LOS ANGELES — Jacob Busic could hardly wait. The redshirt senior defensive end had been on punt coverage duties all season long, but the opportunity to be the man with the ball in his hands — a rarity for the former Navy transfer — was something Busic relished.
UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper called a timeout. Down 28-14 to Nebraska — in a game the Bruins would ultimately lose by 7 points on Saturday to drop to 3-6 overall (3-3 Big Ten), and at their own 19-yard line, UCLA needed to talk over what they were about to do.
“I feel like it added more to the excitement, just like more of a buildup,” Busic said. “I was really excited for it, but definitely a little nervous.”
Fake punts had already become a calling card for Skipper and Co., successfully converting numerous attempts since the former Fresno State interim coach took over ahead of Week 4. But with little room for error and so backed up into their own side of the field, UCLA needed to convert if it was going to roll the dice.
Busic took the snap and stormed forward — using every bit of his own might, and advice from his coaches, the Maryland native got just enough for the first down on fourth-and-1. A 2-yard gain — and a sigh of relief made it a special teams moment to remember for Busic.
“My number was called,” Busic said, joining redshirt sophomore safety Cole Martin as the other Bruin to successfully gain a first down on a fake punt. “I was excited for it. I was thinking that we were gonna get it that game. I felt like that was the game — [my coaches] told me just, when I get it, just fall forward. So that’s what I did.”
UCLA would ultimately whiff on the drive itself — and fall a score short of tying Nebraska to send the game to overtime — to make Busic’s efforts for naught. Busic, however, knows where the Bruins could shore up some of their woes.
Busic, along with the rest of the defensive tackles, edge rushers, linebackers and safeties, have failed to record a sack across their last three games. UCLA remains in dead last in both the Big Ten and the nation in sacks and tackles for loss in the 2025 season. The Bruins average 0.67 sacks per game (six overall), and just 3.1 tackles per loss per game (for 28 overall), both marks comfortably at the bottom of the FBS field.
There’s always different challenges,” Skipper said. “Sometimes we’re playing teams that slide their front, so we have to read the slide and counter the slide, so there’s a lot of different factors that go into it, but we’ll keep doing what we’re doing, just try to keep getting better and try to apply some pressure to the quarterbacks.”
Busic, the 6-foot-4, 265-pound defensive tackle, who owns three tackles for loss and one sack, said the key to getting back on the sack charts is getting their foes to third-and-long, which Nebraska did not have to face often last week. That will be a challenge against top-ranked Ohio State on Saturday. The Buckeyes have dominated time of possession this year, and have allowed only five sacks all season.
“You got to earn the right to rush to the passer is what we say,” he said. “Hats off to Nebraska. They stayed on schedule. They did a great job moving the ball, keeping a consistent run game. So we got to be better, stop the run, and then earn the right to rush to the passer.”