Being Long Snapper Makes Bruins’ Rubio Complete

There were dropped punts and passes and handoffs. There was a three-point deficit after one quarter, a 100-yard deficit after one half.

The eventual comeback decision--UCLA 34, Oregon State 10--felt more like a gasp than a victory.

In all, a wonderful day for Bruin Chris Rubio.

Then again, for the last three years, every fall Saturday is a wonderful day for Chris Rubio.

The imperfect Mr. Perfect.

For three years, Rubio has done nothing but hike the ball on Bruin special teams.

This year, he snaps on field-goal and extra-point attempts.

In the previous two years, before a back injury, he also snapped for punts.

Three years, and not one bad snap.

“Knock on wood,” he said, rapping three times on the Rose Bowl locker room wall.

“Hey, fatso!” shouted a teammate.

“They really like me around here, can you tell?” Rubio said, smiling.

He was six for six Saturday--two Chris Sailer field goals and four Sailer extra points.

Thanks in part to Rubio, Sailer entered the game ranking third nationally with 2.17 field goals a game, and the Bruin offense was ranked fourth nationally in scoring at 44.8 points.

“It seems like a little thing, but if it goes wrong, it becomes a big thing,” Rubio said.

“Hey, do the reporter a favor and put on your shirt!” shouted another teammate.

“The guys really do like me,” he said.

From snap to kick, the actual extra-point and field-goal play lasts 1.25 seconds.

Three years, counting punts, he has been involved in the action a total of about 30 minutes in his career.

Three years, on a full UCLA scholarship.

Cade McNown is the QB. Skip Hicks is the RB.

Chris Rubio is the LS. For long snapper. You can look it up.

“I am the luckiest man alive,” he said.

During practice, he and Sailer have been known to retire to the locker room and watch TV.

“They brag about watching ‘Beverly Hills 90210,’ ” holder Joey Strycula said. “Makes me mad.”

Not that it’s all peaches and Tori Spelling.

“Guys on the other team are always spitting on the ball, right before I snap it,” Rubio said. “I’m down there with my head between my legs, what am I going to do?”

Then, there is the fear factor.

“Guys are always screaming, ‘As soon as the ball is snapped, Rubio, I’m gonna kill you, just kill you!’ ” he said. “Once against Cal, a guy yelled that during an entire timeout.”

That problem was eased a bit last year when the NCAA instituted a rule prohibiting contact with the center for an entire second after special teams’ snaps.

“The best rule every invented for football, and you can quote me on that,” Rubio said.

But that has caused another problem. With no hitting, there is no sweating, and Rubio likes to moisten his hands before the snap.

“So I wash my hands in Gatorade,” he said. “Or I rub sweat off the arms of the fat guys on either side of me.”

“You are the fat guy,” shouted a teammate.

“Aren’t these guys great?” he said.

The players never tell the 6-foot-2, 280-pound Rubio how much they appreciate him because that would be tantamount to admitting that somebody can be vital to their nasty game without ever getting dirty.

“But they love him, because they know the importance of what he does,” said assistant head coach Bob Field, who supervises special teams. “Everything starts with the snap.”

For Rubio, everything started at Charter Oak High, under uncle and Coach Lou Farrar, who changed his nephew’s life with one statement.

“We don’t have anybody to long snap, so you do it.”

Rubio practiced against a backyard fence, laid in bed at night and tossed the ball above his head in a snapping motion.

He joined UCLA as a walk-on, then was awarded a scholarship after two years. Long snapping is such a craft, many schools offer the same benefits.

The hardest thing, Rubio said, is not the 7 1/2 yards needed for a field-goal or extra-point snap, or the 15 yards for a punt snap.

The hardest thing is that, when there is a holder back there, the ball must be snapped so he catches it with the laces facing the goal post.

“That really takes time to learn, and a lot of people don’t want to put in the time,” Rubio said. “But after a while, it’s like riding a bike.”

One that he has yet to fall from, which may be the most impressive statistic on a statistically loaded UCLA team.

After all, bad snaps already have helped decide two “Monday Night Football” games this fall.

“It is amazing,” Field said.

It is more than that. It is America.

“Unbelievable,” Chris Rubio said late Saturday, always the happiest man leaving the Bruin locker room. “Unbelievable.”