Williams Still Runs on Reserve Power : UCLA: Bruins’ leading rusher doesn’t start. He returned from injuries to have a big game against Arizona.

It has almost become a ritual at UCLA Coach Terry Donahue’s weekly media briefings. Someone is bound to ask, “When will Kevin Williams become the starting tailback?”

Donahue will answer patiently that Williams is making progress, has been productive and that he is not opposed to starting the junior running back.

Williams is like a sixth man in basketball, the first player off the bench. However, he is not playing a cameo role.

He has carried the ball 74 times, equaling the total output of the other rotating tailbacks, Shawn Wills and Ricky Davis, and Williams’ numbers are impressive.

In five games, he has gained a team-leading 465 yards, averaging 6.3 yards a carry and scoring touchdowns on runs of one and 45 yards. He also scored on a 74-yard screen pass play.

Moreover, Williams has come from virtual obscurity last season to become a key player in UCLA’s offense.

When Donahue talked about his running backs at the outset of the season, Williams’ name wasn’t mentioned. He was referred to as among “the others.”

Nagging injuries prevented Williams from playing extensively last year, and, when his practice time was limited in spring drills because of an injury, Donahue didn’t even want to talk about him.

Williams, who was a nationally recruited back out of Spring, Tex., had been a disappointment to Donahue until recently. Coaches expect a player to grit his teeth and play through injuries unless they are severe.

Williams didn’t meet that expectation.

In earlier games this season, Williams couldn’t play in the fourth quarter because of leg cramps or fatigue.

Even though Donahue has praised Williams for his work ethic, he has had reservations about him.

Therefore, the coach was pleased when Williams, who had sore ribs, a wrist injury and a pulled thigh muscle, returned to the Arizona game last Saturday night after leaving.

“That was a milestone game for Kevin,” Donahue said. “He went back in when it appeared he wouldn’t. A year ago, he wouldn’t have done that. I think he’s beginning to understand thatfootball players are always hurt, always banged up, and must find a way to compete if at all possible.

“The same injury he had Saturday night would have knocked him out for a couple of weeks a year ago.”

Now Williams must pass another test--recovering from, or ignoring, his injuries, with the thigh injury being the worst--to play against Oregon State Saturday night at Corvallis.

“That would be a real breakthrough for him,” Donahue said.

When interviewed, Williams didn’t even mention his injuries. As for his injury-plagued 1990 season, he said: “I couldn’t believe this was happening to me--knees, ankle, back. There was no way to explain it.”

As for his limited activity last season--only 27 carries--and his injury-shortened season in 1989, Williams said: “The first two years were frustrating. I knew I could help the team a lot, and not being able to do that was tough.”

Williams is wary when asked if he believes he should be the starting tailback, based on his statistics. “It doesn’t bother me at all,” he said. “More and more, I’m getting into a game earlier than the last game. I was in on the second series against Arizona.”

It seems that Donahue is testing Williams, and when asked if such is the case, the tailback said: “I don’t know. I don’t worry about things like that. All that stuff that is written in the papers is blocked out.”

Williams’ forte is his speed. He won the 100 meters in the Pacific 10 Conference track meet in 1989 after limited workouts because of spring practice.

He said he hasn’t been timed in the football 40-yard dash since his junior year in high school. “I was timed in 4.45 and 4.49 seconds,” he said. “There’s no telling how fast I can run it now.”

Williams has been virtually inactive in track the past two years while concentrating on football.

Bob Larsen, UCLA’s track coach, said Williams would be in the mold of Mike Marsh, a former Bruin sprinter, if he had more time for track. Marsh was an alternate sprinter on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team and competed in a semifinal round of the 400-meter relay at the World Championships in Tokyo this year.

“Kevin is maturing as a person in college,” Larsen said. “Everything came so easily for him in high school because he was so dominant. He has continued to make strides despite injury setbacks.”

Larsen and Donahue have only praise for Williams’ attitude, saying that he’s an upbeat, friendly person.

Only the stigma of repetitive injuries may prevent his becoming the outstanding athlete he was expected to be when he was recruited by virtually every major university in the country.

Larsen’s theory is that young athletes often are hampered by nagging injuries, but outgrow them as they become more mature and mentally tough.

Williams may be entering that positive phase of his career now. For sure, he is a threat as a running back--a 6-foot-1, 204-pound sprinter.

Donahue, who called Williams “a big, strong, fast running back with loads of talent,” said Williams was on “cruise control” when he broke through the line on fourth and one and ran 45 yards to a touchdown in the first quarter of the game against Arizona.

Donahue added that if Williams keeps asserting himself, he could become the starting tailback.

For now, the coach is content with bringing Williams off the bench early to ignite, in essence, the Bruins’ fast break.