FanHouse PatCowan

Last year, the University of California at Los Angeles went through four starting quarterbacks in a season which failed to meet expectations. New head coach Rick Neuheisel and offensive coordinator Norm Chow had hoped to turn the tide and avoid any quarterback controversy, naming Pat Cowan the starter in Spring Practice.

But just days after fifth-stringer Osaar Rashaan declared that he would start again as UCLA quarterback, he moved up to number three on the depth chart when Cowan and Ben Olson were carted off the field with injuries. Cowan, the erstwhile starter, will miss the 2008 season; Olson must recover from yet another surgery.

Things have gotten so bad that UCLA's coaches are now asking recruit Kevin Prince to leave school early in order to provide depth at the position. But Prince is still recovering from reconstructive knee surgery himself, so don't expect this high schooler to be a lucky charm to avoid injuries at the position!

But if things look glum in Westwood, Bruin fans can take consolation that they did not lose seven first- and second-round players to the NFL Draft!

Were it not for all the other wackiness in College Football this season, the collapses of California and Oregon Football would be among this year's major story lines. As both teams were poised to take over the number-one ranking in the country, their quarterbacks suffered injuries which sent their seasons on a downward spiral.

Oregon infamously refused to disclose the status of Dennis Dixon's knee during the bye week between games against Arizona State and Arizona, only to have their national championship hopes dislocated against the Wildcats.

But hiding a quarterback injury wasn't exclusive to the Ducks. California quarterback Nate Longshore played the nearly the whole season with a chipped bone in his ankle--hobbling him ever since the Bears beat the Ducks. Bears coach Jeff Tedford admitted yesterday, "There's a little chip in the back part of it there. I didn't get that it was a broken ankle. But Nate had talked to me about a little chip that was in the back there."

If anyone is having a rougher week than USC head coach Pete Carroll, it is UCLA coach Karl Dorrell. While Carroll was taking accountability for the Trojans' loss to Stanford with alumni on Monday, the Bruin head coach went into hiding.

According to the Los Angeles Times, " Requests to interview Dorrell on Monday night were turned away with the explanation that he could not be located."

If we were Dorrell, we'd go into hiding, too. His starting quarterback Ben Olson has been lost for the season with a knee injury. Backup Pat Cowan was already sidelined with a similar injury.

When Olson went down against winless Notre Dame, Dorrell was faced with three bad choices--play walkon McLeod Bethel-Thomspon, switch Osaar Rasshan back to the quarterback position he played for his first two years in Westwood or take the red shirt off of highly-touted frosh Chris Forcier.

If Cowan cannot recover in time for the Bruins' October 20 matchup with California, Dorrell will have to make the same decision again--and have some explaining to do if he diverts from the course chosen against the Irish.

The last time Patrick Cowan started a game at the Rose Bowl, his wild scrambling led the UCLA Bruins to a 13-9 victory over cross-town rival USC. On Saturday, he will try to dig back into his magic bag of tricks when he starts as the Bruin quarterback against the Washington Huskies.

Starting QB Ben Olson has been suffering from headaches all week since getting battered by the Utah Utes and the effects were apparently too much for Southpaw Jesus. As a result, Head coach Karl Dorrell has to give a new meaning to "second choice" in Westwood as he must rely on his backup quarterback for the second season in a row.

As for Cowan, he seems to have recovered from a preseason hamstring injury which sidelined him during fall camp.

With his players suffering more concussions that Troy Aikman, Coach Dorrell has a new policy banning bloggers from writing about injuries during practice until he can comment.

While the UCLA Bruins entered their 2007 Fall Camp with a quarterback controversy--start acclaimed transfer Ben Olson or go with the conqueror of Troy Pat Cowan--Bruin head Coach Karl Dorrell has another dilemma on his hands--finding a backup for B.O.

The Bruins' number two quarterback Pat Cowan went down to injury Monday after hurting his hamstring in practice leaving only a walk-on to fill in should the injury-susceptible Olson be injured.

Walk-on redshirt freshman McLeod Bethel-Thompson will fill the number-two job and is bittersweet about the opportunity: "It's unfortunate, I don't know what happened to him," Bethel-Thompson told the Los Angeles Times. "But I saw Pat go down, and it's my chance."

After the backup's backup proceeded to fuble his first snap then have a pass batted down, Dorrell struggled to assess Bethel-Thompson's strengths, saying, ""We'll figure that one out." Indeed.

All of a sudden it seems like Los Angeles has become the Capitol City of College Football. Six years ago, the local papers asked whether the local title of "football school" had shifted to Westwood as UCLA competed for conference titles and challenged for a potential national championship. The USC Trojans have come back from the brink and have claimed five straight Pac Ten Titles and now the Bruins are looking for one of their own.

Oh, and P.S., we know that we're a Trojan fan at heart, so no need to remind us of the potential risks that poses for analyzing our school's second-biggest rival...

WHY THEY'LL WIN

UCLA has one of the best defenses in the country. Coached by DeWayne Walker, the Bruin Defense has done what no school had in five years--hold the USC offense to less than ten points in an upset victory last year. The Bruin offense brings under-rated running-back Chris Markey to the table and will sport a duo of experienced quarterbacks in Ben Olson and Pat Cowan with big-game experience. The pressure is off Head Coach Karl Dorrell after beating USC in 2006 and now the Bruins can focus on winning again, week in and week out.

WHY THEY'LL LOSE

UCLA is still a "basketball school" no matter what the Sons of Westwood may tell you. Unless you slept through the month of December--or like most UCLA fans were already focused on College Basketball--you missed the San Francisco Emerald Nuts Bowl, where Florida State--who had combined for three total rushing yards earlier in the season with Miami--ran roughshod over the Bruin defense. The Bruins will have to figure out how to bring their "A" game week in and week out if they want to win in the Pac Ten. Practice reports show that the Bruin offense is struggling to learn the West Coast offense. UCLA also has to travel to the Coliseum this year, where no team has won in more than half a decade.

UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell said that he wanted to pick a starting quarterback for the Sons of Westwood by the end of Spring Practice.

Although both Pat Cowan--who defeated rival USC for the first time since the first Clinton Administration--and Ben Olson, who started the 2006 season, struggled with the new offense installed by incoming offensive coordinator Jay Norvell, Dorrell had to choose.

And Dorrell has chosen to put Ben in, telling the Los Angeles Times, "We found out all the information we needed. We're ready to move forward. We knew we wanted to make the decision earlier than we have in the past. We wanted to have an idea who we wanted to start the season with and we've done it."

Personally, we still need information on why Dorrell insists on moving forward with the Royal "We."

Although the UCLA Bruins started spring camp expecting a heated race for the starting quarterback spot, it seems that neither Pat Cowan nor Ben Olson are actively trying to win the job.

According to the Los Angeles Daily News, "Ben Olson completed 6 of 11 passes for 100yards and one interception - on a tipped pass - and Patrick Cowan was 2 for 8 for 7yards." The only touchdown of the scrimmage was scored by the third-stringer, McLeod Bethel-Thompson.

Bruin optimists will say that the lack of offensive productivity comes from the fact that the defense is just so good this year--but this is Westwood, so the spin is that the quarterbacks are still learning new offensive coordinator Jay Norvell's system.

Last Year: 6-7, unranked

Fans Are: Into basketball.

Expectations: Win nine games and beat USC.

Questions:

1. How in the world did UCLA beat USC again?

In one word: DEFENSE. The Bruins brought in a new defensive coordinator for 2006--DeWayne Walker--and had two weeks to scheme for what had become a rather predictable Trojan offensive system. On the other side of the ball, the Bruins' most productive play was backup quarterback Pat Cowan scrambling for his life.

The Bruins, however, will have to travel to the Coliseum this year, where they lost 66-19 two years ago.

2. Is there a quarterback controversey in the works?

Last year, Brigham Young transfer Ben Olson started the season for the Bruins, giving the Sons of Westwood high expectations on his reputation as "Southpaw Jesus"... Olson got injured midway through the season and was replaced by Pat Cowan.

Cowan then did the unthinkable and led UCLA to a win over cross-town rival USC, who had been poised to play for the BCS Title against Ohio State. Cowan then topped himself in unthinkability when he made Jeff Bowden look like an offensive genius during the Bruins beat-down from Florida State in the Emerald Nuts Bowl.

Head coach Karl Dorrell had consistently said that if Olson were healthy he'd play...so those who are hoping for more Cowan heroics in 2007 may have to cool their heels.

3. Who are those new guys on the sidelines?

UCLA had a major blood-letting on its offensive coaching staff this off-season. Dorrell told Offensive coordinator Jim Svoboda in January, "you're fired!" Offensive line coach Jim Svoboda then left for the NFL and wide receivers coach D.J. McCarthy then left for greener pastures at Louisiana State.

Nebraska's Jay Norvell takes over for Svoboda in 2007 and Bob Connelly takes over the offensive line--each the fourth to hold the position in Dorrell's five-year tenure in Westwood.