LOS ANGELES — A fog rolled into Wasserman Center on Monday evening as the UCLA football team took the field for practice. Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” echoed across the field.
The air was thick with anticipation not just for practice but also for Saturday night’s game against Oregon at the Rose Bowl. It’s another opportunity for the running game to experience incremental success.
“It’s baby steps,” head coach DeShaun Foster told reporters. “It might not be the numbers that we want, but it’s improving each week. I just like that guys are champing at the bit. They want to be able to run the ball. … I’m not gonna say it’s dormant or anything like that. It’s getting there.”
The Bruins are seeing consistency in the running game’s production every week when taking the “yards gained” statistic into consideration. But they also want to take it to the next level.
UCLA ran for 71 yards in its season opener against Hawai’i before recording a season-best 96 yards against Indiana. The Bruins had 78 yards on the ground in the loss to LSU – although that number dips to 14 when looking at net yardage due to the five times quarterback Ethan Garbers was sacked.
“The stats might not say exactly what it did, but the run game helped us,” Foster told reporters after the LSU game. “It kept us ahead of the chains. It isn’t as easy as it seems, sometimes, but as long as my guys continue to fight and they want to get better, they will get better.”
Transfer Jalen Berger has now played in two games and could see an uptick in playing time due to his contributions so far. He’s averaged 16 yards per game and his speed gives him potential as well.
Running backs T.J. Harden and Keegan Jones are also valuable receivers out of the backfield. Harden averages 28 receiving yards per game and 24 rushing yards per game. Jones has had similar results with 20 receiving yards per game and 15.67 rushing yards per game.
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“You saw T.J. catch screens and other stuff out of the backfield and he’s been successful in other things,” Foster said. “So the numbers might not be exactly what you want them to be but as long as we’re keeping defenses off balance, I think we’re OK.”
Kanye Clark, Keanu Williams out for season
Foster told reporters on Monday evening that defensive back Kanye Clark and defensive lineman Keanu Williams both have suffered season-ending injuries. He did not disclose what the injuries were.
“I feel for those guys and just one positive is we get them back next season,” Foster said.
Clark is a former walk-on who was steadily contributing to the defense. He had two pass breakups and a solo tackle in two games.
Williams, a redshirt junior was a starting defensive tackle opposite of senior Jay Toia. He had a sack, a QB hurry and a tackle for loss in two games.
A two-deep depth chart was not released ahead of this weekend’s game against Oregon.
UCLA running back Jalen Berger runs for a gain after breaking a tackle attempt during the second half of their game against LSU on Saturday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)