Olson Needs to Reverse Trend

Four games into UCLA’s football season and the jury is still out on sophomore quarterback Ben Olson, who will lead the Bruins against Arizona today at the Rose Bowl.

Since beginning the season by passing for 318 yards and three touchdowns without an interception against Utah in his first college start, Olson’s production has steadily declined. He threw for a season-low 124 yards the next week and has four interceptions and no touchdowns in the two games after that.

“I have to play better,” said Olson, 23, who because of a Mormon mission and a transfer had not started a game in nearly five years before this season. “I know that I can execute better. As an offense, we need to execute better as a whole.”

UCLA, 3-1 overall and 1-1 in Pacific 10 Conference play, does not have much time to get its offense going. After facing the Wildcats (2-3, 0-2) today, the Bruins have road games at ranked Oregon and Notre Dame.

Olson’s critics blame him for UCLA’s lack of scoring punch. Since defeating Utah, 31-10, the Bruins’ offense has only five touchdowns in three games.

“Defenses are throwing a lot of stuff at us just because of my inexperience,” said Olson, who is completing 63.3% of his passes. “I’d do the same thing if I was a defensive coordinator facing a rookie quarterback.”

Complaints about Olson are threefold: He stares at his intended receiver before throwing; he forces too many passes into tight coverage; and he doesn’t protect the ball when pressured.

Similar complaints were made against Olson’s predecessor, Drew Olson, when he started out in Coach Karl Dorrell’s West Coast offense.

“He’s taking his bumps and bruises as a young quarterback,” junior fullback Michael Pitre said. Pitre, who started in the backfield with Drew Olson for two years, said the Bruins have not lost faith in Ben Olson.

“His development is coming along and we’re all happy with where it’s at,” he said. “We’re 3-1, wishing we were 4-0, and we can see Ben is getting better.

“None of us will ever go out there and be perfect. It’s just that he’s the quarterback and everyone notices what he does.”

As a sophomore, Drew Olson had 10 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. But as a senior he had 34 touchdown throws with only six interceptions.

However, UCLA fans expected a quicker learning curve from Ben Olson, whom some recruiting observers considered the top quarterback prospect of his high school class.

Now, partly because of his age, he was expected to be a finished product on his way to the NFL instead of an untested player struggling through growing pains.

“He’s seen a lot of different looks over the first four ballgames and that’s frustrated him at times, which made everything kind of run together in his head, which is something we kind of expected to a certain extent,” said Jim Svoboda, UCLA’s offensive coordinator.

“In reality, nothing really replaces experience.... You can see growth and you can see understanding where things are starting to click for him. But it still has to manifest itself on the field.”

Against Arizona today, UCLA hopes to give Olson more opportunity to get in rhythm. In previous games, the Bruins got into a predictable, play-calling rut on first downs. And when they have passed, the calls have been conservative.

Throwing against Arizona can be difficult. The Wildcats have two of the Pac-10’s top cornerbacks, Antoine Cason and Wilrey Fontenot.

Olson, who got in for a few plays late in Arizona’s 52-14 rout over UCLA last year at Tucson, said he’s up for the challenge.

The Wildcats, he added, don’t do anything complicated to thwart the pass.

“The thing with them is that they play hard. They play physical and they play fast,” Olson said. “We have to go out there and make sure we play fast too, and execute. If we do that we’ll be fine.”

Svoboda, who worked as UCLA’s quarterbacks coach the previous two years before adding on coordinator duties this season, says Olson is ready for a breakout game.

“He just has to get to the point where he can say, ‘I’ve seen this, I’ve done this, now I just have to relax,’ ” Svoboda said. “I think every player goes through that. I know Drew Olson did.”

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lonnie.white@latimes.com