Smoke in Their Eyes : UCLA: Foster is officially No. 1 now and figures to be focal point of offense.

Call him Smoke. Teammates do.

It started because of his dark skin color, a charcoal tone, then evolved. It has since come to refer to his speed, as in, “He’s going so fast there’s smoke coming off,” a spark that from the beginning of his UCLA career urged fans forward in their seats most every time he turned the corner with the ball.

Of course, DeShaun Foster would see the openings downfield. Great vision is one of his best assets. That, and the fifth gear that comes with a dragster’s acceleration, the natural feel for the game and the toughness to meet defenders head on. Even the nickname for future (Heisman?) marketing campaigns.

And now, he has a big chance.

Foster, a prodigy as a freshman while leading the Bruins in rushing and breaking the school rookie record in the process, has become the starting tailback 11 games into his college career. OK, so the promotion came eight games later than most everyone else in the Rose Bowl would have made it, but it’s here nonetheless, with all the obligatory coronations.

“When he first came out, he was struggling with the system, but that’s just typical freshman action,” said senior Keith Brown, the third-leading rusher in 1998. “Then two, three weeks went by and that’s when I started seeing, ‘OK, this is a different freshman than normal freshmen. This is a guy that comes in every 10 years.’ I knew that DeShaun was going to be real good.”

Said running back coach Kelly Skipper: “People see that. Those instincts.”

They saw them from the start, but the learning curve was not negligible--Foster was obviously a gifted runner when he arrived from Tustin High, but officially remained No. 3 on the depth chart as coaches waited for him to get a better grasp of the playbook. They wanted him to get the blocking schemes down, for those times the tailback stays to protect the quarterback.

It may have been minor in the bigger picture--discounting bowl games, only Arizona’s Trung Canidate averaged more yards a carry among the top 10 rushers in the Pacific 10 Conference last season--but it was a factor. So was Foster being a freshman while Jermaine Lewis, the starter most of the way, and Brown were both in their third year in the program. He may have had superiority, but they had seniority.

Meanwhile . . .

“ ‘Put him in! Let me see! Exciting back! I want to see what he can do!’ Yeah, we heard all that,” Lewis said of the crowd reactions. “We didn’t take that too hard or anything. I guess that was our maturity. We didn’t let that get to our heads.”

That the two veterans had success made it all the more difficult for Foster, who finished with 673 yards, to overtake them. With Coach Bob Toledo playing all three from the outset, Lewis had 113 yards against Texas in the opener, then four touchdowns the next week at Houston, and then 94 yards in only 15 carries versus Washington State.

When Lewis was given a one-game suspension for an off-campus fight, Brown got the top spot and needed only nine carries to gain 91 yards in the showdown at Arizona, enough to maintain an advantage even as Foster had 118 yards. Then Foster sat out half the next game and all of the following contest because of a sprained knee, slowing his progress again, at least to below the speed limit.

He returned on the same evening Brown had 94 yards. It was not until the next week, Nov. 7 at Oregon State, that Foster had a statistical opening. It was slight--he had 40 yards, Lewis 31 and Brown 13 as Cade McNown threw the most passes of any game his senior season--but it was also a turning point. Never again in 1998 would another Bruin get more carries than Foster.

He had 73 yards the next week in the victory at Washington that clinched the conference title, then 79 yards against USC while becoming the first true freshman in school history to score four touchdowns in a game, three rushing and one on a reception. The season ended with Foster still listed No. 3 on the depth chart, but also with 79 yards at Miami before a disappointing 38 yards in the Rose Bowl loss to Wisconsin.

That game ended at 5:40 p.m.

At 5:41, you could have started tracking Foster’s future as a reserve with a stopwatch.

Or as Toledo said in the early days of ’99 camp: “He was a freshman coming in and the other two guys had earned their stripes. But that was last season.”

In this one, Foster will be the starting tailback Saturday against Boise State with a limitless future--and a patchwork and green line and a walk-on fullback--in front of him. He may get a hearty “congratulations” now, then a weary “good luck” by Week 2--at Ohio State, against an experienced Buckeye defensive line that was No. 1 in the country against the run in 1998.

Whereas Foster averaged 11.5 carries a game last season, a fraction behind Lewis’ team-leading 11.8, and led all backs with 16 receptions, he figures to get the ball more like 25 times a game as a sophomore. Twenty or so of those will be runs, even as Toledo assures all, especially Brown and Lewis, that three tailbacks will still be employed.

There is hardly the sense that the new alignment is anything but permanent, though. Lewis will be the backup while Brown serves a two-game suspension for his role in the handicapped-parking crackdown, then the two upperclassmen will give chase together for the starting job.

Foster says he is ready for the challenge, even welcomes it because the competition is good, and besides, the three are always encouraging each other anyway.

Meanwhile, he remains the center of attention.

The standards of the fans who saw greatness from the beginning.

The expectations of the media.

Pressures? They come at Foster like arm tackles.

“They’re there,” he said. “But I don’t look at them like that, that it’s something that’s going to happen to me. If I have a good season, I have a good season. If I don’t, I’ll come back next season and work more on it.

“I try not to look at pressure like that. If you’re a competitor, it’s there. You like pressure. So I don’t really look at it as something bad. I try to enjoy it.

“I’m cool with it. It doesn’t bother me to have high expectations.

“Sometimes they might be too high, but that’s OK. It doesn’t bother me.”

Foster doesn’t necessarily think expectations are too high, but he can’t help but wonder, given all the buildup a year ago after life as an Orange County prep sensation.

But, as someone said, that was last season.

“He’s just so much more confident,” Toledo said. “He’s stronger, he looks a little faster, he knows what’s going on.”

He’s also only 19 years old, has a low-key personality that usually gives way only behind closed doors (see: break-dancing contests in the locker room), and now is being looked upon to carry on the recent lineage of Karim Abdul-Jabbar and Skip Hicks as the headliner of the running game. He might be able to handle the spotlight, but he definitely does not want it.

Observers ready for a breakthrough season. Toledo jokes--he insists--about shielding Foster from greatness in ’98 so he wouldn’t get any ideas about high-stepping to the NFL after his junior season.

Foster? He talks about looking forward to being part of Team Tailback again.

The promotion to starter, and the marketing promotions that could follow, come as Toledo hopes to stay close to the run-pass ratio of past seasons, no matter that the quarterback is new. But even operating against that glass ceiling, likely to stay in place as long as McNown’s successor(s) offer solid contributions, Foster stands on the verge of something special.

The offensive line is worse than a year ago, but he is better, so equaling the average of 5.3 yards a carry is realistic. At 20 carries a game, that’s 106 yards. At 12 games, assuming a bowl bid, that’s 1,272 for the season. At 25 carries a game, he’s up to 1,590 yards--the most in the history of a school that has known many talented runners.

“It depends on the line,” Toledo said. “He’ll make some linemen look good because he’s so good, but they’ve got to open some holes too.”

Said Brown: “DeShaun, his talent is unlimited. He can do whatever he wants to do. He can take over. His ability to break tackles, that’s one thing. And his vision. He’s a great athlete. The future is just great for him.”

You can see it coming on the horizon. Smoke.