Running backs Johnathan Franklin and Derrick Coleman not only bond as teammates, but also as friends

The running game has been key to UCLA’s success in nearly every game coach Rick Neuheisel has won since he changed to the pistol offense before the 2010 season.

A big reason for that has been redshirt junior running back Johnathan Franklin, the Bruins’ leading rusher through the first two games and a member of several watch lists for postseason awards.

Another key, a less heralded key, to UCLA’s success on the ground has been senior Derrick Coleman. Coleman gets fewer carries than Franklin but he makes the most of them, averaging more yards per carry than his smaller, quicker backfield mate. Coleman won’t show up on any watch lists but he’s developed a reputation as a powerful back.

On Sept. 10 against San Jose State, Coleman saved his team from what would have been an embarrassing loss by leading the team in rushing with 14 carries for 135 yards, all of them coming after halftime.

“A bigger guy is able to carry his pads with more force,” Neuheisel said after the game. “That’s why Derrick was so important to today’s win.”

Coleman is the bruiser, the muscle, the thunder of UCLA’s backfield.

“When you start hitting them in the mouth, there are two different types of people,” Coleman said. “There’s the type of people who will respond to it and the type of people who will back off, and we’re not the type of team to back off. We decided to hit them back in the mouth and that’s what my job is.

“They gave me the role to go out there and get those tough yards, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Franklin; the speed, agility and quickness of the running back corps, likes stepping in against a defense that has been worn down by Coleman’s downhill running style. In a game last season against Washington State, Franklin gobbled up 216 yards on the ground but Coleman did the dirty work. He scored three touchdowns, all of them from inside the 10-yard line.

“They don’t want to hit that big boy,” Franklin said. “They don’t want to come up and make those hits that they did early in the game. They have no energy and they don’t want to initiate the contact.”

In the season opener, Franklin had success getting around the edges and burning Houston’s defensive front for 128 yards.

San Jose State saw that tape and weren’t allowing Franklin to have the corner, making way for Coleman to shed tacklers up the middle. He broke off a 42-yard run in that game that included a forearm shiver to a Spartan defensive back. Offensive coordinator Mike Johnson is glad to have both backs at his disposal for whatever type of play-calling situation he finds himself in.

“Each game is different,” Johnson said. “Sometimes you’re going to have breakout runs and you want Johnathan and sometimes you have to grind it out. We’ll use whoever we have to use to win but both of those guys will be key for us.”

Franklin as No. 1 on the depth chart and Coleman as No. 1A seems commonplace to anyone who has been around the program for the last two seasons but it wasn’t always that way.

At the outset of the 2008 season, Coleman and Franklin were competing for playing time with fellow freshmen Aundre Dean and Milton Knox as well as redshirt freshman Raymond Carter. Dean transferred to TCU after the 2008 season while Carter took off to Colorado State. Knox would later transfer to Fresno State following the 2009 season.

“Me and Coleman have competed and put our egos to the side,” Franklin said. “We were patient and we waited our turn. We came out here daily and worked and believed in ourselves. We knew we would be on that field one day to take this team where it needs to be.

“That’s my bro right there,” he said, pointing in Coleman’s direction. “I love him.”