Olson has Arizona State offense moving

SAN DIEGO - During his second year as Cardinals offensive coordinator, Rich Olson walked into his office at the team’s Tempe training complex and found his voice-mail message light on.

After Olson picked up the phone, the first words he heard were, “We’ll move you anywhere!” The recorded advertisement for a moving company was evidently not sent to him randomly.

“It’s part of the job,” said Olson, who needed such services after that season, 2002, as Arizona lost nine of its last 10 games, and he was fired.

Five years later, Olson returned to the Valley again as an offensive coordinator, but with much more success this time — at Arizona State.

His unit ranks second in the Pac-10 in scoring offense (32.2 points a game) and — from running between the tackles to downfield passing — presents an array of challenges for Texas in the Holiday Bowl on Thursday.

“He’s done a great job,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “He and I think a lot alike, and that’s why I hired him. The thing that we’ve been able to do is look at your talent, where your strengths and weaknesses are, and build around that. He knows talent and how to use it.”

The Sun Devils’ offense is averaging 259.1 yards passing, 61.5 yards more than a year ago. Save for the Southern California game, ASU has had success in the rushing game despite losing star tailback Ryan Torain to a foot injury in October.

However, Olson has still been subjected to fan criticism, particularly for the school-record 51 sacks allowed. However, he said that problem is not solely due to schematics.

“You have to keep people in to protect the quarterback, and we began doing that,” Olson said. “Some of those things are on us (the coaches), but we’ve had breakdowns, too — a back didn’t pick up a rusher, or we didn’t throw it away in time. A lot of those on the players.”

Olson, 59, spent the first two decades of his coaching career in college, including working under Erickson at Miami (Fla.) from 1992-94. He followed Erickson to the Seattle Seahawks from 1995-98 and remained in the NFL until returning to Miami last season.

When Erickson was hired at ASU in December. Olson followed. He shares the Erickson philosophy of keeping things as simple as possible.

“Coach Olson is a good coach,” quarterback Rudy Carpenter said. “He’s an interesting guy in how he deals with us. He has a lot of suggestions, but gives us a lot of room to figure things out for ourselves, as far as technique and mechanics. I like him a lot.”

Former ASU coach Dirk Koetter, who served as his own offensive coordinator, utilized a complex system that Carpenter has said amounted to “a different game plan every week.”

The new playbook is more streamlined, with a group of plays, with subtle adjustments, out of Erickson’s base three-receiver set.

When the quarterback drops to throw, he has, depending on the coverage, a combination of reads to his left and right. As a result, he does not have to read the entire field.

“We run the same plays. We don’t change a lot,” Olson said. “I think people would say about us that we are a simple team, but we are good at what we do. It has made us successful, so there is no need to change.”

Does Olson consider the Sun Devils’ success on offense this year redemption for his Cardinals stint ending in disappointment?

Not really, as Olson was going to return to the Valley, one way or another.

“My wife (Cindy) and I plan on coming back here to retire anyway,” Olson said. “I was fortunate that Coach Erickson was hired at ASU, and besides, it’s about the kids. They’ve bought in what we’ve tried to give them. …

“It’s great when you look back at where we were in training camp and spring practice, how much we’ve improved.”