Baby Steps for Bruin QB

When you are an injury-prone quarterback coming up on your last season, you look for anything positive at this point. And when you are UCLA's new coaching staff, a group that suffered through losing both top quarterbacks on consecutive plays during the final spring practice, hope can be a fleeting thought that comes and goes. But finally, some good news out of Bruin-land, as UCLA's Ben Olson has officially started down the comeback trail.

Olson broke his foot in the spring, literally one play after incumbent starter Patrick Cowan blew out his ACL and was lost for the 2008 season. After surgery to insert a screw in Olson's foot and a couple of months of rehab, Olson appears to be making some progress, as he was cleared for practice late last week. Olson started some incremental treadmill training, running for two-minute segments while walking for one minute in-between.

"It's a huge relief," Olson said. "Any time you get hurt, you never know how long it will take. You question if you will ever be back. It's nice to feel that it's progressing and we're moving forward."

While Olson is relieved, the coaching staff led by Norm Chow has to be breathing a lot easier. The pickings behind Olson are slim, with San Diego State transfer Kevin Craft currently slated as the backup and redshirt frosh Chris Forcier still without a collegiate pass attempt. And, while a couple of minutes jogging on the treadmill are a little different than, say, trying to get out of the way of an oncoming pass-rush with only a couple of experienced linemen to protect you, well, still, baby steps are better than no steps at all.