Defense dominates in closing scrimmage

The latest beginning to Ben Olson’s college career came not with a bang, but a whimper.

UCLA’s offense coughed and wheezed through Friday night’s scrimmage, unable to move the ball into the red zone until doing drills that began in the red zone. The upside for the Bruins was they had a No. 1 quarterback four months ahead of last year’s schedule.

Olson was anointed Thursday as UCLA’s starting quarterback, then banned from talking about it until after Friday’s scrimmage, with Patrick Cowan ticketed for clipboard duties during games this fall.

“Hopefully this will allow me to assume a leadership role that I wasn’t able to take before when I wasn’t sure whether I would be in there,” said Olson, who will be a junior. “This will give me confidence to take the lead.”

That, the Bruins hope, will allow Olson to fulfill the potential laid at his feet after several high school “player of the year” honors as a senior at Thousand Oaks High in 2001-02.

“He doesn’t have to look over his shoulder for the first time here,” defensive end Bruce Davis said. “He can play.”

Talk of being the left-handed John Elway trailed Olson to Brigham Young and on his two-year Mormon mission. He transferred to UCLA in 2004, won the starting job last August, then injured a knee in the fifth game. Cowan started the remaining eight games even though Olson was returned to practice Nov. 7.

When Olson was in the lineup, he had marginal success. He bolted from the gate, throwing for 318 yards and three touchdowns in the opener against Utah, then labored through the next five starts.

“Life hasn’t worked out the way I hoped it would on the football field,” Olson said.

“What I can do now is get ready for this season. I’m confident we’re going to have a great football team.”

Cowan, meanwhile, took the demotion in stride.

“I practiced as if I was the starter last year and ended being the starter,” said Cowan, a junior. “You always want to play, but it’s not about me playing. It’s about the Bruins being the best team.”

Olson struggled, completing seven of 16 passes for 89 yards and one touchdown Friday. He also was sacked four times and appeared indecisive at other moments.

But those were high marks when grading on a curve. Cowan had his first pass intercepted and returned for a touchdown by Dennis Keyes. He was four for 13 for 24 yards and had two passes intercepted.

The Bruins’ defense, with 10 starters back, gave up little.

“We came in wanting to dominate,” cornerback Rodney Van said.

“We wanted to show that this defense is everything that people have said it is. We’re the best defense our offense will see.”

And how good is that?

“It doesn’t matter if we’re lining up against the Colts or Patriots, we want to dominate,” Davis said.

The offense has 10 starters back as well but spent the spring absorbing new schemes under first-year offensive coordinator Jay Norvell.

“We will spend the next few months getting familiarized with the offense,” Coach Karl Dorrell said.

“We threw a lot at them this spring.”

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chris.foster@latimes.com