Drew Not Focusing on Peterson

The way Maurice Drew sees it, the challenge he faces Saturday does not involve measuring himself against All-American tailback Adrian Peterson but rather against the vaunted Oklahoma defense.

“They haven’t allowed three touchdowns in a game yet,” said Drew, the UCLA tailback who scored three touchdowns against San Diego State and two against Rice. “It’s going to be a great challenge to go out there and try to put up points against them.”

The Bruins’ regionally televised game at the Rose Bowl against the No. 21 Sooners could provide a showcase for Drew, who is averaging 104.5 yards rushing and has returned two punts for touchdowns.

Of course, Drew would rather help his team improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2001 than enhance his standing in the Heisman Trophy race.

“He’s not looking at it as, ‘Well, I’ve got to match the numbers of Adrian Peterson,’ ” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said. “He’s looking at it just for a chance for us to win. We’re just trying to win a football game, and he wants to do whatever it takes to do that, whether that’s carrying the ball 20 times or carrying it nine times and catching five passes.”

While acknowledging that it would be exciting to play on the same field as Peterson, the 2004 Heisman runner-up, Drew emphasized that “I’m not going against Adrian Peterson. That’s the defense’s job to shut him down. My job is to go out there and pick up blitzes and for Drew [Olson] to throw the ball downfield and run the ball. Hopefully, we’ll go out there and get a victory.”

Drew’s teammates are eager to see what he can accomplish against a defense that is giving up 16 points a game.

“It’s exciting to see what he can do and how this o-line is going to attack this pretty good defensive front,” senior center Mike McCloskey said. “We just want to take Oklahoma on the same way we have our other games.”

Drew will be playing one week after the death of his grandfather, Maurice Jones, who suffered a heart attack last Saturday at the Rose Bowl. Drew will honor his grandfather by having Jones-Drew stitched across the back of his jersey.

Drew said he was prepared for the worst because his grandfather, who died at 69, had suffered two previous heart attacks.

“I kind of knew it was coming,” Drew said. “He’d say like, ‘I’m feeling OK today.’ He went from feeling ‘good’ to ‘OK’ to ‘all right.’ Then you could tell, because he couldn’t walk as far. You knew it was coming sooner or later.”

Jones’ funeral is scheduled for Wednesday morning in Richmond, Calif.

“I don’t really think about it when I’m out here on the field because you have to have your mind concentrating on football,” Drew said. “I’m good to go. I have a lot of support. I’ll be all right.”

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While acknowledging that quarterback Ben Olson continued to progress from the broken hand that has sidelined him the last three weeks, Dorrell said he would need to see more improvement before allowing the redshirt freshman to play against Oklahoma. “Right now, if I made that decision today, it would be no,” Dorrell said. “He’s missed three weeks of practice. Can he get back three weeks of practice in one day or two days? That’s tough to do.” ... Officials expect a crowd as large as 60,000 for Saturday’s game.