Now that the good news (no surgery) and bad news (MCL tear - out at least 4 weeks) on Ben Olson is out of the way, let's wish Ben a speedy and healthy recovery, and move forward. Let's also put rest to talks about transfer. Ben is not going anywhere neither is Pat. As Cowan and his coaches have said already he was more than prepared to go in. And now that he is in charge, the Bruins Nation can expect him to hold down the fort, and maintain the reasonable expectations of winning 9 games and beating Southern Cal. As pointed out yesterday Bruins have 3 tough road games this season against team with winning records: Oregon, ND, and Cal. Now if Dorrell is really an above average coach, and Cowan is the capable 2nd QB in the program, then the Bruins should be able to pull out at least 1 win out of these 3 tough games, and keep us on track for having a very good season.
Dorrell is certainly not saying anything to minimize or adjust our expectations with Pat Cowan taking charge:
"Pat's proven that he can win because of what he accomplished last week," Dorrell said of Cowan's performance off the bench in a 27-7 victory over Arizona at the Rose Bowl.
As a second-stringer, Cowan got only about 30% of the snaps in practice through the early part of the season, but his coach praised him for studying carefully from the sideline.
One of his two touchdown passes against Arizona came on a play that he had not gotten the chance to practice.
"That just shows you right there how he stayed involved in the game planning," Dorrell said. "Really watching what's important about his reads and the timing aspects."
Dorrell said he was so confident in Cowan's abilities that he wasn't about to turn conservative when Olson went down early in the game.
And more gushing from Dorrell:
As a second-stringer, Cowan got only about 30% of the snaps in practice through the early part of the season, but his coach praised him for studying carefully from the sideline.
One of his two touchdown passes against Arizona came on a play that he had not gotten the chance to practice.
"That just shows you right there how he stayed involved in the game planning," Dorrell said. "Really watching what's important about his reads and the timing aspects."
Dorrell said he was so confident in Cowan's abilities that he wasn't about to turn conservative when Olson went down early in the game.
"Our team will rally around him," Dorrell said of Cowan. "They feel just as confident about him (as) Ben, whoever is at the trigger of our offense. Pat has proven he can win because of what he accomplished last week and we'll continue to get better with Pat now at the helm."
Dorrell is putting a lot of stock in PC's first half performance against Zona:
"I wanted Pat to come out blazing," Dorrell said. "We thought, 'We're not just going to slow down and get his feet wet.' "
Well we are going to take KD at his word and not adjust our expectations for rest of the season. But to beat Oregon we are going to need a little more than the "blazing" performance we had against Zona in the second half in which our offense scored 2 FGs, and chickened out from going for it on 4th and 1 deep in Zona's territory, when a touchdown would have hammered a nail into Stoop's team cheap coffin. Hopefully Dorrell's offense led by Cowan can keep up the "blazing" performance, and turn it loose for both halves against a talented Ducks team at Autzen. We are not going to beat the Ducks just with Justin Medlock.Anyways we have more Cowan mania in the tradtional media. Diane Pucin of LA Times is in love with Cowan. Here she is going all Marky Foley on the Cowans brothers, talking about their crucial attributes that apparently makes them awesome football players:
Older by 18 months, Joe is 6 feet 4, has black hair and dark eyes. He guards his words and catches the football.
Patrick is blond, an inch taller, is freer with his thoughts and throws the football.
"It's a good thing Joe is the receiver and Pat is the quarterback," Anita said. "You could always tell the difference. Pat's bolder and a little more of a leader. Pat's more like a quarterback."
Uh yeah ... Cory Paus has blond hair too Diane. And he was (cue up Bill Walton's voice commenting on Charlie Ward as the Knicks pg) TERRIBLE. Whatever. I just don't get how these losers get to write on sports for a newspaper that blessed us with Jim Murray.Patrick is blond, an inch taller, is freer with his thoughts and throws the football.
"It's a good thing Joe is the receiver and Pat is the quarterback," Anita said. "You could always tell the difference. Pat's bolder and a little more of a leader. Pat's more like a quarterback."
Hey I am all for Cowan shining. And I sure hope he can lead this team to a 2-2 record in next 4 weeks, but all these premature gushing after 3 and half quarters against one of the worse pass defense in the country is kind of nonsense. Let's just hope this is not getting into PC's head and also that the coaches will also work on getting Osaar Rasshan ready, should God forbid something happens to Cowan.
Elsewhere Olson is not the only key player in the current Bruin mash unit. There are few others, and here is the update from the OC Register:
Christian Taylor, who suffered a sprained left ankle in the victory over Arizona, will try to get on the practice field this week. "We'll list him as day-to-day," Dorrell said. "I know that he feels a lot better." If Taylor is unavailable at Oregon, John Hale (Los Alamitos High) would float inside and backup Kyle Bosworth as well as linebacker Aaron Whittington.
Defensive tackle Chase Moline (Mission Viejo High), who has missed the past two games because of a back injury, is expected to do some drill work in practice but remains questionable to play at Oregon.
Split end Joe Cowan (knee) and cornerback Michael Norris (knee) also will try to do some individual practice drills this week. "They both will do drill work and give their knees more of a test of what game conditions will be," Dorrell said.
It will be interesting to see how the team will react should Christian is not out on Saturday. He is the quarterback of this defense who calls the play from LOS. However, I think Hale and Bosworth are going to fill in well. They should be able to considering injury shouldn't be excuses at this point. Every team has them including the Ducks who are also banged up:
Defensive tackle Chase Moline (Mission Viejo High), who has missed the past two games because of a back injury, is expected to do some drill work in practice but remains questionable to play at Oregon.
Split end Joe Cowan (knee) and cornerback Michael Norris (knee) also will try to do some individual practice drills this week. "They both will do drill work and give their knees more of a test of what game conditions will be," Dorrell said.
As for Oregon, the Ducks are banged up, especially on defense. Linebacker Brent Haberly, cornerback Jackie Bates, defensive end Victor Filipe and defensive tackle Cole Linehan, each projected starters beginning the season, are all out. Also, cornerback Terrell Ward (knee) missed Saturday's loss at Cal and is questionable.
So no excuses and this team and his players must move forward.We are going to find out a lot about the character (we keep hearing about) of Dorrell's program this coming Saturday. Cannot wait.
GO BRUINS.