Several of you have posted the news in the comment threads already. But let's get it up right up front for everyone else. The big story from Saturday night is the status of Patrick Cowan. The kid is going to be out for the entire 2008 season. From the LA Times:

Cowan's injury means it will probably be Olson (who also is on crutches with a broken bone that may require surgery to heal) with an inside track to the starting position heading into the Fall camp. Dohn posted the following comments from Olson in his DN report: Olson shouldn't get to down on the situation. He needs to make the best out of this situation for next few months until he is ready to throw in July. He should pay very close attention to Chow, who had this to say in the LA Times: So there you go. What Olson needs to do next few months is focus on his rehab and take in as much Chow's schemes as possible by studying playbook, films, and going over the mistakes in this spring camp.

What Olson (and Cowan) has going for them is they will have a supportive head coach, who will also make the right moves in terms of giving them as much psychological boost as possible. [See matsumoto720's spring scrimmage report]

CRN was his part is showing no sign of concern (from the DN report linked above): As for the QBs who were able to play at the Rose Bowl last night - Craft, Forcier, and Rasshan - here is the report from the OC Register's Robert Kuwada. Per Kuwada give how many reps those trio took during the spring `the results were not too bad': Per CPBruinFan at Bruin Roar who attended the scrimmage, Forcier and Rashaan had a harder time than Craft: Read rest of CPBruinFan's first hand recap here. For more recap and pictures from the scrimmage check out What's Bruin in the LA Times.

Despite the injury notes on Cowan/Olson and others, I am fired about next year. And my optimism has nothing to do with expected win totals for next seasons. Beware of concern trolls who will come on here and try to set their standards for what to expect from next year's team in terms of win-loss record. As we haves aid before, changing the direction of the listless and lifeless program Dorrell left us with in Westwood, entails lot more than increasing win totals.  Howland in his first two years record wise didn't accomplish more than what Lavin did in his last two years at UCLA. Yet what Howland did was the changing the culture of UCLA hoops.

The change we are looking from CRN in his first 2 years is not necessarily increasing win totals, but changing how our team approaches the game. Among the things we are looking for is to see whether or not our team comes out with an aggressive, no fear mentality on both sides of the ball. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what kind of talent CRN inherited in this program.  Just look at the NFL draft from yesterday: Southern Cal 7 - UCLA 0. That pretty much gives us the whole story.

CRN has a long way to go. But already we can sense certain changes around the psychology of our program. All we ask from our players is to take advantage of one of the best coaching staff ever assembled in our football program, stay positive, and chip away. We will be with them through the ups and downs, the whole way.

We finally have a leader we all collectively believe in. So the things are going to be different in Bruins Nation.

GO BRUINS.