COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : UCLA : Quarterback Race Focuses on Cook

Sometime today or Monday, UCLA Coach Terry Donahue will ask training personnel if Wayne Cook is sound enough to play. The answer will go a long way toward deciding who will start at quarterback next Saturday in the season opener against California.

“I’m ready,” Cook, who has been nursing a muscle pull in his right thigh, said Saturday. “I could have practiced today, but it’s better to take this practice off, and Sunday is a day of rest, so I will be ready to go Monday.”

Getting Cook out of the red jersey worn by injured players is important to the Bruins, who have evaluated Cook, Rob Walker and Ryan Fien for the starting quarterback job for two weeks.

“If he’s ready to go, that gives us an option of three quarterbacks,” Donahue said. “And if he’s not ready, that option is changed. . . . You’ve got to know if he’s in the equation or if he isn’t in the equation. It makes a difference. Is he a candidate or is he not a candidate?”

Such talk could indicate that Cook is the probable starter, though Donahue insisted that the decision had not been made and that none would be communicated to the quarterbacks before Monday, at the earliest, because of media pressure.

“We’re going to need them all,” Donahue said. “We’re going to need everybody on this squad, I swear to you.”

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Donahue said he hasn’t decided whether the Bruins will use two kickers, which they have done historically, or one. Competition between redshirt freshman Bjorn Merten and Jason Lesley, a freshman who kicks barefooted, has been close, with Merten holding a slight edge. But Donahue said he will wait until Wednesday before deciding whether to use one or both.