DESHAUN FOSTER —The best running back in America and a top candidate for the Heisman Trophy and the Doak Walker Award, DeShaun Foster currently ranks third in the nation in rushing, less than seven yards from the lead.

Last week at Washington State, he rushed for 102 yards, including a 26-yard touchdown, on 28 carries, to move into third place on UCLA’s career rushing list. With his 102-yard effort against the Cougars, Foster has rushed for at least 100 yards 13 times in his career, including six of eight games this season and 10 times in his last 19 games. His 13 100-yard games rank fifth on UCLA’s all-time list. Foster ranks third in the nation in rushing (136.83), 10th in scoring (9.75) and 12th in all-purpose yardage (154.75). He leads the Pac-10 in rushing by about 35 yards per game and is first in scoring and all-purpose yards and 10th in total offense (138.63).

On the year, Foster has now rushed for 1,109 yards, the 10th-highest total in school history. Against Stanford, he became the first Bruin ever to reach that plateau in seven games. Previously, Karim Abdul-Jabbar was the quickest Bruin to reach the 1,000-yard mark in a season, doing it in the eighth game of the 1995 season. His 13 touchdowns are tied for eighth on UCLA’s single-season list (he also scored 13 TDs last year).

His second-quarter touchdown gives him 44 in his career, good for second place on UCLA’s all-time list. Skip Hicks holds the record with 55. Foster also ranks fifth in career scoring with 266 points, just one behind No. 4 Alfredo Velasco.

In addition, he now ranks third on UCLA’s career rushing list with 3,194 yards, just one year behind No. 2 Freeman McNeil (3,195). Gaston Green holds the record at 3,731. His 722 rushing attempts are the most in school history.

Foster also ranks 18th on the Pac-10 career rushing list.

Foster is just the fourth player in school history to rush for 187 or more yards three times in a career. The others are Karim Abdul-Jabbar, Gaston Green and Freeman McNeil.

At Stanford, against another defense committed to stopping him, he rushed for 77 yards and one touchdown on 21 carries and caught one pass for 22 yards.

In the Bruins’ 56-17 win over California, the senior tailback scored three touchdowns, two rushing and one receiving, to bring his total to 10 TDs in a three-game span. Those scores also pushed him past Gaston Green and into second place on UCLA’s career touchdown list. On the night, he accounted for 178 all-purpose yards. Foster rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns. In addition, he scored on a 34-yard play when he picked a wobbly pass out of the air (quarterback Cory Paus was hit just as he threw the ball) and sprinted across the field to give UCLA a 21-10 lead with 1:16 remaining in the first half. He also added a 27-yard reception near the end of the third quarter.

On his last possession of the game, he accounted for all 75 yards on six plays (five runs and one reception), culminating in his six-yard touchdown runon the first play of the fourth quarter. He then sat out the remainder of the game.

With his 117-yard effort against the Golden Bears, Foster has rushed for at least 100 yards 12 times in his career, including five of six games this season and nine times in his last 18 games. His 12 100-yard games tie him for fifth with Wendell Tyler on UCLA’s all-time list.

On Oct.13, Foster stepped squarely into the Heisman Trophy spotlight with his unbelievable effort against the No. 8 (USA Today/ESPN) Washington Huskies.

Against a defense that hadn’t allowed a rushing touchdown all year (he was the last player to score a TD on the ground during the regular season), Foster ran through, over and around the Huskies for a school-record 301 yards and four touchdowns on 31 carries (9.7 average) to lead the Bruins to the 35-13 victory. The four touchdowns also tied a school record for rushing touchdowns and touchdowns of any type (he is co-holder of the latter mark, having scored three on the ground and one through the air as a freshman versus USC).

He was named National Player of the Week by The Sporting News and USA Today and was also the Pac-10’s Offensive Player of the Week.

On his first touchdown, he ran through a couple of would-be tacklers for a five-yard score. On his second TD, from 21 yards, he bounced off the pile to the outside and broke three tackles to reach the end zone. His one-yard score was set up by his 64-yard run on UCLA’s first offensive play of the second half. His final touchdown came when he turned the right corner and ran by several Huskies for a 92-yard touchdown, the second-longest run from scrimmage in school history.

His 301 yards shattered the school record of 274, set by Theotis Brown versus Oregon in 1978. He also became only the third player in Pacific-10 Conference history to rush for over 300 yards in a game. He rushed for 65 yards (10 carries) and two scores in the first quarter, 38 yards (five carries) in the second quarter, 78 yards (10 carries) and one touchdown in the third quarter and 120 yards (six carries) and one touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Sixteen of his 31 runs produced at least five yards, including eight straight in the first half. Seven of those runs gained at least double digits. His 64-yard run on UCLA’s first play of the second half was the second-longest of his career (he had a 65-yard run in 1998) until the fourth quarter, when he raced 92 yards for a score.

On Sept. 29, in just three quarters of action against Oregon State, Foster rushed for 147 yards and three touchdowns on 31 carries and earned Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week honors. In a hostile environment, he gave the Bruins a lead just 2:59 into the game, when he followed a 25-yard run with a three-yard touchdown. He had 87 yards at halftime and in the third quarter, he ran for 60 yards on 10 carries, including touchdowns of 17 and one yard. On his 17-yard TD, he bounced off a pile to the outside, broke at least four tackles and tightroped the sideline for the final yards to give the Bruins a 24-0 lead. His final TD with 50 seconds left in the third quarter, made the score 38-0.

On the afternoon, Foster had four double-figure runs, none longer than 25 yards. He produced nine first downs, including twice on third-down runs on UCLA’s second-quarter field goal drive that made the score 10-0. Overall, he carried four times on third down and moved the chains on all four occasions.

In the victory over Ohio State, he rushed for 66 yards on 29 carries against a defense dedicated to stopping him.

Foster was at his spectacular best against Kansas. He ran over, around and through the Jayhawk defense for a career-high (at the time) 189 yards and one touchdown on 28 carries and retired for the day with 13:23 remaining in the game following his four-yard score that gave UCLA a 41-10 lead. Game reports listed him with 179 yards but the Kansas stat crew corrected that late Saturday night.

Nine of his runs measured at least 10 yards and he gained at least five yards on 18 occasions. Eleven times he produced a first down against the Jayhawks. He also made three receptions for 41 yards, including a 35-yard run after catching a shovel pass from Cory Paus.

In the season opener against Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Foster carried the ball 24 times for 110 net yards, including a 40-yard run in the fourth quarter and a 21-yard run in the first quarter.

“He runs inside. He runs outside. He delivers as big a wallop as any back in America. Basically, he’s got it all — including an undefeated team — which is how he’s muscled his way past all those quarterbacks in the Heisman race.” — CBS SportsLine Heisman Hopefuls

“DeShaun Foster had a 300 yard rushing performance against a Top Ten team with a very good defense. The way he finishes runs is amazing — he dishes out blows when he runs with the football. He is, without exception, the best running back in college football.” -- Rod Gilmore, ESPN.com

“All he wanted to do was “Show America.” Well, DeShaun, we were left mesmerized. Move over QBs, this running back has sprinted right into the forefront of a race where nobody’s early lead is safe.” — ESPN Heisman Watch

It was your basic, 60-minute primer on “How to Win the Heisman.” DeShaun Foster juked past Miami’s Ken Dorsey here, straight-armed Nebraska’s Eric Crouch there and sprinted off into the warm Pasadena sunset Saturday.

If UCLA’s electric tailback isn’t the leading contender for the Heisman Trophy now, he certainly has bullied his way into the top group, along with Dorsey and Crouch.

Foster did it with bust-out moves of 92 and 64 yards and an early 21-yard body cruncher he might come to remember as the single most impressive run of his collegiate career.

The 64-yarder in the third period was pretty, even if he did get nudged out at the 1. The 92-yarder in the final minutes was almost the icing on his Heisman-contending cake.

But the best one, the one you might want to tell your grandkids about some day, was the 21-yard jolt in the first quarter.

First, Huskies linebacker Ben Mahdavi had him in his grasp and lost him. Then cornerback Wondame Davis rushed up and must have thought he was leveled by an SUV. Next, it was corner Chris Massey’s turn. When he wakes up today, Massey might still have Foster’s cleat marks on his chest. -- Steve Bisheff, Orange County Register

DeShaun Foster is everything that I thought he would be. I have been saying all year that he is the best back in the country. On Saturday, he ran himself into the Heisman picture.

A lot of people in the East don’t get to see him, so he hasn’t received all the accolades. But he is the best back in the country. He certainly got the attention of the nation with his 301-yard, 4 TD effort in the Bruins’ 35-13 win over No. 8 Washington.

Foster is the best in the country at yards after contact (YACs), but he showed against Washington that he is the entire special package of size, speed, power and balance. He did it all. He ran and scored every conceivable way a running back can run. Keith Jackson and I sat in amazement. We said during the telecast that you don’t want to analyze the guy, you want to sit back and admire him. — ABC analyst Tim Brant following the Washington game.

“You punch into a computer the prototype running back, somebody who looks very similar to DeShaun Foster will emerge. He is a gifted physical specimen. Obviously, he’s very competitive. He’s got great speed, he has great vision, it doesn’t look like the first guy who gets to him ever gets him down. This is a very talented player.” -- Washington coach Rick Neuheisel said.

“We face running backs every week that are pretty good, but we face the best running back in the country every day at practice. It’s easy for us to go out there and play the other running backs, because they don’t run as fast and as hard as DeShaun. It’s a blessing to have him on our team and to face him every day. We go out and face other running backs and it seems like the scout team.” -- UCLA linebacker Robert Thomas.

From the Los Angeles Times: Toledo has coached plenty of running backs in his 33 years in the business.

Karim Abdul-Jabbar and Skip Hicks at UCLA. Rodney Thomas and Greg Hill at Texas A&M. Derek Loville at Oregon. And Toledo was defensive backs coach at USC when Ricky Bell, Charles White and Marcus Allen were there.

But he puts DeShaun Foster in a class by himself.

“Nobody's better than he's been,” Toledo said. “He reminds me more of Marcus than any of them. He looks nice running with the football. He's got great vision and he glides and he's powerful. The thing about him is he's faster than Marcus was. [Foster's] the best tailback I've ever coached.”

2001 Foster Game-By-Game Rushing

UCLA All-Time Rushing Leaders

UCLA All-Time Scoring List

UCLA All-Time Touchdown List

His junior season featured four 100-yard games including a 42-carry, 187-yard effort against Alabama. He scored 13 touchdowns for the year to rank eighth on the school single-season list and was named to the first-team All-Pac-10 team. In addition, his 16 receptions ranked third on the team.

2000 Foster Game-By-Game Rushing

As a sophomore, Foster led the Bruins in rushing five times. However, he carried just five times in the month of October due to a sprained right ankle incurred at Stanford. On the year, he finished as the team’s second-leading rusher (375 yards) and led the squad with six touchdowns. He also placed fourth on the squad with 17 receptions.

In 1998, Foster wrote his name into Bruin lore by scoring all four touchdowns (three rushing and one receiving) in UCLA’s 34-17 victory over USC. He became the first true freshman in school history to score four TDs in one game and tied the school record. Foster ranked second on the team with 12 touchdowns (10 rushing and two passes), a school record for true freshmen. His rushing total of 673 yards ranks as the most ever by a Bruin freshman.

Foster Career Rushing

Foster Career Receiving

Foster Career 100-yard Games (12)