Paus Blindsided by Season Gone Awry

Cory Paus was realistic enough to know it would not be a seamless transition at quarterback for UCLA, from veteran Cade McNown to a redshirt freshman with only practice experience, but he also had higher expectations than this.

“I was hoping we’d lose just a little beat, but that obviously was not the case,” he said. “I envisioned having a successful year and was confident. Things just didn’t work out like that, so far.”

Perhaps he was being overly optimistic.

“Maybe,” Paus said.

Perhaps he was being plain unrealistic.

“Maybe.”

It has been a difficult learning curve, definitely. He gets a chance to regroup during the bye week after having failed to complete 50% of his passes in three consecutive games and after Coach Bob Toledo raised the possibility that Paus will have to win the starting job again in the spring.

“I thought it was going to be a little easier from the beginning,” Paus said. “It’s been a little bit harder than I thought it was going to be. It just was a little different.

“What have I been pleased with? I don’t know. Nothing really. I can’t really say I’ve been pleased with anything. There are times I’ve been pleased. But there’s too many times I’ve been unpleased.”

Paus thought it would take three games to get up to speed, part of which included the two games of platooning with Drew Bennett before Toledo decided on No. 1. It looked that way for a while too.

He looked good in the opener, completing 12 of 18 passes against Boise State in his college debut. The numbers were not impressive the next week at Ohio State--eight for 20, 97 yards--but coaches were convinced enough about his superior arm strength versus Bennett’s experience that they named Paus the starter. Paus, in his first start, began the Fresno State game by completing nine of his first 12 passes for 113 yards.

That’s when everything changed. A hit by Fresno State’s Frank Battle early in the second quarter sent Paus to the sideline for the rest of that night and another game, Sept. 25 at Stanford, because of bruised chest muscles. When he did play again, soreness in his upper body hampered his throwing motion.

He completed only 15 of 40 passes that day at Arizona State, but this was hardly a downward spiral. A week later, against Oregon at the Rose Bowl, Paus threw for 332 yards, tied for third highest by a UCLA freshman, and completed 21 of 34 passes. Then came the last three games, a disaster for the entire offense and at the least a setback for their leader.

He accepted more than his share of the blame--as coaches, family and friends reminded him how taking the world on his shoulders can affect a throwing motion--but was on the hook for a bundle.

By holding on to the ball too long, he was faulted for three of the seven sacks against Oregon State that officially went to the offensive line.

By waiting for his targets to be perfectly open instead of just open, he contributed to the muting of Bruin receivers.

“That’s it. Decision making,” Paus said. “Knowing when to throw the ball and knowing when not to. Knowing when the guy’s open and when he’s not. It’s been a little bit harder to see than I had thought it would be. But it’s getting better.”

It hasn’t helped that the Bruins have imploded around him, adding to the scrutiny as they have been unable to scrape out more than one win in the five games since his return from the injury. He has been part of more losses this season alone than all three years while going 34-4 as the starter at Lincoln Way High in New Lenox, Ill. Not merely learning what it’s like to play quarterback in college, he’s learning what it’s like to lose.

“The impact of failure seems so much more excruciating when you’re doing it at UCLA as opposed to when you’re doing it at Lincoln Way High School, even though they didn’t do it much,” said Al Borges, the Bruin quarterback coach and offensive coordinator. “He’s lost before, whether it was in basketball or football. He’s experienced it before. But the impact of it here is just so much more difficult, hence you put so much more on yourself to try and pull yourself and the team out of the doldrums, knowing that your position can influence the outcome of the game so greatly. I think he feels a lot of that. But that’s part of growing up in the position.

“Before the season started, he knew he was pretty good. Now, he thinks he’s pretty good and there’s a little bit of doubt. There hasn’t been enough reinforcement back to solidify his thinking the way it was earlier in the season, if that makes any sense to you.”

Perfect sense: He never saw this coming.

“It’s been hard,” Borges said. “He suffers from inexperience himself and he’s surrounded by some players that aren’t experienced, and we’ve had a lot of injuries to add to that. So we’ve put, probably, too much pressure on him. We’ve gotten behind in some games, and then you put a lot of heat on your quarterback because generally you’ve got to throw to get back. It’s not fair to a kid that’s in his first year as a starter and is just a freshman and is still being weaned on the offense.”

As if fair ever entered the equation. That much, at least, he knew ahead of time.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Paus Factor

UCLA quarterback Cory Paus’ game-by-game statistics:

*--*

Opponent Comp Att Yards TD Int Result Boise State-x 12 18 128 1 2 W, 38-7 Ohio State-x 8 20 97 0 1 L, 42-20 Fresno State-y 9 12 113 1 0 W, 35-21

*--*

Stanford z-DNP L, 42-32

*--*

Arizona State 15 40 235 1 2 L, 28-27 Oregon 21 34 332 2 2 W, 34-29 California 9 28 81 0 1 L, 17-0 Oregon State 7 15 95 1 1 L, 55-7 Arizona 13 27 230 1 0 L, 33-7

*--*

x--Reserve; y--Left in second quarter with injury; z-Did not play, injured.