Bigger, Foster, Stronger

FOSTER’S PLACE IN THE RECORD BOOKS Senior
running back DeShaun Foster is the backbone of the UCLA offencs
this year. If the Bruins expect a successful season, Foster needs
to carry them there. UCLA Career Rushing Leaders
  Years Carries Total Yards Avg 1. Gaston Green 1984-87 708
3884 5.27 2. Freeman McNeil 1977-80 605 3297 5.28 3. Karim
Abdul-Jabbar 1992-95 608 3341 5.23 4. Wendel Tyler 1973-76 527 3240
6.04 5. Skip Hicks 1993-94, 96-97 638 3373 4.92   11.
DeShaun Foster 1998- 506 2258 4.12 UCLA All-Time
Touchdown List   TD Pts 1. Skip Hicks, 1993-97 55 330
2. Gaston Green, 1984-87 40 248 3. Gary Beban 1965-67 35 214
DeShaun Foster, 1998- 31 188 SOURCE: UCLA
Sports Information Original graphic by TIMOTHY NGO/Daily Bruin
Senior Staff Web adaptation by CHRISTINE TAN/Daily Bruin Senior
Staff

  KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff

By Joshua Mason
Daily Bruin Staff

The one certainty about college football is that a season can
change for better or worse at the drop of a hat.

Just ask DeShaun Foster.

Three games into last season, he was a leading Heisman Trophy
candidate after rushing for 422 yards and scoring six touchdowns in
front of national television audiences. His 42-carry, 180-yard
performance against then-No. 3 Alabama forced talk in Westwood to
suddenly center on hopes for a Bowl Championship Series berth
““ not to mention Foster striking that infamous Heisman
pose.

But it all came crashing down for Foster and the Bruins when he
sustained a fractured third metacarpal bone in his right hand
during the team’s fifth game of the season against Arizona
State. It was Foster’s third significant injury in three
years, one that would weigh heavily on the team’s mediocre
6-6 season finish, and Foster’s ultimate decision to return
to UCLA for his senior year.

Ground Production If the Bruins hope to compete
for a BCS berth, they’ll need Foster to be at full strength for the
entire season. SOURCE: UCLA Sports info Original graphic by VICTOR
CHEN/Daily Bruin Web adaptation by REX LORENZO/Daily Bruin

“I know there are a lot of people out there that think
I’m injury prone, so I want to finish this season for
real,” Foster said. “I know what I can do out there,
and I know that people around here know what I can do.”

Foster has always been a no-nonsense type of player, but there
has been a change in the senior running back of late. Whether you
call it maturity or a sense of urgency, Foster has pushed himself
over the summer to increase both his size and his quickness.

In addition to the normal team workouts over the summer, Foster
worked out with teammates Brian Poli-Dixon, Bryan Fletcher and
Stephen Sua three to four times a week to improve his already
daunting breakaway speed.

“DeShaun knows that it’s his last year, and he has
been really dedicated with his training,” said sophomore Akil
Harris, Foster’s backup and roommate this summer. “I
saw a different mental approach to his summer and the coming
season. He knows that this is it and is preparing to do what he has
to do to go to the next level.”

In 1998, it was a sprained knee that limited his action as a
freshman. In 1999, a high sprain of his right ankle hindered Foster
for most of the season. And last season, despite finishing with an
impressive 1,115 yards rushing and being named a first-team All
Pac-10 selection, it was the broken hand that kept Foster from
achieving much loftier goals.

Despite only missing two games, Foster was limited the entire
second half of the season because he was forced to wear a soft cast
on his right hand. The cast cost him the ability to carry the ball
in his right arm, catch the ball effectively and flaunt the
patented straight-arm moves Foster had been using since he was a
kid.

“The straight-arm is such an important aspect of my
game,” Foster said. “When I’m turning corners its
just easier to knock a defender down than it is to make a hard
cut.”

Whether good or bad, the consequence of Foster’s
misfortunes in past years is less national exposure than would be
expected of a top-tier Heisman contender. While Oregon and Oregon
State boosters have respectively launched huge preseason campaigns
for Joey Harrington and Ken Simonton, talk of Foster’s
candidacy has been rather quiet thus far.

“DeShaun’s probably in the best shape he’s
ever been in,” said UCLA offensive coordinator and former
running backs coach Kelly Skipper. “His production and how we
do as a team will justify his place in the Heisman race more than
anything. As a program, we feel that actions speak louder than
words.”

One advantage that Foster possesses over the other Pac-10
contenders is the fact that he was a freshman when former Bruin
quarterback Cade McNown made his 1998 visit to the Downtown
Athletic Club.

“What I learned from Cade’s campaign was to always
talk to the media, play your cards right, and lead your team to
victory,” Foster said. “He showed on the field how to
win games, and that’s really what I want to do. If the
Heisman comes, it comes, but right now I’m just trying to win
games.”

Gone from Westwood is Freddie Mitchell’s fast-talking
swagger. Now it’s Foster’s “talk is cheap”
mentality that seemingly defines the 2001 Bruins and their focus
this season.