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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
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.