Playing Without Your Top QB's: An awfully familiar feeling

As we have all seen by now, our Bruins trounced the Cougars of Houston by a 31-13 (palindrome!) score, while for us the biggest story was the offense showing a sign of life, for Houston it was kind of the opposite. More specifically, it was their top two QB's going down and having to play with a third stringer. The reaction from everyone on this blog has been what it every fan base needs to do. Be compassionate and understanding and not try to take pride that our defense was so tough that it caused those injuries. Sadly, us Bruins have suffered lots of the same feelings Houston fans must be feeling, and we have basically had four years of that.

In 2006, Ben Olson began the season real well (with the exception of that Washington game) and the Bruin offense was coming off a 30-0 drubbing of Stanford. However, Olsen's luck immediately changed when he got injured in the game against Arizona the following week on Oct. 7th and Pat Cowan had to take over. Luckily for us, we still won the game, which is actually the last time UCLA beat Arizona in football. However, Olsen never came back for the rest of the season, and while Pat Cowan was a hero to many of us, especially after 13-9, we were still playing with a second stringer. Basically, I remember saying to myself, "who the heck is this guy?" when he came in to replace Olsen.

Like 2006, 2007 was an injury ridden season. Except much worse. Not only did Olson suffer a concussion at the Utah game, he then got injured against the Irish. Soon after, Cowan also got injured and here came The Law Firm. When you are nicknamed The Law Firm, it's probably not a good thing. While Cowan ended up coming back and starting a few games, he once again went down (ironically against Arizona) and this time Ossar Rasshan took over in the loss. Ossar went on to start against ASU and then against Oregon before Olsen came in for much needed relief. In the last game of the season, both Cowan and Olsen played, but neither one ended up playing in the 2007 Vegas bowl which was started by The Law Firm.

In more recent memory, 2008 provided us more QB injuries, even before May came around. On consecutive plays, Cowan and Olsen went down. This left the Bruins with the insurance policy, Kevin Craft. Sadly for Craft, he had to play behind one of the worst offensive lines ever, and ended up breaking the record for most interceptions in a season by a UCLA QB with 20. 

This past season the football team had Mouth-Guard-gate in September after Prince forgot to put his mouthpiece in and when he got sacked for a safety at Tennessee, he also broke his jaw. This once against the Bruins with a back-up, with Kevin Craft starting two games and losing at Stanford but beating KSU. Once Prince came back, he once again got drilled on a dirty hit to the head by Donald Butler of UDub and suffered a concussion (and a shoulder injury I think). Though Prince ended up coming back and he played against U$C, his shoulder once again gave up on him, and Craft was put in the game to try to salvage it. 

2010 has yet to produce an injury during the season (knock on wood!), but we all know how Prince barely practiced before the season started.

So here it is, the semi-extensive history of UCLA QB injuries because if any school knows injuries and disappointments stemming out of QB injuries, its us Bruins. So fast recovery Case Keenum and Cotton Turner and good luck.

Go Bruins!