| Editor's note: Throughout the season, Pro Football Weekly will run a
continuing series of articles spotlighting top prospects for the 2002 draft. 
If UCLA senior RB DeShaun Foster wasn’t the top tailback in the nation a week ago,
he may be now.
Foster — a tough inside runner with the breakaway speed to turn a 5-yard gain into
a 95-yard touchdown — carried 31 times for 301 yards last Saturday against
then-unbeaten Washington and moved into the Top 10 on UCLA’s all-time rushing list
with 2,888 yards. He’s got a chance to finish his collegiate career as the top scorer
in Bruins’ history.
It wasn’t about individual accolades for Foster. The two-time All-Pac-10 performer
simply wants to go out like he came in — a champion.
As a freshman, the Bruins won the Pac-10 title and played Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.
Foster knows repeating that feat means a shot at showing his stuff in the national
championship game on UCLA’s home field.
"That’s why he’s still here," offensive coordinator Kelly Skipper
said. "When he came here, we won the Pac-10. He wants to finish on that same
note."
In that championship freshman season, Foster set a UCLA freshman rushing record with
673 yards, good enough to be the team leader, and scored 12 touchdowns. As a sophomore,
the first of three major injuries, a high sprain of the right ankle, limited Foster’s
mobility and playing time. He led the team in rushing five times, but ended the season
with 375 yards and six touchdowns.
As a junior, Foster broke a bone in his right hand when it got caught in an
opponent’s facemask, an injury that cost him two games. Playing through the soreness,
Foster handled the ball 29 times per game and finished with 1,037 yards and 13 touchdowns,
topping 100 yards on the ground four times.
Foster has good size (6-1, 215), speed (a 4.55 time in the 40-yard dash) and Skipper
described his strength as "incredibly explosive." While Foster will leave UCLA
with a laundry list of career records, Skipper said the best thing Foster picked up during
his four years in Westwood was his work ethic.
"He had a sprained knee, a broken hand and a sprained ankle," Skipper said,
recounting the assortment of injuries that could have prevented Foster from becoming a
household name. "But the way he works, he trains so hard. When you condition the way
he does, you can run. You can do a lot of things because of that elite endurance."
By working through the offseason on the Los Angeles campus, Foster put to rest
questions about durability. He has twice carried the ball 40 or more times and has topped
30 carries in three of six games in 2001.
"People are going to keep questioning him, but durability isn’t an
issue," Skipper said. "What more does a guy need to do? We’re riding him,
and we’re going to keep riding him."
Head coach Bob Toledo, formerly an assistant at USC, compares Foster favorably to
Marcus Allen, a Heisman winner while at USC. That may sound like high praise, but Skipper
feels there are parallels.
"There have been some great backs around here," Skipper said, "I really
think he measures up with a lot of them. But DeShaun has his own style. He’s smooth
and lean, but deceiving. He’ll make you miss because he’s slippery, but he can
slide and break tackles."
Foster, ranked as the top running back prospect by PFW personnel expert Joel Buchsbaum,
has the skills and athleticism to follow Allen’s path to the next level.
"DeShaun is that kind of back because of his great vision," Skipper said.
"He runs hard, can be physical, or he can be a slasher and make you miss. The one
constant with DeShaun is that he breaks tackles. No arm tackles, no chips, he runs through
that.
"He gets better the more he carries the ball. Part of that is that our offensive
line has done a great job to get him into the secondary where he can break those tackles
against defensive backs instead of the front seven."
Foster’s size lends him to be a solid blocker in pass protection and despite an
offensive system that likes to throw to big receivers like 6-5 senior Brian Poli-Dixon,
Foster can catch the football.
"He has great hands," Skipper said. "He would play receiver without any
trouble if we asked him to do that."
NFL scouts will be watching what Foster does over the next 3-4 weeks — against
Cal, Stanford, Washington State and Oregon — when opponents figure to stack eight or
nine in the box with Poli-Dixon expected to miss a month with a dislocated left shoulder.
"I guess it could get interesting," Skipper said. "Sometimes DeShaun
will get in a mode where he tries to make too many things happen. He’s gotten better
at that — picking and choosing and being patient all the way around. He can’t
try to make things happen that aren’t there."
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