Football Supplement | Olson's junior play might be the needed spark

A coach brings in Kyle Olson to inject life into a suspect passing game.

That may not sound familiar to Penn fans, but it's old news to Tim Byrnes, head coach at Fullerton Junior College. Olson first donned the blue and white for the Hornets in August 2006. Devoid of an aerial attack, they had sputtered to the finish line the previous year.

"We were too one-dimensional," Byrnes said then, reflecting on the run-happy pre-Olson era. "We knew that as coaches. We were just hoping no one else figured it out."

Olson's presence changed things quickly. Last year, as a sophomore, he threw 17 touchdowns, completed 57.9 percent of his passes and led the Hornets to a 7-3 record and a win in the Orange County Bowl.

If Penn coach Al Bagnoli's offense is in Fullerton territory, he's not letting on. But given incumbent Robert Irvin's balky shoulder and the inexperience of Penn's other quarterbacks, the coach knows Olson may have a vital role to play this year.

Unconvinced by the throwing options he had at hand, Bagnoli made a specific effort last year to recruit a junior college quarterback.

"We wanted someone with preferably game experience playing last season," he said. "That's why we went the JC route. We wanted to get a kid that played at a high level, that actually has 20 games under his belt."

What's more, Olson says, his Fullerton time - which included flowing, California-style hair and a game cancelled due to air pollution from wildfires - was crafted in preparation for his Penn one.

"Their job as coaches and us as a team at Fullerton is to get to the next level, which is here," he said. "You definitely try to win games, but their goal is to get people out, and that's what they've done."

But while preparation and experience are helpful, neither can guarantee success - or, for that matter, playing time.

Penn is keeping the latter issue close to the vest. Bagnoli, Irvin and Olson eluded questions about the quarterback situation on Tuesday, although the coach let slip that it had "resolved itself." He would not explicitly rule out the possibility of split duties, and both were getting reps at practice this week.

Bagnoli toyed with a split last year with Irvin and Bryan Walker, who had complementary skills: Walker had mobility that Irvin, a more traditional quarterback, seemed to lack. But this year's players have similar strengths, complicating the picture. Olson, like Irvin, is a good athlete with a deliberate release and a strong arm. Coaches have been concerned about Olson's inaccuracy - during last week's scrimmage against Widener, for example - but Bagnoli tapped him early as the front-runner to be the insurance policy over junior Brendan McNally and others.

Last year's most accomplished quarterbacks from the Mission Conference, Olson's old stomping grounds, have seen mixed results. David Pittman (Pasadena) is riding the bench at Minnesota, Kevin Craft (Mt. San Antonio) has one touchdown and five interceptions for UCLA and Boo Jackson (El Camino) has been mediocre for Ohio University.

Olson was not as sought after as those three - his offer from UCLA was of the walk-on variety. Nonetheless, he believes he is ready for Division I football in whatever quantity it comes his way.

"Our practices [at Fullerton] are very similar to this, I just don't know what the game's going to be like," he said. "But I'm ready for everything they throw at me."

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