False Start for a True Freshman : After Troubles at Washington State, UCLA Gives Fien a New Beginning

Ryan Fien, UCLA’s new starting quarterback, has never lacked confidence.

The summer before Fien’s sophomore year at Royal High in Simi Valley, he barged into the office of Coach Gene Uebelhardt.

“Ryan told me that he was going to be my starting quarterback,” Uebelhardt said. “And I told Ryan, ‘You’d better worry about starting on the sophomore team, son.’ ”

But Fien was promoted to Royal’s varsity team after throwing 11 touchdown passes in his first two games with the sophomore team, including seven in the season opener.

He had to be hospitalized after suffering a concussion in his varsity debut against Arroyo Grande High.

“They beat him to a pulp,” Fien’s father, Hank, said. “It was almost identical to (Fien’s UCLA debut in which he was sacked four times and fumbled twice in a 30-17 loss to Washington State last Saturday). We didn’t go to his first high school game, and that was the only game I didn’t go to, other than last week at Washington State. I kept getting flashbacks of his first high school game after his first college game.”

After being humiliated in his prep debut, Fien flourished, earning All-State honors last season after passing for 1,710 yards and 23 touchdowns while

leading Royal to a 10-0 regular-season record and its first league title in 27 years.

Voted the Southern Section Division II player of the year in 1991, Fien was heavily recruited and was set to attend Texas.

However, he changed his mind and signed with UCLA after quarterback Tommy Maddox renounced his final two seasons of eligibility to enter the NFL draft last winter.

“I committed to Texas because of the hype of the trip, but I’d always been a UCLA fan,” Fien said. “When it got down to it, I wanted to stay closer to home.”

Fien elected to attend UCLA because he thought he would get an opportunity to play immediately. And he has gotten his chance because injuries have overwhelmed the Bruins.

Fien will become the first true freshman quarterback to start a game for UCLA since 1979 when the Bruins try to end a three-game losing streak Saturday against Arizona State at the Rose Bowl.

Thrust into the lineup because of injuries to Bruin quarterbacks Wayne Cook and Rob Walker, Fien completed only five of 20 passes for 55 yards with one interception after replacing starting quarterback John Barnes in last week’s loss.

Sacked four times for 35 yards in losses, he lost two fumbles to set up two Washington State touchdowns. Fien fumbled a center exchange, which Washington State recovered at the Bruin five-yard line, and lost a fumble at the UCLA two-yard line when he was sacked.

UCLA Coach Terry Donahue is confident Fien will improve.

“I’m not going to sit here and tell you that he had a great debut,” Donahue said. “However, I think you have to look at the fact that he had four days of preparation. But just watching him play, I think he’s going to be a real fine quarterback. I think he has a bright future.

“I think he can make real improvement and really grow over the next four to five days. He’ll be a much better quarterback Saturday than he was last Saturday.”

Washington State Coach Mike Price, who tried to recruit Fien, agreed.

“He’s going to be a real good quarterback before he’s through,” Price said. “Remember, I was highly criticized for playing Drew Bledsoe as a true freshman, but now look at him. Just give him time and UCLA should be all right.”

Depressed after playing poorly in his college debut, Fien phoned his father from the airport after the game.

“I’ve never seen Ryan down like that,” Hank Fien said. “It was strange. All he kept saying was, ‘We didn’t win and I didn’t play well.’ He wouldn’t talk about anything else. That’s all he kept telling me. I gave him the fatherly talk to pick up his spirits.

“He was real quiet all weekend, but when I took him back to school Sunday night his attitude had changed and he started coming out of it.

“To be honest, I think that was the best thing that could have happened to him. A lot of times Ryan has started seasons with games you can’t top. He’s going to learn from this game a lot more than he would have if he’d have walked in and thrown three touchdown passes. He got the reality of college football, and he’s got nowhere to go but up.

“I can see his confidence is back. He told me, ‘I will never in my life play a game that bad again.’ ”

Fien comes from a football family.

Hank Fien played quarterback, running back and wide receiver at Artesia High and Cerritos College before transferring to Northern Arizona University in 1970.

Although he dreamed of playing in the NFL, his dream ended when he broke his right foot in 15 places in his first college game. He never played again.

“I broke it the first play and I kept playing because they weren’t sure it was broken,” Fien said. “They gave me pain pills and I kept going because I couldn’t feel it.”

Disillusioned, Fien said he didn’t watch a football game for 10 years after his injury.

“I was going to play football for a living,” Fien said. “I was focused so much on that that I didn’t really think about the future. I wasn’t bitter about football, it was that I couldn’t play. It would be like going to the beach and not being able to go in the water. So if I didn’t go around football, it didn’t bother me.”

But his interest in football was rekindled after Ryan began playing.

A natural athlete, Ryan began his athletic career at 6, riding on the BMX bicycle racing circuit, where he raced in stadiums such as the Astrodome and won three national championships and a world title.

Unusually mature for his age, Fien traveled to races alone and did interviews with magazines and TV stations.

Tired of traveling the racing circuit, he quit at age 9 and began concentrating on football.

“Ryan played the same positions I played in high school,” Fien’s father said. “He was a middle linebacker and running back until he got into junior high, and then he walked up to me one day and said, ‘I’m getting too tall, I want to play quarterback. You were a quarterback in high school, show me what to do.’ ”

Fien’s father was a good teacher.

“Even though he’s at UCLA, Ryan will still come to me once in a while and say that he’s changed his grip on the ball and ask for advice,” Hank Fien said. “He’s the type who wants to get better.”