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Senior Drew Olson was named the starting quarterback on Saturday for this weekend’s season

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Correction appended

On Friday, Drew Olson walked off Spaulding Field from yet another football practice, this one a little different from all the others.

His red quarterback jersey soaked through with sweat and with mounting frustration and uncertainty written all over his face, Drew Olson, who at the time was still competing with heralded freshman Ben Olson for the starting quarterback position, was finally out of answers.

He had shown a renewed passion for the game since coming back from a devastating knee injury, yet he was tired.

He was playing the best football he’d ever played in his life, yet he was frustrated.

He had done everything that had been asked of him and more to maintain his starting position, yet couldn’t help but think he apparently had not done quite enough.

For someone who admits he was given chances to play when he probably didn’t deserve them his first two years in Westwood, not getting those same opportunities when he felt he did deserve them put Drew Olson in an unfamiliar place.

That unease propelled the senior to having the best camp of his life, which inevitably led him to a very familiar place – UCLA’s starting quarterback position.

“It’s more satisfying now because I had to work for it; it wasn’t just given to me,” Drew Olson said. “This will strengthen me. It toughens you up mentally, that’s for sure.”

After weeks of speculation, UCLA coach Karl Dorrell finally confirmed Saturday what Drew Olson never once stopped believing – that the senior would be the starter for the Bruins’ season-opener against San Diego State on Sept. 3.

But the Drew Olson that limped off the football field in crutches back on Dec. 23 after UCLA’s embarrassing 24-21 loss to Wyoming in the Las Vegas Bowl is a shadow of the one that will be taking snaps under center this weekend.

Eight months of dedicated rehabilitation followed by three weeks of intense competition with a 22-year-old redshirt freshman have transformed Drew Olson from a poised player, not feeling he had anything to prove, to an identifiable leader fighting for a job he never actually lost.

“The whole process has given me a whole new work ethic and a whole new approach to this game, that probably was much needed,” said Drew Olson, who has started 15 consecutive games and compiled a 14-12 overall record as the Bruins’ quarterback.“I didn’t enjoy it, but I don’t dismiss it either."

"I wanted to keep it as competitive for as long as I could, without both of them knowing exactly what was going on,” Dorrell said. “I wanted to put (Drew Olson) through the test and he came out very, very well.”

That test, however, is far from over.

Dorrell has maintained that he will seek opportunities to play Ben Olson, who some anoint the savior of the program, throughout the beginning of the season, conceding that if the redshirt freshman out of Thousand Oaks hadn’t injured his hand during the end of fall camp, the quarterback situation could have unfolded quite differently.

But until Ben Olson is ready, Drew Olson, veteran of two quarterback competitions, willingly accepts that the onus will be placed on him for now.

Despite the constant criticisms that he isn’t the big-play quarterback and that he doesn’t look for tight end Marcedes Lewis nearly enough, the senior from Piedmont, Calif. is eager to earn the respect he’s never been afforded and embraces the responsibility of producing obvious signs of improvement for a UCLA program mired in mediocrity.

He may never be readily assured that he’ll be the quarterback to throw that next pass with Ben Olson ready and waiting over his shoulder, but as this season’s fall camp has shown, Drew Olson looks his best when he feels uncomfortable.

“It’s getting to that point where you start to question things and wonder what’s going on,” said Drew Olson on Friday, describing his confusion regarding the quarterback battle. “It’s just ongoing and kind of living in the shadows.”

Which is, coincidentally, where Drew Olson’s leadership has been hiding the past two seasons.

The leader

It was only the third day of fall camp, and tempers were already flaring.

As Ben Olson dropped back to pass, he shoveled the football to fullback Michael Pitre, who ran up the left side until defensive lineman Justin Hickman stopped him.

Pitre and Hickman soon after engaged in a brief war of words, which was quickly followed by a short fight – short because Drew Olson sprinted in from the sideline to stop it.

“What was weird was that it was a natural reaction now when it wasn’t before,” Drew Olson said.

“I realized that I am sick of sitting back and being this calm leader. It wasn’t me and it needed to change. I needed to change. The way I play needed to change.”

“I realized I lost (my swagger) for a minute. I’m just glad it’s back.”

The last time it was seen was at Piedmont High School, where Drew Olson was revered not only as one of California’s best quarterbacks, but also as his team’s unmistakable leader. Collecting more awards and honors than plays in the Bruins’ playbook, Drew Olson, who in three years as a starter threw for over 6,000 yards and 60 touchdowns, was unafraid to call out teammates and constantly challenged them to match his own intensity, even if it meant ruffling some feathers.

“In high school everyone looked up to him,” said second-year Corey Steady, Drew Olson’s former high school teammate and currently a student manager for the UCLA football team.

“No one had to ask, everyone knew he was the leader in high school. But college is different than high school for everyone.”

It certainly has been for Drew Olson.

In 2002, when Drew Olson was a freshman, the Piedmont native gradually became gun-shy playing behind Cory Paus, struggling to earn the respect he was naturally given the year before.

In 2003 and 2004, Drew Olson received more playing time, but felt that he was simply given it, and hadn’t necessarily earned it.

So while assuming the title of the Bruin offense’s official leader, Drew Olson recalls mental blunders under his watch eliciting as much response as informing someone they hadn’t won the lottery.

“‘Oh well, next time’ is what we used to say,” Drew Olson said.

Well, not anymore.

So far during fall camp, the senior has been noticeably tougher on his teammates, exhibiting a quicker trigger when lashing out at a receiver who forgets a route or a lineman who misses a block.

“He’s definitely more vocal,” senior center Mike McCloskey said. “A lot of guys look up to him now. They know he’s in control.”

“What drives me crazy is when focus is lost and effort is not there,” Drew Olson said. “When that happens, I am going to jump on them, and when I misread, I hope they jump on me.”

If it sounds like Drew Olson has a newfound sense of urgency, it’s because he does. And it took the arrival of a former No. 1-rated high school quarterback to instill it.

The competitor

Drew Olson gets asked nearly every day if he’s related to Ben Olson.

“We’re not related,” he usually responds. “Maybe we’ll find out sooner or later we are, but as of right now, we’re not.”

Yet the two Olsons have been attached to the hip for the span of fall camp.

In competing against Ben Olson, who hasn’t played competitive football for two years because of his Mormon mission to Canada, Drew Olson is quick to point out that the nature of this year’s competition is much different than his battle two years ago with Matt Moore.

Aside from being a much better quarterback than he was as a sophomore, Drew Olson talks regularly with Ben Olson and any feelings of bitterness or ill simply don’t exist this time around.

What the senior did learn from the quarterback controversy two years ago, however, was that as soon as he suffered his injury back on Dec. 23, he knew his chances of remaining the starter were slim if he gave any potential competing quarterback the chance to shine.

“The No. 1 reason I wanted to get back and drove myself so hard to get back was to play again and play my senior year,” the senior said. “I didn’t want to come back 85 percent and practice one day and rest the next. Then it would have been really tough for me to be the starter.”

Wanting to adopt a positive mind-set from the outset of his rehabilitation, Drew Olson asked his doctor not to mention the senior’s injury to anyone, and vowed to do the same.

Forced to watch spring practice and the progress of Ben Olson from the discomfort of the sideline, which he described as probably the hardest thing to cope with during his recovery, Drew Olson quietly pursued a rigorous rehabilitation that would put him at full health by late July, compressing an expected eight-month long recovery process into six.

While Drew Olson surprised coaches and teammates with his swift recovery, what impressed them even more was the condition in which the senior returned.

Since last season, Drew Olson has put on close to 15 pounds, increased his arm strength, become more mobile in the pocket despite a permanent brace he will wear on his left leg, and exhibited a much greater understanding of the offense.

“I take my hat off to Drew,” Dorrell said. “He’s come back from a serious injury and he’s in the best shape he’s ever been in. And he’s had the best camp he’s ever had since he’s been here.”

But Drew Olson still enters the season wary that even his best performance was barely enough to outlast upstart Ben Olson, and that there will most likely be increasing pressure exerted on the coaching staff to get the freshman valuable playing experience.

“It’d be hard if I went out there and they were second-guessing me and what I am doing,” Drew Olson said. “The way you want it is for them to have 100 percent confidence in you.

“When I do start, even if they tell me if I slip up and someone will replace me, I know looking over my shoulder is the only way to fail.”

So while Drew Olson fully expects fans to chant Ben Olson’s name the same way they chanted his own four years ago, the senior is still intent on leaving what is yet-to-be a defining imprint on UCLA before handing the reins to the program to another Olson.

His legacy

Drew Olson’s room is unusually bare for someone who can conceivably walk out of UCLA as the second most accomplished quarterback in school history.

There are no banners from his first three seasons in Westwood, no pictures of past UCLA greats like Troy Aikman or Cade McNown to remind him of the elite company he’ll soon be joining, and no running lists of records he’s eclipsing, or legendary names that he’s passing.

The only reminder in Drew Olson’s apartment that the senior quarterback even plays football is a picture his parents blew up and framed of their son getting crunched between two Sooners in 2003 when UCLA was routed by Oklahoma.

While originally a joke, that photo has served to remind Drew Olson where he once was – a wide-eyed sophomore thrown to the wolves - and where he is now – in the upper echelon of every meaningful statistical category for all-time Bruin quarterbacks.

But even though Drew Olson comes into the 2005 season fourth all-time in completions (422), fifth in touchdowns (33), fifth in passing yards (5,334), and sixth in pass percentage (54.8 percent), there’s hardly ever a whisper mentioning Drew Olson’s name among the best quarterbacks to play at UCLA.

“Yea, I’ve done it real quietly because we haven’t won,” Drew Olson said. “That’s why it’s quietly. That’s why it’s disappointing and that’s why it’s a non-factor to me.

“The fact that we have gone 12-13 is unacceptable.

“It shouldn’t be right, and it shouldn’t be the way UCLA football is played. We’re all ashamed of it and not proud of it by any means.”

Though this season might not provide Drew Olson the chance to restore UCLA as a national powerhouse, it will also offer the senior the opportunity to resurrect the program’s success.

“This year needs to be a comeback year for this program,” Drew Olson said.

“I want to go out a winner and a warrior, someone who has overcome some stuff in his career to get the team right and the program back where it needs to be.”

If he does, then he’ll sign his name to a unique chapter in UCLA’s history book, one a little different from all the others.