Olson out for eight weeks
By David Woods
Aug. 10, 2008 9:55 p.m.
After complaining of soreness in his surgically repaired foot throughout much of the first four days of fall camp and actually sitting out Friday’s practice, Ben Olson reinjured his foot during Saturday’s full-pad practice, resulting in a break of his fifth metatarsal. He will be out at least eight weeks.
Olson reinjured his right foot on a fake, a play similar to the one on which he broke the foot originally. Ben Olson has elected to have surgery to place a screw in his right foot to assist in the healing of the fracture of his fifth metatarsal. The surgery will take place on Tuesday./p>
Olson was carted off the field in the latter stages of Saturday’s afternoon practice.
He spent three months recovering from the initial injury to his foot.
“It sounded like it was the exact same thing as last spring,” coach Rick Neuheisel said. “He said it was not as bad as last spring. The pain is not the same. We’ll see what that means.”
Olson has had a star-crossed turn as UCLA’s starting quarterback. He has yet to play a full season in his four years at UCLA, despite winning the quarterback battle three times.
In his first season in 2005, Olson actually beat out incumbent Drew Olson for the quarterback job, but broke his hand in the final days of training camp. In both 2006 and 2007, Olson started the season but went down with season-ending injuries.
Beyond the effect on Olson, the new injury could severely affect UCLA’s quarterback situation. Patrick Cowan won the starting job in the spring and then promptly suffered a career-ending knee injury.
Transfer Kevin Craft has not looked solid taking the second-team reps behind Olson through the first few days of camp.
True freshman Kevin Prince has looked good through the first few days, but the coaching staff may be reluctant to start a freshman against Tennessee on Sept. 1.
“It’s too early to talk about that,” Neuheisel said. Offensive coordinator Norm Chow “and I and all the offensive coaches will have to sit down and develop a plan, figure out what happened and what needs to be done.”
Some might see this injury as a blessing in disguise.
With three weeks to go in training camp, there is time for a new starter to emerge.
If this injury had happened against Tennessee in the first game of the year, then whomever ended up backing up Olson would be thrown into the fire.
Now, unlike during the last few seasons, there is some quarterback depth in the program.
Behind Olson, there are highly touted options in Craft, Prince, redshirt freshman Chris Forcier and freshman Nick Crissman.
Beyond that, redshirt junior Osaar Rashaan is still in the program and has starting experience should he be called upon to play.
