Southpaw Jesus Hype in Full Swing

by bluestreet on Jun 5, 2006 3:00 PM PDT

Bumped - N

From the Bruinzone. Dorrelistas expecting big things from the Big Ben:

On paper, Ben Olson is arguably the BEST high school QB that UCLA ever recruited. He had the stats, the size and came from a solid, winning program at Thousand Oaks High.
He was COVETED by nearly every bigtime DI program in the country in 2002. Even Steve Spurrier.

Switch reels. It's now 2006. We have a BORN LEADER behind center. A redshirt soph who is 23 years old, not a green, wide eyed freshman coming out of high school.

He is more mature and developed than almost any redshirt soph you can think of......but in this case, he also has the credentials of being the NUMBER ONE high school QB recruit in the country in 2002. Think about that.

Well than what's there to worry? And for those who may want to bring up the excuse for BO being Rusty. Bob has the answers: He's not going to be RUSTY...I think it's just the opposite. He's going to be great.

And the notion that it's going to take him "awhile" is nonsense.

Is he going to be as good vs. Utah as he will later in the season?

No.

But it won't be rustiness. It will simply be because of the ENTIRE offense needing to jell, as is often the case with MOST teams early in the season.

So rustiness will not be an excuse and throw in this bit about how the BO will be surrounded by lots of experienced talents: The "beauty of this" is that Ben is SURROUNDED by a supporting cast of VETERAN receivers....Everett, Cowan, Breazell, Taylor and yes, Moya and Ketchum as well. He's got veterans in the backfield with Pitre and Markey and, yes, even Bell. Now that is out of the way - what about familiarity with Dorrell's system? That excuse will not cut it either: We're going to be running the shotgun this season and Ben clearly mentioned he was very comfortable throwing from the gun, as he did at Thousand Oaks High.

Ben Olson enrolled at UCLA in Jan., 2005. By Sept. 2 opening vs. Utah in 2006, he will have gone through:

Spring and Fall practice in 2005
The entire 2005 season
Spring and Fall practice in 2006

And this doesn't include summer of 2005 and 2006 unsupervised team passing 7 on 7's and 19....repeat 19 MONTHS of working out under Doc's tutelage AND, AND...19 months of being coached by Jim Svoboda.

If you grant that Jim Svoboda had any hand (and likely a big hand) in Drew Olson's development, than can you IMAGINE what he can possibly do with Ben Olson?

We don't have to worry about Ben Olson being rusty or needing game experience. He's a mature, born leader who his teammates look up to. He has a gun for a arm and, not only that, is MOBILE.

Hey I couldn't agree more.

Offense should not be an excuse should KD fail to deliver next season.

GO BRUINS.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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Comments

I agree

For the most part, offense was not our problem last year (the occasional sputter) and shouldn't be this year, it's defense and our continued inability to stop anyone. If the team needs to demonstrate anything this upcoming season, it's we can stop people.

BO has had plenty of time in the system and with the experienced skill people around him should do well. I think the only acclimation he needs is operating at game speed, which no amount of practice prepares you for.

by artybruin on Jun 5, 2006 10:39 AM PDT reply actions

Game speed

I agree Arty. But the cool thing is we are going to have two fairly easy games to start this season, which should give BO ample opportunity to get used to game speed.

Yes some (Dorrelistas trying to lower expectations) will argue that Utah will be a tough matchup. But whatever. As we have mentioned before if Dorrell loses that game, it should be his CSUN moment. If anything that game should get BO ready for rest of the season.

by Nestor on Jun 5, 2006 6:35 PM PDT up reply actions

I think the offense and the defense were roughly..

Similar. They were very feast or famine. The offense was bad-ish most notably in it's first 3 quarters, but would turn it on in the 4th. The exceptions of course were against mediocre defenses, (or the 2 ass kickings when they couldn't even get close in the 4th). The defense so often seemed to lock down opponents on 1 or 2 downs, but couldn't consistently stop another team, except in those 4th quarter games (at the end). Defense still needs to be the #1 focus for improvement, but I want to see better sustained drives in the first 3 quarters. That should be, if BO is as good as the hype, where we see improvement. (I hope)

by isodore on Jun 5, 2006 6:25 PM PDT reply actions

Defense

agree that it should be the # focus for improvement. I mean it cannot get any worse from last year. Can it?

by Nestor on Jun 5, 2006 6:35 PM PDT up reply actions

Agree

As far as D1 schools, I think only Northwestern was worse than us.

Remember the Cade year when we played Miami in the last game, the defense couldn't stop anyone that year either, he would just try to outgun them.

I would hate to see BO put in that position every game. It's like in basketball, no matter how bad you are operating offensively, great defense keeps you in the game.

by artybruin on Jun 6, 2006 9:28 AM PDT reply actions