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Tuesday News & Notes

It’s official. Cowan has a partial MCL tear and is out for at least three weeks. From Dohn:

Any budding quarterback controversy at UCLA was pruned Monday when the school said backup Patrick Cowan suffered a partial tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

Cowan will be sidelined for at least three weeks, but given that time frame and UCLA's schedule, it will be at least a month before he is ready for a game.

That gives Ben Olson, who missed Saturday's win against Washington because of headaches (the school still is not calling it a concussion), time to cement his role as starter. UCLA plays Saturday at Oregon State, and hosts Notre Dame on Oct. 6. After a bye week, the Bruins host California Oct. 20, which could be when Cowan is again available.
So exit Cowan, and re-enter Olson, which prompted this bumbling, stumbling nonsense from our head clown:
"We definitely need to see that from Ben, from an improvement standpoint," Coach Karl Dorrell said. "I know he is disgusted with how he played in the Utah game. I know he's working hard already, trying to get himself ready to have a great game."

Olson followed up a tremendous opening game at Stanford with two mediocre performances, one in the 44-6 loss to Utah on Sept. 15. He threw five touchdown passes in the 45-17 victory over Stanford but none in his two games since and ranks 69th nationally in passing efficiency.

"Now is his chance to get back in there and keep leading this group," Dorrell said. "He understands to bring up his game a little bit."

But, Dorrell said, "He's not, 'Oh I'm worried about it.' He's more excited, 'Hey, this is my chance again. I saw what happened, let's go get it fixed.' "
I think "getting it fixed" must be the words Marc Dellins programmed into the Sleeping Beauty’s head since the debacle in SLC. That is the only thing he can come up once again calling out his players in public.

Speaking of his players, they continue to sound bold about their abilities talking a good game heading in this Saturday:
The Beavers, though, are not the issue, according to Bell.

"If we can go out and establish ourselves and be physical from the jump, we can just grind teams," said Bell, who is third in the Pac-10 in rushing at 110.5 yards per game. "Then we come back and throw the ball, too. That's pretty hard to stop.

"It's all in the mind-set. Once we get the mind-set that we are the best team in this conference, that we can run the ball, that we can pass the ball, that we can do anything we want to do at will, then we're going to be a pretty good team."
Bell was speaking in response to the constant clusterf**k, Dorrell "coached" football teams find themselves on the road. Dohn has more on this report on how Bruins are preparing for the "noise" at Oregon State. Dohn mentions how Bruins are 10-13 in road games and 1-3 in neutral sites (22-5 at home), leaving out the important detail that KD "coached" teams have a mindboggling 1-10 record against teams with winning records on the road.

Anyways, you’d think this would be the perfect week to up that record to 2-10 up Dorrell's overall horrific road record taking on a team that UCLA has beaten despite of Dorrell last few years. We will have more on Oregon State later this week. If UCLA doesn’t win this game Dorrell’s team will continue to be a national joke. Case in point:
The Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday wore throwback jerseys that were gold and powder blue. The Eagles were leading the Detroit Lions, 35-7, in the second quarter when Andrew Siciliano, the host of the DirecTV Sunday Ticket "Red Zone" channel, said, "They look like UCLA, but they're playing USC."
Thanks a lot Karl. But then again does he care? Nope. Because as I write this he is probably passed out enjoying his beauty sleep.

GO BRUINS.