Cowan should be ready on Saturday

A day after sitting out practice to rest, quarterback Patrick Cowan took part in drills Thursday during Bruins practice and Coach Karl Dorrell said he has no doubt about his availability for Saturday’s game at Washington State.

Cowan shared snaps with backups McLeod Bethel-Thompson, Chris Forcier and Osaar Rasshan, but Cowan was clearly the No. 1 quarterback.

“He feels good,” Dorrell said of Cowan. “We wanted to be cautious and not give him too much, but he’s doing well.”

Cowan has played only two games and practiced only two weeks this season because of a torn hamstring and a torn ligament in his right knee.

On Thursday, half the practice was done in shoulder pads and the other half in no pads at all, so there wasn’t any contact.

Cowan normally wears a knee brace but removed it for the first drills, which were quarterbacks doing light throwing and practicing their hand signals in a hurry-up offense. He replaced the brace for the remainder of practice and Dorrell liked what he saw.

“You watch him running around and he can do all those things,” Dorrell said. “He has all of his mobility, but we just want to make sure he’s 100% ready to go on Saturday.”

Dorrell said he was anticipating Washington State to go deep into its play book Saturday.

“We’re fully anticipating anything and everything in a game like this,” he said.

“They’ve lost four games in a row and I’m sure they’re going to try and make some things happen. They’re coming off a bye, so there’s a lot of things they can do differently that we haven’t seen.”

Playing Washington State on Saturday gives the Bruins a familiar feeling. A road game against a weaker opponent that is having all manner of trouble in recent weeks. Utah, anyone?

“The Utah game helps us remember to stay focused on not playing down to anybody’s level,” wide receiver Brandon Breazell said. “We’ve got to play like a Bruin.”

UCLA faced a winless, injury-depleted Utah team the third week of the season and lost, 44-6. Now the Bruins face a Washington State team that has given up an average of 43 points in losing its last four games.

“We have to remember what happened in Utah,” guard Shannon Tevaga said.

The Bruins, 5-2 overall and 4-0 in the Pac-10, have managed to salvaged their season after embarrassing losses to Utah and Notre Dame. They are tied with Arizona State for the conference lead.

“We have to make sure we have our level intensity up each game,” free safety Dennis Keyes said. “The team leadership has done a great job in making sure we’re able to bounce back from games where we slipped up.”

With a smorgasbord of Bruins quarterbacks getting prepared this week, Breazell has come up with a different way to help with their development.

“We’ve got to make them feel comfortable,” Breazell said about the backup quarterbacks. “We’ve got to joke around with them.”

Breazell could also offer some pointers. After all, he is two for two passing for 86 yards throwing off gadget plays this season.

That includes a 29-yard touchdown pass to Dominique Johnson against California last Saturday.

peter.yoon@latimes.com

chris.foster@latimes.com