Christian Pabico’s UCLA journey starts with walk and may end with a catch

The play called for JuJu Smith-Schuster, then an All-American receiver at Long Beach Poly High, to serve as a decoy in favor of a teammate with great hands, decent speed and a tendency to make the big catch.

The defense reacted as expected in the final minutes of a Southern Section playoff game in November 2013. It swarmed Smith-Schuster out of the backfield, allowing single coverage on his fellow receiver. Sure enough, that receiver pulled in the winning touchdown by tapping his toes in a corner of the end zone.

It was essentially the last time anyone heard from Christian Pabico on a football field before this month.

It’s no stretch to say that Pabico has materialized out of nowhere as part of UCLA’s first-team offense during training camp. The walk-on receiver did not make a catch in his first three seasons. He appeared in just one game, last September near the end of a blowout victory over Nevada Las Vegas. He didn’t even have a biography in the media guide distributed last month at the Pac-12 Conference’s media days.

Credentials might be the only thing Pabico has lacked when Bruins coaches consider what they’ve like about him in recent weeks.

“His attitude, his work ethic, his consistency, his toughness, his blocking, his memorization of plays, his technique,” UCLA coach Jim Mora said when asked about Pabico’s best qualities. “I mean everything.”

Pabico’s playmaking has also wowed. He beat three defenders on a touchdown catch earlier this week and split two defensive backs on another scoring play a day later, defying the label that usually signifies a lesser caliber player.

“He’s not a walk-on in my eyes,” Bruins cornerback Darnay Holmes said of the redshirt junior who has won several head-to-head battles. “He’s definitely a ballplayer.”

Pabico, who is 6 feet, 180 pounds, had more receiving yards and touchdowns than Smith-Schuster did as a high school senior. n fact, Pabico led the entire Moore League in both categories in 2013.

Smith-Schuster became a star at USC and a second-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers this summer, whereas college recruiters were quick to tell Pabico where he was lagging.

“A lot of coaches had actually mentioned that they didn’t see breakaway speed,” Pabico said. “I don’t know if you guys can tell, but I’m more of just a fluid strider. I don’t really have quick bursts or anything like that. I just kind of have open-field speed, so I think that was one of the main things that was a little bit off-putting.”

It didn’t help that Pabico had spent his first three high school seasons in relative anonymity at Cerritos Gahr High, which competes in a lower division, before transferring to Poly.

Pabico said he received interest from several Division I-AA and Division II schools, mainly on the East Coast. Wanting to stay closer to his Long Beach home, he decided to attend Mt. San Antonio College, a community college in Walnut, when he was informed that UCLA had a spot for him as a walk-on. The lifelong Bruins fan didn’t need any more of a sales pitch.

“I thought about it probably for five seconds,” Pabico recalled, “and I said, ‘Yeah.’”

Raul Lara, who was Poly’s coach at the time, told then-UCLA receivers coach Eric Yarber that the Bruins were getting a steal.

“I said, ‘Look, man, I’m going to tell you right now: You guys aren’t going to be disappointed with this kid,’” Lara recalled.

Pabico was initially fourth string — “third, if you’re being generous,” he said — and played exclusively on the scout team except for that cameo appearance against UNLV. His moment of glory last season might have been mimicking Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey in practice.

“Definitely there were times when things were tough,” said Pabico, who appears solidly in the running to snag UCLA’s last available scholarship. “Being on the scout team, you’re out there doing everything they tell you to do, running back and forth and getting hit, but I don’t think I ever questioned, ‘Was it worth it?’ because at the end of the day, I came here for school. So as long as I’m getting my degree, football comes second.”

A four-time member of the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll, Pabico made football more of a priority over the summer. He ran with fellow receiver Darren Andrews on open fields, high school tracks, the beach — wherever they could find enough empty space to practice their routes. Pabico lowered his 40 time to 4.51 seconds, allowing a player with encyclopedic knowledge of his team’s plays to run them with some zip.

Pabico was also given a fresh start by new receivers coach Jimmie Dougherty, who disregarded the established pecking order and allowed each player to prove himself.

Now Pabico could take the field alongside Andrews, UCLA’s top returning receiver, as part of the Bruins’ starting lineup in the season opener against Texas A&M on Sept. 3 at the Rose Bowl.

“He has certainly worked his way into the discussion,” Mora said. “It’s a credit to him and only him and his work ethic and what he stands for, what he believes in and you cheer for those guys.”

His rooting section includes the teammate who will be throwing him the ball.

“He kind of waited for this shot patiently for years and here it is and he’s seizing the moment,” quarterback Josh Rosen said.

Pabico already made one improbable rise after transferring from Gahr to Poly. In his debut with the Jackrabbits, Pabico’s first two catches went for touchdowns that lifted his team to victory in a close game. Then came his winning touchdown in the playoff opener.

The Bruins might be about to find out what he can do for them given a chance.

“I think that’s what they’re realizing right now,” Lara said.“This kid can play.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com

Twitter: @latbbolch