Olson will start again when physically ready

The good news for Ben Olson: He will be UCLA’s starting quarterback again.

The bad news: It’s still anyone’s guess as to when.

The only thing certain is that the redshirt sophomore will be on the sideline again Saturday evening when the Bruins take the field on offense for the first time against Arizona State.

Sophomore Patrick Cowan, who guided UCLA to its first victory with him as the starter last week against Oregon State, will make his fifth consecutive start when the Bruins play the Sun Devils in Tempe, Ariz.

Coach Karl Dorrell said Monday he didn’t want to put Olson in a situation where he might suffer a setback in his return from the knee injury he suffered Oct. 7 against Arizona.

Dorrell said Olson still was experiencing limited range of motion in the knee and felt stiff and sore in practice last week.

“I know he wants to [play], but we have to make sure mentally and physically that he’s ready, and that’s a decision that I will make,” Dorrell said. “I want to play him when he’s good and ready to play.”

Olson was not made available for comment. He was in uniform as the emergency backup against the Beavers but did not play. Olson will be assessed in practice this week, Dorrell said, “to see if he’s ready for any duty” against the Sun Devils.

Dorrell said Olson would be the starter again at some point, though it was unclear if he meant this season. UCLA’s only remaining regular-season game after Saturday is against USC on Dec. 2.

“He wants to play and get back in it and build the confidence back,” Dorrell said. “What’s going to help build the confidence back is him practicing and being more confident with his ability.

“He still doesn’t quite feel he has the mobility yet, and that takes some time with an injury like that.”

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Junior cornerback Trey Brown attributed UCLA’s strong defensive effort against Oregon State to getting back “to doing what we do. We got back to big plays.”

The Bruins forced four fumbles and limited the Beavers to 260 yards.

“We’re sick of losing and guys are fed up with having that feeling coming in after a loss and really wanted to get back on track, especially defensively,” Brown said. “We felt like we hadn’t played our best games in weeks prior. We wanted to get our confidence and our swagger back.”

Dorrell said the defense limited Oregon State to 29 yards after contact, which he called a big improvement over previous weeks.

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The Bruins were penalized 13 times for 155 yards against Oregon State and Dorrell essentially criticized the officiating crew while saying he wouldn’t. “I’m not going to publicly criticize the officiating in the game, but it was not characteristic of what I’ve seen before and that’s something that we’ll have to address at some later time,” Dorrell said. “There were some penalties that were warranted, for sure, but there were some that were not.” ... Dorrell said junior linebacker Aaron Whittington, who injured his right ankle against Notre Dame on Oct. 21 and was dressed to play against Oregon State “on an emergency basis,” could play Saturday....Sophomore tailback Kahlil Bell, sidelined since suffering an ankle injury against Notre Dame, returned to practice last week but remains questionable for Saturday.

ben.bolch@latimes.com