“Alright, I’m ready, let’s get
started.”
Ben Olson, in his typical boisterous-yet-easy tone, was ready to
start his interview. It was the answer to just one of a
constellation of questions and implications facing the young man
who has been anointed as the “˜left-handed John Elway’
and the “˜savior of UCLA football’, as well as several
other hyperbolic, kitschy titles.
More than just showing a media savvy far exceeding that of most
college athletes, Olson’s eagerness to get things rolling is
emblematic of his excitement to finally, truly begin his college
career.
He has a presence on campus that would lead one to suspect
he’s the honorary mayor of Westwood, glad-handing more people
with a gentle patience than your average politician. It seems as
though everybody wants a piece of Mayor Olson these days, and they
all have him earmarked for greatness.
“He’s got the biggest expectations to live up to
that I have seen since I’ve been here,” said Christian
Taylor, senior linebacker and Olson’s roommate.
Born in Missouri and raised in Montana before attending high
school in the Los Angeles area, Olson prefers the more humble,
small-town lifestyle. But as a player tabbed for stardom in this
city, he has learned how to deal with the pressure while not losing
his head.
“It can come and go so fast, and they can love you or hate
you,” he said. “So I try to have fun with
it.”
Most take their first steps toward stardom long before the harsh
light of fame actually gets them in the crosshairs. But this has
not been the case for Olson, the 23-year-old redshirt sophomore who
has taken a winding path over the past five years to get from
Thousand Oaks to Westwood.
Without having thrown a pass of consequence since his senior
year in high school almost five years ago, Olson is preparing for
UCLA’s season opener against Utah on Sept. 2 with
expectations that perhaps exceed those of any Bruin quarterback in
the history of the program.
He has traveled an unconventional path that he believes
couldn’t have worked out any other way.
“It’s a question I keep getting asked, about
regrets,” Olson said. “Maybe it’s because people
have a hard time believing that I’m serious. But I
can’t imagine not having that time away from the game. As
much as I love it, there’s more to life than just
football.”
As the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the country coming out of
Thousand Oaks High School in 2001, Olson signed a letter of intent
with BYU and was immediately hailed as the man who would restore
the prestige of the Cougar football program.
Olson sat on the sidelines and watched for his first year in
Provo, redshirting during what he calls a difficult freshman year
of college. Legendary BYU coach LaVell Edwards had retired, the
program was in transition, and Olson was searching for answers that
were far beyond the scope and perspective that football could
provide.
It was then that Olson decided to serve his two-year Mormon
mission, knowing full well he might be jeopardizing his hopes of
developing into a professional football player.
Upon returning from his mission, Olson made it known that he
would transfer from BYU. Once again, he was the object of
attention, heavily recruited by Cal, Arizona State, South Carolina
and UCLA.
This time, he chose the Bruins ““ partly because he wanted
to help turn around a program he followed as a kid, and partly
because he wanted to have his family support system after spending
two years in seclusion.
The attention focused on Olson is partly to due to his natural
gifts ““ a 6-foot-5-inch frame, nimble feet and laser-beam arm
strength that churns out spiral after spiral. But there’s
also no Marcedes Lewis or Maurice Drew to share the spotlight with
him, and the pressure to lead a rebuilt Bruin squad is coupled with
the fact that many fans have waited to see Olson get his
opportunity, and now it is finally here.
“I can’t control what people think or say about me,
or the attention I get,” he said. “But it has been a
crazy ride, and now I am happy to just get out there and
play.”
Leader on board
Fall practice is rarely a pivotal event for a college football
team. However, coach Karl Dorrell’s team had a sensitive
situation.
During Olson’s first training camp at UCLA last year, he
was pitted in a highly competitive quarterback competition against
then-senior Drew Olson (no relation), who had had only mediocre
production for the Bruins up to that point in his career. It was
rumored that Ben Olson, with less experience and a higher ceiling,
had the edge entering the last week of camp. In a simple twist of
fate, Ben Olson broke his left (throwing) hand in practice,
anticlimactically handing the job to the veteran.
Of course, Drew Olson led the Bruins to a 10-2 season while
setting a school record with 34 touchdown passes and leading the
country in red zone efficiency.
If the expectations weren’t high enough for Ben Olson
coming out of high school or coming into Westwood, the elevated
play of last year’s quarterback has raised the demand for
excellence.
“It was funny how things worked out last year,”
Olson said. “I am so happy for Drew’s success and how
we learned to win as a team. But instead of looking at it as more
pressure, I tried to learn from Drew and see what
worked.”
As one of Olson’s closest friends and truest confidantes
on the team, redshirt senior wide receiver Junior Taylor was having
dinner with the quarterback soon after the close of spring practice
at the end of last season. Olson asked Taylor how he fared in the
spring session. Taylor didn’t hold back. He didn’t give
Olson encouragement, but blunt criticism.
“I just told him straight out that he needs to be the guy
who everything works around,” Taylor said at practice on
Friday. “He was making the plays, but he has to do more, he
has to lead. We need the guys on the team to all look at Ben
whenever the game is on the line.”
Olson took the words to heart. He started to handle the business
of the team, particularly away from the field. He organized
training sessions for his teammates in the summer. He made sure
that when the guys would socialize, even just for an afternoon,
everyone was welcomed, and that all of his teammates had a closer
relationship with him.
So when Olson’s second training camp with UCLA rolled
around, he had an entirely different feeling about his status on
the field.
Dorrell hadn’t officially named the starting quarterback
at the start of camp, repeatedly saying that Olson “had to
earn the job” against backup Pat Cowan. Yet it was obvious
who had become the leader of the team, with or without the official
word from Dorrell.
“I am preparing to be starter, and I expect to be the
starter,” Olson said after the first day of camp.
Offensive coordinator/quarterback coach Jim Svoboda has
challenged Olson in the quarterback’s second camp, putting
more responsibility on him by expanding the playbook so that it
takes advantage of Olson’s physical tools. Also, the Bruins
enter the season opener not knowing for certain who will replace
the production of Lewis and Drew, and that might ultimately lead to
Olson’s role growing beyond what Drew Olson had to do in
2005.
His competition with Cowan, as opposed to Drew Olson, has had a
much different dynamic because he was already perceived as the
starter, Svoboda said.
“It’s harder to play as the frontrunner in camp then
as an underdog,” Svoboda said. “So by that measure, Ben
has done a better job this camp. He had that pressure on him that
he didn’t have last time.”
Once Olson was given the official title as starter the Monday
following UCLA’s intrasquad scrimmage on August 20, there
weren’t many external changes. He has been just as vocal
since then as he had been before.
The transformation hasn’t been overlooked by the man who
ignited a fire in Olson.
“Nobody questions it,” Taylor said. “He is now
the voice of this team.”
Faith and Motivation
It is often said that the mounting pressure on major athletes
forces them to tumble out of control and lose the perspective
needed to simply enjoy the game.
The athlete, who is subject to the fans’ heroic worship or
myopic rage, can easily lose sight of that perspective.
When talking to Olson, he doesn’t for a second try to
pretend that he truly is carrying the world’s burden on his
shoulders.
“We’re just playing a game here,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong. I won’t let anyone question
my work ethic or desire to win. Fans come up to me and tell me how
much I am going to do, but I don’t get too
worried.”
If Olson sounds like a more mature college quarterback with some
grand life lessons under his belt, he is.
After accepting a scholarship from BYU that coach Edwards had
offered him as a high school sophomore, Olson started to talk to
his parents, Rick and Annie, about serving his mission after his
freshman year of college.
“Ben knew that people were expecting a lot out of his
football career, but he kept talking about what he wanted out of
life, beyond football,” Annie Olson said.
When Olson sent away his paperwork to the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints headquarters in Salt Lake City, he
didn’t know where he would be sent. All he knew was that his
college career was being suspended, and his prospects of being an
NFL player would likely be harmed. So he decided to serve in
January of 2003 so he could return to school in time for spring
practice of 2005.
Olson and his family were happy to find out that he would serve
in Alberta, Canada, a place where his health or safety were
unlikely to be issues of concern.
His work in Calgary consisted of going door to door in all kinds
of neighborhoods to spread the teachings of the Mormon Church.
As is the religious custom, Olson could only contact his family
in weekly e-mails and phone calls and on Easter and Christmas. A
mission is meant to be served with as little contact or attention
as possible from the external world.
Still, Olson couldn’t completely escape his insurmountable
football persona. He would be approached with an invitation to
speak at a high school, or asked whether or not he was planning on
returning to BYU when he finished his mission.
“He had this extra attention when he was trying to be
isolated from the outside world, so that was tough,” Annie
Olson said.
Olson discussed vaguely why he decided to leave BYU, choosing
only to say he always considered UCLA a top choice and had moved on
with his life. But he never hinted at regret for the choices he has
made, and only looks forward to what his football career now has in
store.
Moving Forward
As he changes his jersey from No. 3 to No. 7 this year, Olson is
poised for a breakout season. With all the different lofty
hypotheticals that are tossed around, Olson is shying away from
being yet another prognosticator. His predictions might be more
scrutinized than his play on the field.
The perception might be that UCLA’s 2006 season is the
year of Ben Olson’s emergence, but the reality is that there
are still many questions looming for a team returning only 12
starters.
What’s being asked of Olson is to become the face of the
program, and he might ultimately be held responsible for any
success or failure the Bruins endure ““ whether the credit or
blame is his or not.
However, to think that Olson is a young man who loses composure
or even starts to believe all the hype, is to not have listened to
him talk about football in relation to life.
“I have big aspirations with football,” he said.
“I want to take UCLA to a national title. I want to play in
the NFL. But to think about what other people say, I can’t. I
have to be stronger than that.”