McCann’s Now in the Driver’s Seat

Coach Bob Toledo raised the possibility Monday that Ryan McCann’s battlefield promotion to starting quarterback for UCLA could become permanent if the Bruins continue to perform well, even though Cory Paus did nothing to lose the job beyond getting hurt.

“I would think that if we continue to win and we’re doing well, I may not make a change,” Toledo said. “If [McCann] struggles and we’re struggling, then it would be easier obviously. I think it depends on him and his performance in the next two to three weeks.”

That’s how long the Bruins expect Paus to be out because of the separated right (throwing) shoulder suffered Saturday against Alabama on the first play of the season. That confirms the initial prognosis that he will miss this week against Fresno State at the Rose Bowl, Sept. 16 against No. 3 Michigan at the Rose Bowl and Sept. 23 at Oregon for the Pacific 10 Conference opener, putting the target date for a return at Sept. 30 versus Arizona State in Pasadena.

“At that time, I’ll reevaluate it and I’ll see,” Toledo said. “A lot of things happen. Hopefully Ryan doesn’t get hurt. Too many things can happen. That’s too far down the road. I’ll just wait and see.

“Ryan needs to continue to improve. He needs to work on some accuracy, he’s got to complete some balls that are there and he needs to pull the trigger. He has a tendency to get sacked sometimes when guys are open because he wants them more open.

“He still has to learn some things. But we’ll continue to coach him hard. He’s really receptive to coaching, he’s a very coachable kid. He needs to continue to improve, and it’s going to be on-the-job training as well. But he does have an awful lot of potential and athletic ability. Sometimes he looks like a Heisman Trophy candidate and other times he struggles. But he’s making progress.”

And if Paus could play this week?

“I don’t have to answer that because it didn’t happen,” Toledo said. “Right now, Ryan McCann is the quarterback.”

The debate reemerged not only because of Paus’ injury, but because of what followed--a decisive victory over then-No. 3 Alabama as McCann completed 14 of 24 passes for 194 yards, including a 46-yard touchdown pass to Freddie Mitchell and an interception that was returned 91 yards for a score.

There also is the matter of what came before. McCann made a late charge last season and was pushing for consideration as the starter when Paus broke his left collarbone in the 10th game. That put McCann in the lineup for the finale against USC at the Coliseum. It was an opportunity, Toledo acknowledged then, for McCann to take a large step toward taking the job in 2000.

McCann, only five weeks removed from his collegiate debut as a redshirt freshman, was 17 for 29 for 204 yards with three interceptions and a six-yard touchdown run in the 17-7 Trojan victory. It didn’t settle anything.

Because Paus’ collarbone injury meant he was prohibited from contact work, neither did spring practice.

That meant the decision would come in fall camp, with coaches insistent they would pick a winner and devote the bulk of preparation time to him, unlike when Paus and Drew Bennett began 1999 sharing the job and used games to settle the matter. A week into workouts, the first scrimmage sealed Paus’ selection.

“Cory is going to be like a bad cold--he’s always going to be there,” McCann said. “I’ve just got to stay on top of my game.”

Paus, meanwhile, gets to deal with the third physical setback of his two-year college career, after the injured left shoulder that knocked him from the lineup in ’99 on the night of his first start, temporarily putting Bennett back in the opening lineup, and the broken collarbone near the end of the 4-7 campaign. Now comes another shoulder problem in the first series of the first game of the new season.

“It’s just another test for me,” Paus said. “I feel like a pansy, like I’m fragile. I don’t know.

“I don’t have any sense of ‘Here we go again.’ I’m just excited we won and got the season off to a good start, especially beating Alabama. . . . I want the team to be undefeated when I am healthy and ready to play. I don’t have any concerns after that.”

The injury also means the Bruins will go into the Fresno State game with only two quarterbacks.

The asterisk is that Bennett, who has since been moved to receiver, can be used in an emergency, although he probably won’t even practice at his former position this week.

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