UCLA might call Rasshan’s number

Osaar Rasshan was warming up. The need for him, or something, was apparent, as UCLA was quarterback-needy against Notre Dame on Saturday night.

Ben Olson was knocked out of the game because of a knee injury. Patrick Cowan, his backup, was still weeks away from returning from his knee injury. Walk-on McLeod Bethel-Thompson was earning an A for effort for trying to fill that breach. But everything else was graded as an incomplete . . . or interception.

Rasshan was ready. Coach Karl Dorrell wasn’t. The Bruins offense, he said, could not call that audible.

Rasshan was recruited as a quarterback and trained two seasons to be a UCLA quarterback before moving to wide receiver over the summer. Yet, when the offense failed to re-boot under Bethel-Thompson during Saturday’s 20-6 loss to previously winless Notre Dame, Rasshan was considered user unfriendly for reasons beyond his control.

“It wasn’t an option,” Dorrell said in a conference call Sunday night. “He hasn’t had any reps in quite some time at quarterback.”

The question some might ask is, “Why?”

The Bruins’ top two quarterbacks have not been healthy in the same game this season. Olson missed one game because of a concussion and Cowan missed the first three because of a partially torn hamstring and the last two because of a partially torn knee ligament. Yet, the Bruins seemed unprepared for disaster, with Bethel-Thompson and freshman Chris Forcier, who they hope to redshirt, as the only backups to Olson on Saturday night.

Dorrell had considered resorting to the Rasshan option going into the season opener at Stanford, when Cowan was out because of a hamstring injury. Dorrell said they had a “package” ready for Rasshan in case of emergency. When an emergency came Saturday, the expiration date on that package had passed.

“We haven’t practiced that package since the early portion of the season,” Dorrell said. “We thought the injuries our quarterbacks had were not long term. We thought that Pat would be back soon. . . . We felt in pretty good shape.”

They weren’t. Bethel-Thompson showed he was not nearly ready, with four passes intercepted.

Rasshan’s immense athletic abilities seem suited for a basic spread formation -- he had 1,716 yards passing and 860 yards rushing as a senior at Pomona Garey High. Against a slowish Irish defense, such a formation in his hands might have succeeded. It almost certainly wouldn’t have resulted in the interceptions Bethel-Thompson put on his resume Saturday.

Other teams have used such a limited offense to take advantage of multi-dimensional quarterbacks. Florida spotted Tim Tebow effectively in its national championship run last season. The Bruins had seen it up close, when Utah used freshman Corbin Louks in opportune situations during the Utes’ 44-6 win Sept. 15.

“With what we had going, how the offense continued to progress, we felt pretty good,” Dorrell said. “We felt the injury Pat had wasn’t long term. We wanted to continue Osaar’s development at receiver.”

Rasshan shifted from quarterback this summer after being unable to make headway on the Bruins’ depth chart. But his career as a receiver hasn’t exactly soared. Rasshan missed time before the season because of a concussion and Dorrell has seemed reluctant to use him since.

This week, though, he is apt to get a refresher course at quarterback.

Olson’s injury is still being called a sprain, although he was expected to undergo an MRI exam today. Cowan, Dorrell said, “is not quite healthy.” The Bruins have two weeks before playing No. 2 California to come up with an answer.

Now, Dorrell said, “we’ll have the opportunity to look at a couple other guys, Chris Forcier and Osaar.”

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chris.foster@latimes.com