He Will Run With the Ball, Not His Mouth : College football: Wayne Pittman, SDSU’s latest freshman to come to the fore, is as resolute as he is reticent.

Yards come quicker to Wayne Pittman than words, but his performance spoke for itself in his first start last week.

In the latest Saturday Night episode of “Wayne’s World,” the freshman running back out of Mira Mesa High, thrust into an injury-beset San Diego State lineup against Texas-El Paso, responded with 149 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries.

That’s not bad for a guy who isn’t even listed in the university’s media guide and who missed part of the second quarter because of a back strain.

No big deal, Pittman said before practice Wednesday.

“I knew what I can do,” he said. “People at Mira Mesa knew what I can do. It was just a matter of getting a chance. I felt if given a chance I would perform.”

Pittman isn’t even sure he’ll be in the lineup Saturday at Utah. Senior T.C. Wright is returning to health after battling injuries for much of the season. Coach Al Luginbill probably will announce the starter after practice today.

With SDSU’s other freshman running back, record-setting Marshall Faulk, still on the mend from broken ribs and a collapsed lung, Pittman will either start or back up Wright. Either way, it doesn’t faze him. Little does.

“I’m gonna be getting playing time,” he said. “As long as I carry the ball, everything is fine.”

His father, Henry Pittman, said he hopes his son’s stoic front isn’t taken for indifference or self-centeredness.

“If you don’t push (the words) out of him, you’re not gonna get it,” he said. “I don’t want people to think he’s stuck on himself. He’s quiet, he keeps to himself. He’s a very laid-back person.”

With his performance last week, Pittman joined Faulk and Wright as 100-yard rushers this season. The Aztecs (5-2) have had a back top the 100-yard mark in six of their seven games. Pittman, who had 17 carries going into the game, ranks third on the team for the season with 205 yards.

The county’s third-leading rusher last year with 1,604 yards and 22 touchdowns at Mira Mesa, Pittman was expected to redshirt this season. He’s not even listed in the SDSU media guide among “Aztec Newcomers.” When other recruits didn’t enroll, Pittman was added to the roster. It was a decision that suited him and his family.

“I went back and forth on redshirting,” he said. “I wasn’t sure. Sometimes I’d be on the sideline (at practice) watching the first unit and I’d say, ‘Damn, I want to play.’ Other times I wanted to redshirt. My parents wanted me to play all along. When the coaches came to me and asked me (to decide), they caught me in one of those times I wanted to play.”

When Pittman was told he was starting last week, the most excited member of the family was his father. A chief warrant officer in the Navy, Henry Pittman was stationed in the Persian Gulf for 10 months before and during the war and missed his son’s senior year in high school.

“Really, this is the first time I’ve got to see him play in two years,” Pittman said. “Basically, I’m catching up on his ballplaying.”

While Wayne took last week’s start in stride, his father was genuinely excited.

“He went to the UCLA and New Mexico games, but he really was excited about the UTEP game,” Pittman said. “He watched it on TV and he told me how he talked to all his friends about it at work. He told me to keep working and continue to play hard and good things will happen.”

His father said, “He’s a great football player and I want everybody to see it. I think eventually, everybody will know.”

Henry Pittman kept up with his son’s senior year, sort of, via videos sent by the family. Meanwhile, they tried to keep up with him through his letters. But with a lag time of about a month in the mail, it was trying.

“A few (tapes) got to me, but not too many,” Henry Pittman said. “Being on a ship, you’re never in the same place two days in a row.”

“There was a lot of worry, but nothing we could do about it,” the younger Pittman said. “It would take letters about a month. We would go month-to-month. Sometimes we’d go two months without hearing from him. It was tough.”

Henry Pittman returned home in April. He had learned his son was going to SDSU from a newspaper that was making the rounds of his ship. He is pleased with the choice.

“I don’t think he could’ve picked a better school,” he said. “The staff is super. They’re concerned about education. I think Coach Luginbill is a people person. Not all coaches are.”

After his senior season at Mira Mesa, Pittman said, he was recruited by several football powers from the Big Ten and Big Eight conferences, but he canceled trips to Nebraska and Michigan when he visited SDSU and gave Luginbill an oral commitment.

“I talked to a bunch of schools,” he said, “but, when I came here on my trip, they showed me they cared about me as a person and not just as someone on the football field. That was the difference.”

A compact runner at about 6 feet and 195 pounds, Pittman also played linebacker in high school and doesn’t shy away from contact. He said, “I liked (playing defense). I’m a good inside runner, I can go outside, I can cut--and I can run people over.”

The Aztecs might need all of that Saturday at Utah. A victory would not only match last season’s victory total, but it would also keep alive their hopes of a Western Athletic Conference championship and Holiday Bowl appearance.

“This is a real special team,” Pittman said. “There’s a lot of unity, and a whole lot of confidence. A bowl--that would be nice.”

Pittman lingered on the word “nice.” But whenever the season ends, the impression was Pittman will be playing basketball, lifting weights, seeing friends and going with the flow.

“I usually take things as they go,” he said.