Moore Is Back, but Olson Will Still Start

That UCLA quarterback controversy, put on hold by Matt Moore’s knee injury in a season-opening loss to Colorado, will have to wait for at least another week.

Coach Karl Dorrell said Monday that he was preparing for Saturday’s game against Washington “with the approach that Drew Olson will start,” adding that Moore, who’d won the job in fall camp, would be “weaned” back into the lineup.

Though Dorrell said he hadn’t based his decision on Olson’s performance in Saturday night’s 20-10 win over San Diego State -- the sophomore completed 18 of 28 passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns -- Olson’s most productive game as a college quarterback certainly enhanced his standing in the eyes of UCLA coaches.

Dorrell also seems reluctant to throw Moore against the 18th-ranked Huskies, considering Moore has been out for a month and would have only three practices to gain the timing required to run the Bruins’ precision-oriented West Coast offense.

“Matt has been cleared to practice, but he won’t take a snap until [today], so I don’t know how far away he is, from a game-speed standpoint,” Dorrell said. “Once he’s close to 100%, he will be weaned into the game.”

After Moore was hurt, Dorrell said, “In general, I don’t think a guy loses his job because of injury.”

But he added at the time that if Olson were in a good rhythm, it would be difficult to pull him.

Olson came on strong in the second half Saturday, completing seven of 10 passes for 146 yards, “but this was going to be our way of bringing [Moore] back, regardless of what Drew did,” Dorrell said. “I don’t think Matt could start. He’s missed a lot of time. We want to make sure we get him ready.”

As of Monday afternoon, Olson, who also lost three fumbles against the Aztecs, had not been told he was starting, but the sophomore was fully expecting to retain his job, at least for this week.

“I feel real comfortable with the offense,” Olson said. “I feel good about the way I played. Those fumbles need to be cleaned up. I can’t have that happen this week. But I feel I made progress, and the offense is getting better.”

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Dorrell said tailback Tyler Ebell’s surprising lack of playing time was an “oversight” on his part and vowed to use the frustrated sophomore more this week.

Ebell, who rushed for 994 yards last season, had three carries against San Diego State -- none in the second half -- and has 38 carries for 137 yards this season. Freshman Maurice Drew got seven carries in the second half.

“We got caught up in our inability to run the ball, so we started throwing more,” Dorrell said. “Then we used Manuel White because he’s bigger and can handle the blitz better. That’s my fault. I didn’t see it at the time that [Ebell] wasn’t getting enough opportunities. We felt from a protection standpoint, we needed bigger guys in there. Tyler should have had more reps than that.”

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UCLA defensive tackle Rodney Leisle was suspended for the first half of the Washington game for punching a San Diego State player in the stomach late in Saturday night’s game.

Asked to gauge the impact of Leisle’s loss, Washington Coach Keith Gilbertson said:

“Hopefully, he punched the guy twice.... He’s a fine football player -- he really dominated us two years ago -- but they have a group of outstanding linemen and some excellent backups.”

Leisle said he threw the punch in retaliation, but Dorrell didn’t accept that excuse. “That type of behavior is not representative of what we want in the program,” Dorrell said.

“I want to play good, hard-nosed football without anything extra,” he said. “Rodney understands that, and hopefully he’ll learn from it.”

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Offensive coordinator Steve Axman, a former Arizona assistant and Northern Arizona head coach, was one of about a dozen candidates named as a possible successor to John Mackovic, who was fired by Arizona on Sunday.... UCLA’s game at Arizona on Oct. 11 will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised by Fox Sports Net.... Asi Faoa probably will start in Leisle’s place Saturday, with C.J. Niusulu and Kevin Brown likely to play tackle, as well.