Dog Day Afternoons

He was a fullback then, mostly because nobody else wanted to be one, and it kind of fit his way of doing things.

The job was leading Ricky Davis and Daron Washington and James Milliner through the line, or Skip Hicks around end or keeping defenders off quarterback Wayne Cook, and the idea was taking on the first player he saw wearing a different-colored shirt and belting him into oblivion.

It was assault with intent to commit first down, and it got Jeff Ruckman on the field, helping UCLA beat Washington, 39-25, helping the Bruins into the Rose Bowl.

It was 1993, and UCLA hasn’t beaten Washington since.

He gave his Rose Bowl ring to his dad.

“I was planning on having another one the next year,” he says quietly. “It hasn’t worked out that way.”

Little has for Ruckman, who looks at Washington, Saturday’s opponent, from a different perspective now as a fifth-year senior, as a defensive lineman. The Huskies are an obstacle on his way to finally replacing that Rose Bowl ring.

The Washington game brought a playing high as a freshman, and a year ago had him as low as he has ever been on a football field.

“I remember a little bit of that first game,” he says. “I played about two series, three series because we used a lot of one-back with Ricky Davis, and four-receiver with J.J. [Stokes] and Kevin [Jordan].

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, those guys are big.’ . . . I was about 220 [pounds] then, maybe 215. Coming in at fullback, I thought those linebackers were big, but I wasn’t afraid. And I had a pretty good game.”

He remembers being stuffed by a safety on his first play.

“I think I was blocking for Skip,” Ruckman says of Hicks, the only other Bruin on this year’s team who has beaten the Huskies.

“It’s been a long way since then,” Ruckman says. “When I look back and try to recall that first year, it’s hard to remember because so much has happened since then.”

What has happened has brought physical and emotional scars, with position changes, coaching changes, changes in his outlook.

He came to UCLA as a high school linebacker, a big frog in a small Porterville, Calif., pond, and he saw himself eventually as a pro linebacker, in a bigger, more lucrative pond.

A year from now, he sees himself back at Porterville, maybe as a schoolteacher.

“It’s just snowballed,” says his best friend, Brian Willmer, who beat Ruckman out of a linebacker job. “He came in here on top of the world. He got to play in the Rose Bowl as a fullback. Then he’s scrambling, hoping he can get any playing time.”

A back injury cost him a redshirt season, and he has had a neck injury, and injured thighs, ankles, knees and hamstrings.

He has been beaten up, even beaten down. Ruckman was 6 feet 2 when he got to UCLA in 1993. The five years have knocked him down to a measured 6-1 1/2.

The years brought a switch to the linebacker job he wanted, a switch in coaches and one to a different defense that requires a linebacker to be faster than Ruckman. A switch to nose guard, a switch to end and a switch back.

“Through testing, when you persevere, what it does, it makes you stronger,” Willmer says. “And it’s strengthened Jeff, his character. He’s so grateful just to be on the field, to be able to play, and I think a lot of that is because of the trials and tribulations he’s undergone. He has been tested, and he has passed the test.”

One of the biggest tests came a year ago in Seattle. Ruckman had settled in as an undersized nose guard, a 245-pounder against a Washington line that would produce an All-American guard in Benji Olsen and an All-Pacific 10 center in Olin Kreutz, both 300 pounds-plus.

“It was a hard day,” Ruckman says. “They were big. They were heavier than anyone we’d played. We had played Michigan, and [Washington] did the same thing Michigan did: run the ball, run the ball. I’d never had that much experience at dealing with that.

“The double-teams, they were just blowing me off the ball.”

The Huskies blew everybody off the ball. Corey Dillon rolled up 145 yards and five touchdowns in a 41-21 victory, and most of the yardage came on runs up the middle of the Bruin defense.

“It was frustrating, so I just started making a pile, diving at people’s knees and making a pile,” Ruckman says. “I wasn’t being moved anywhere then, but . . .”

Another year. A job lost, then found again. A move to defensive end, then yet another injury, and a move back inside, but to third string.

“When you’re not playing well, we don’t care if you’re an All-American candidate or if you’re a future pro, if you’re not playing well, you’re not going to play,” defensive line coach Terry Tumey says. “We need guys to get the job done, and at that point, he wasn’t getting the job done.

“When we moved him back, he got fundamentally more sound and he got his position back.”

But it was different. Instead of a nose guard, UCLA has gone to two inside defensive linemen, both usually playing in front of guards. For another, the Bruins rotate three sets of linemen, three plays on, six plays off, to keep players fresh.

Ruckman’s role has undergone an added change, one he brought on himself. By nature a taciturn man, he has become an extrovert, a cheerleader, a shoulder-pad pounder, a head-butter.

Now at 260 pounds, he has 18 tackles, four of them for losses, three sacks at a position that largely involves occupying blockers so linebackers can make big plays.

“I want to keep things going on defense, but it’s hard to get in people’s faces, to yell and scream and have any emotion, if I’m not making plays,” he says. “I’ve always been pretty much contained, just because I never felt confident enough to start screaming and yelling at guys.”

Says Tumey: “He took that on on his own. We need individuals to do that. Coaches can’t do that. Players have to do that.

“But it’s a hollow feeling when you’re boisterous and don’t make plays on the field to back that up.”

And now, it’s Washington again, Saturday in the Rose Bowl, and it’s his most important game since his freshman season.

“It’s exciting,” he says. “Last year they did a real good job of running the ball. That was our weakness, the defensive line, and they exploited it. They’re bound to try to do that again.

“But I’ve learned a lot more. It’s my second year on the line instead of my first. I think what makes this year different is that we’re both [UCLA and Washington] men, we’re both wanting to win, but we have a little better desire this year, we have a little better focus. The prize is more realistic this year than it was last year.

“I think whoever plays the hardest on defense will win this game. Both offenses can score. Whichever defense can hold them out will win.”

And get a chance at a Rose Bowl ring, one to replace the one Jeff Ruckman gave away.

WASHINGTON at UCLA

* Time: 12:30 p.m.

* Site: Rose Bowl

* TV: Channel 7

* Radio: AM 1150

* Records: Washington (7-2, 5-1), UCLA (7-2, 5-1)