Ogden Is a Quarterback’s Best Friend : College football: At 6-8 and 305 pounds, the UCLA tackle gives Cook maximum protection. But losing still is no fun.

Compassion? Understanding? Sympathy?

Forget it.

When Jonathan Ogden calls home to Washington, D.C., he gets a reminder.

“My dad will say, ‘You could be playing at Florida,’ ” Ogden said. “It was my second choice, but it was too hot and humid there.”

Or Notre Dame--”Too cold.” Or Virginia--”Too close.” All offered scholarships.

Instead, Ogden is at UCLA, spending his Sundays trying to forget the Saturdays. His play stands out like a beacon, and not only because he’s 6 feet 8. Only one defender Ogden has blocked has touched a quarterback, and that was well after Wayne Cook had thrown a pass against Tennessee. But there is a four-game losing streak.

No sacks. No pressures. But no victories.

And his run blocking has been pretty good too.

“If you had five Jonathan Ogdens, you’d have no problems,” Coach Terry Donahue said.

Instead, there is only one Ogden, and the Bruins have plenty of problems. The losses have become hard to take.

“I came here to win,” Ogden said. “There’s a little bit of satisfaction in playing well, but not that much. Nobody pays any attention to what I do as a lineman. When the team does well, it means everybody is doing well, so that’s what I want.”

He isn’t getting it, which makes the time between defeats difficult.

“I just try to put (losing) behind me and look forward to next week,” he said. “It’s not easy, though. It’s getting real hard now. I got up, watched pro football all day (Sunday) and didn’t even think about our game.

For the last three weeks, Donahue said Monday, the offense has been counterproductive, giving up 16 points on a safety and two interceptions against California; 10 points on an interception return for a touchdown and a field goal after a turnover at Washington, and a touchdown after a pass interception against Washington State.

The problems are all over the place, Cook said. Except maybe at left tackle, where Ogden’s junior season has been his best.

“We’ll kid him and say, ‘Hey, Jon, has your guy made a tackle yet?’ ” Cook said. “And he’ll say, ‘Well, uh, I don’t know.’ ”

The answer is, usually not. Of more personal importance, though, Ogden has become something of a refuge for Cook, who only learned how much his sense of self-preservation depended on his left tackle by watching film of the game against Washington.

That game followed one in which Cook was sacked seven times, none of the defenders having come through Ogden.

“When I looked at the film of the Washington game the next week and found I was moving away from pressure that really wasn’t there, I was actually moving toward Ogden,” Cook said. “I don’t think I was consciously doing it, but unconsciously I guess that’s where I sensed it was safe. Of course, it’s tough to throw over him.”

That barrier Cook has to throw over is part of the reason for Ogden’s success. He became a starter in the seventh game of his freshman season, played all last season and has lined up for every play through UCLA’s first six games.

At 305 pounds, Ogden has little speed, but he has the quickness to handle the linebackers that Pacific 10 schools generally line up at defensive end.

“That quickness allows him to do something not many linemen can do,” said Mike Sherman, UCLA’s offensive line coach. “He can make a mistake on a guy and still recover in time to block him. Usually you only get one chance.”

While others muse about playing pro football, Ogden accepts that he will make a living at the game, barring injury.

“Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to play in the NFL,” he said. “When I look at games on TV, I always look at tackles and say, ‘I can do that.’ I see people who don’t have any more talent than me, at least in my eyes, and I say, ‘If they can do it, I can do it.’ ”

Agents and their recruiters call, an annoyance during a losing streak. He has no car, they remind him. Come on out for the draft a year early, and he could have any car he wants from an NFL contract.

If losing at UCLA gets him down, there is sanctuary in track and field.

Ogden is a shotputter and he loses himself in the sport.

“In track, you really don’t have to depend on anybody else to have a good meet,” he said. “In football, you can have a good game and the team can still lose.”

Besides, graduation is expected. His mother, Cassandra Sneed, has a law degree. His father, Shirrel Ogden, has one in business administration.

“I’ve told my parents I would stay here,” Ogden said. “Unless something drastic changes, I’m still going to be here. That’s something drastic like somebody calls me and says, ‘We want you in the first round, as our top pick. Would you think about coming out?’ I don’t want to come out as a second- or third-round pick.”

He will test the draft after the season, using a form letter devised by the American Football Coaches Assn. to an NFL committee that will tell him his status within broad parameters.

“Sometimes I joke that I could be with No. 1 in the country at Florida, but I’d rather be here,” Ogden said. “College is not all football. If it was all football, I don’t think I would be here. I’d probably be at Notre Dame if that’s all I cared about.”