THEIR CRAZY GLUE

The leader of weird was at it again.

UCLA quarterback Patrick Cowan, still hobbling from a torn ligament in his right knee, had to talk to the media last week. Journalism 101 questions about whether he would be fit enough to play against California this Saturday would certainly be asked.

Cowan made a leadership decision, bringing along three reserve linemen to consult with before he answered each question.

“Pat is just the leader of weird,” wide receiver Brandon Breazell said, smiling. “I mean, he goes to basketball games with a painted face.”

The Bruins hope to add that weirdness to the lineup against the Golden Bears.

Starter Ben Olson is out because of a knee injury, so Cowan, who sat out the last two games because of that partially torn ligament, rejoins practice today hoping to limp to the rescue.

“If everything goes as planned, we will use him as our starter,” Coach Karl Dorrell said.

If so, this will be the latest turn in a red-hot quarterback controversy that never seems to simmer.

Olson has the skill and physical stature that call for him to be the No. 1 quarterback. But Cowan has a blue-collar bond with his teammates, and that, combined with his improvisational style on the field, makes him more than a clipboard-toting caddie.

It’s a tough call among teammates.

“Ben is more like a get-straight-to-it guy, ‘Let’s get it done, like right now,’ ” Breazell said. “He’s stricter about the situation. Pat is looser in the huddle. He’ll laugh or whatever.”

Whatever?

“Pat’s a weird guy,” Breazell said.

Sometimes weird is just weird.

Cowan came off the bench against Arizona in the fifth game of 2006, when Olson suffered a knee injury that ended his season. Immediately, his teammates felt a difference.

“He went into the huddle and he was laughing,” guard Shannon Tevaga said. “He said, ‘Man, this is my favorite play; this is a touchdown.’ He was going, ‘Touchdown, touchdown.’ ”

The play did not go for a touchdown.

“I came back to the huddle laughing, said, ‘A touchdown, huh?’ ” Tevaga recalled. “He just laughed. That’s Pat.”

It certainly isn’t Ben, but then there has always been a lot to compare and contrast between the two.

“I know that goes on, but we’ve stayed away from thinking that way because nothing positive comes from it,” Cowan said of Olson and him. “Trying to look at what one does and the other doesn’t, there is no purpose for it.”

Still, some differences are apparent.

Olson is 24 and married. Cowan is 21 and not.

Olson was among the nation’s top recruits at Thousand Oaks High. Cowan threw five touchdown passes his entire senior season at Bellflower St. John Bosco.

Olson won the head-to-head quarterback competitions, before the 2006 season and during 2007 spring practice. That left Cowan to come on in times of crisis. His latest cavalry charge came against Washington on Sept. 22, when Olson was out because of a concussion. Cowan, back from a torn hamstring that had sidelined him for a month, did what he does best: wing it.

Twice Cowan scrambled for first downs in third-down situations to keep a drive alive in the third quarter. On another third down, he was grabbed from behind but flipped the ball to Breazell for a first down at the Huskies’ eight-yard line. Soon after, the Bruins scored to break a 10-10 tie on their way to a 44-31 victory.

“The team rallies around him,” cornerback Trey Brown said. “He gets us fired up. He makes a big play, and he might get hit, but he pops right back up. The offense feeds off that.”

Sometimes weird works.

Two years ago, before they met in direct competition for the starting job, Olson and Cowan were walking off a muddy practice field as Bruins linemen were doing belly slides through a puddle.

Olson walked past all the boys-will-be-boys playfulness. Cowan dropped his helmet and slid right in.

“He said, ‘Forget it, I’m going to get in there too,’ ” Brown said. “That’s what I’m saying, he brings that emotion and excitement to the team.”

Others might call it being a big kid. After all, this is a guy who not only paints his face to attend basketball games, he does it for women’s volleyball games and, in years past, gymnastics meets.

“I’m enjoying college, and I’m trying to be a regular student,” Cowan said, smirking a bit.

However, that look-at-me side of him seems to evaporate when he’s not around teammates or friends. He desperately seeks shade from the spotlight, but it found him at the end of the 2006 season anyway, when he led UCLA to a 13-9 victory over USC, scrambling for 29 and 16 yards during the Bruins’ only touchdown drive, then scoring on a one-yard run.

“He’s a guy who plays with his heart, and it shows,” Breazell said.

No one on the Bruins would dare admit a preference at quarterback, but even Dorrell can see that Cowan fits in with the crowd.

The coach summed up his quarterbacks’ leadership differences by saying, “Pat, he’s one of the guys. He’s very much involved with everyone on the football team.

“Ben is just in a different place where he’s much more further along, because of his age, and he’s married.”

Other differences are more visual.

Olson suffered a knee injury against Notre Dame on Oct. 6, a major factor in the 20-6 loss. With Cowan unavailable because of his own injury, UCLA called on McLeod Bethel-Thompson, a non-scholarship player, who was overwhelmed.

Yet, there was Cowan guiding Bethel-Thompson through the postgame trauma, while Olson declined to talk to reporters a few feet away.

That, though, was not about football or leadership, Cowan said.

“It was because he is my teammate and he’s like my little brother,” Cowan said. “It’s more than football. You help your friends out no matter what in tough times.”

Said offensive line leader Tevaga: “They are both good leaders, one is just funnier. Pat’s a funny guy. Like, he won’t touch a football when he’s out injured. I tried to throw one to him one day, and he dodged it.”

Said Cowan: “You can’t be too uptight. Sometimes you have to take it back to the basics, like running around and playing catch or sliding in the mud.”

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chris.foster@latimes.com

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SATURDAY’S GAME

UCLA vs. No. 10 California

12:30 p.m., Rose Bowl, Channel 7