterback Willie Tuitama was knocked out of the game with a
concussion administered by UCLA defensive end Bruce Davis on
Arizona’s first possession of the second quarter.
“The ball was still in his hand when I got there,”
Davis said. “I did what every other defensive player in this
world is going to do; they are going to put a hit on the
quarterback.”
With Arizona backup Adam Austin piloting the Wildcat offense,
the two teams’ second-stringers traded blows for the rest of
the half. In similar fashion to Cowan, Austin put his team on the
board quickly, bringing the score to a touchdown apiece on his
first series as he found receiver Mike Thomas for a touchdown after
a late-hit penalty from defensive tackle Kenneth Lombard prolonged
the Wildcat drive.
Dorrell’s team answered on their next drive in just three
plays, as Cowan threaded a pass into the arms of senior Matt Willis
to put the Bruins up 14-7 going into halftime, the closest the
score was for the rest of the game as the defense clamped down on
Arizona from there on out.
“We handled our business the way we are supposed
to,” Davis said. “We are really comfortable with our
scheme right now; we are just playing as hard as we can all of the
time.”
The defense put on another impressive display, limiting the
Wildcats to negative-13 yards on the ground. Even with linebacker
Christian Taylor out of the game with a sprained left ankle, the
defense was able to stop the running game, forcing Austin to try to
beat the Bruins through the air.
With UCLA building a comfortable lead in the third quarter on a
pair of Justin Medlock field goals, Arizona mounted a couple of
long drives in the last frame, trying to scrape its way back into
the game. But the defense, which has been UCLA’s unquestioned
and surprising strength up to this point, came up with two key
turnovers to seal the victory.
With just over eight minutes remaining, the defense closed out a
Wildcat drive with a fourth-down stop at the 36-yard line, which
appeared to put the Bruins up for good.
After a quick three-and-out by the Bruins, the Wildcats would
threaten again with just over four minutes to go. Austin led his
team deep into UCLA territory until freshman cornerback Alterraun
Verner perfectly timed an interception, taking it back 89 yards for
the score and ending Arizona’s bid for a comeback.
After last year’s embarrassing 52-14 loss in Tucson, the
Bruins were not going to take the Wildcats lightly again. But even
with last year as motivation, Dorrell dismissed any idea that his
team would let the past affect its play in the present.
“I don’t like using the term
“˜revenge,'” Dorrell said of the win.
“Nothing that we could do from that year could have helped us
this year, so you can’t worry about those things.”