From fútbol to football, Fabian Moreau finds his calling

Fabian Moreau was set up for failure.

That’s the way his father, Berg Moreau, saw his situation, and so that’s what he told his son. At the time, the then-freshman running back didn’t see it much differently.

Now, things could hardly be more different. Entering his second year as a starting cornerback, the junior appears to be knocking on the door of a breakout season.

Ask coach Jim Mora, and the knocking would probably be better construed as pounding. Mora sees Moreau as a potential All-American this season, and a surefire future NFL first-round draft pick.

“In year three, for him to be where he’s at, that’s kind of tremendous,” said defensive backs coach Demetrice Martin.

From another perspective, perhaps Moreau’s ascent should have come as less of a surprise, more the inevitable.

“This is a kid, when you tell him, ‘This is what you need to do to get there,’ I’m guaranteeing he’s going to do what he needs to do to get there,” his father said.

“He’s always a fighter. That’s just Fabian.”

***

During the second week of his first fall camp in 2012, a simple pre-practice phone call threw Moreau’s UCLA career trajectory far off course.

On one end was then-UCLA running backs coach Steve Broussard. On the other end was Moreau, then a freshman running back.

Broussard asked him if he would mind trying defense, as a cornerback. The coaches, specifically Martin, felt Moreau had the potential to be a very good cornerback.

Taken aback, Moreau didn’t know what to say.

He had never played defense before, let alone cornerback. Throughout his football career, all he had ever really known was running back, he said.

“(Running back) was part of his skin, he said one time,” said his mother, Guerly Moreau.

On the phone with Broussard, in the heat of the moment, Fabian Moreau relented, telling his coach he would do whatever to help the team, which meant giving up his prized position for the unknown.

Immediately afterward, Moreau was back on the phone – this time to call his father for guidance.

“Oh my god, that’s just a recipe for failure,” his father said upon hearing the news.

After a few moments, Berg Moreau asked his son how he felt about the switch.

“He said, ‘Dad, I’ve never played that position before. I just don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it,’” his father recalled.

Together, the two pondered the situation.

For Moreau to learn such a different position this late in his career would be difficult. And for him to compete against players who were recruited as cornerbacks would make the task even more challenging.

“To (Fabian), it was just like, ‘Oh Dad, this is not going to work,’” his father recalled of his son’s feelings.

But over the course of the phone call, his father came to his senses quicker than Moreau did. His father told him the coaches are experts. If they felt like he was a corner, he should be open to it. Give it a chance, he said.

Listening, Moreau became determined.

It would be a challenge, he thought.

“He told me, ‘Dad I’m going to give it a 100 percent. I’m going to give it a 110 percent if that’s what it takes. I’m going to learn it and I’m going to try and be a successful corner,’” his father said.

Yet the adjustment didn’t come as easy as a few spoken words. It happened slowly, and as father and son predicted, arduously. The initial shock of the move took an entire month for Moreau to overcome, he said.

Early on, in a phone call to his mother, Moreau opened up about his struggles.

“He basically told me that it was really, really different for him. He was a little bit down on himself at first because he felt he wasn’t really comfortable yet and that he made some mistakes (during practice),” she said.

“So we just told him to hang in there, and that if the coaches felt that he should be at corner, just to take it in stride.”

During that time, the coaches told him another thing, too: Forget that he had ever played running back – and football – before; pretend this was his first time playing football.

Essentially, at 18 years old, Moreau had embarked on a career restart.

Luckily for him, he had been in a similar situation before.

***

It’s fútbol, not football.

Or at least that’s how it started out in the Moreau household.

Since the age of 5, Moreau was a soccer player, and as his dad – who had often coached him on the pitch – noted, a very good one. Their dreams aligned: Moreau would go on to earn a college scholarship in soccer.

One day, at the age of 12, Moreau came up to his dad with a simple wish – the same one he had asked a year earlier.

“‘Dad, I want to try football,’” his father said, repeating his son’s words.

The year before, he had snuffed his son’s request. Football was a contact sport, and Moreau, at his then-estimated 5-foot-2-inch, 115-pound figure, was too small and skinny for such a violent game, his dad thought.

He wanted to keep Moreau in soccer. And to do so, he had to let him indulge, and fail. So he hatched a plan.

It would be simple: Moreau doesn’t stand a chance of making the football team, he doesn’t know the game and he’s still too small. Why not let him try out, knowing he won’t make the cut? Then he can continue with soccer.

Moreau’s fifth day of the five-day tryout for the Coral Springs youth football team came and went. Afterwards, when his dad arrived to pick him up, he stood outside, holding his new football pads and gear. The plan had failed. He had made the team.

The following year, the plan seemed to backfire.

After spending time playing both sports simultaneously, Moreau’s interests seemed to be shifting.

“At that point, I could see he was not doing soccer for himself, he was doing it for me,” his father said. “Because he knows that I loved the game and I coached him.”

So one night, after a soccer game, his father pulled him aside.

He told his son how different he looked playing football than soccer. When Moreau played soccer, he wasn’t being himself. He wasn’t giving the effort that he used to.

Moreau too wanted himself to play well. To succeed. To earn a scholarship.

He just felt his odds were better at another sport.

“He says, ‘Dad I feel that soccer’s not for me. I want to get a scholarship, but I know I’m not going to get a scholarship in soccer. Dad, please let me play football,’” his father recalled of his son’s words.

That night, his mother and father – neither of whom were fond of his decision then – discussed the matter, and came to a resolution: He would be allowed to play football, and only football.

“It was hard (to leave soccer) because that’s what (my dad) loved and I loved it at first too,” Moreau said. “But it’s what I had to do.”

In time, Moreau grew bigger and taller, eventually up to his 6-foot, 195-pound college frame. His skills developed, and his game blossomed, propelling him to a three-star (Rivals and Scout) high school running back recruit.

He would earn that coveted scholarship.

But just not as originally planned.

***

Over a year removed from their son’s switch to cornerback, Berg and Guerly Moreau sat in the stands for UCLA’s 2013 season opener against Nevada at the Rose Bowl. The names of the starters began to appear on the big screen, one after another, and eventually – to their disbelief – their son’s name came up.

The two looked at each other, and his mother began to cry.

Until that moment, neither had any idea their son would be starting. He hadn’t told them.

In Moreau’s eyes, he was still fighting for the position. It wasn’t set in stone, so he remained mum on the topic.

But one thing was evident: Moreau was at last beginning to fit as a cornerback.

He had been relegated to mostly special teams as a freshman, but started 12 games at corner in 2013, earning the distinction of honorable mention All-Pac-12.

During UCLA’s recently concluded fall camp, Moreau’s play spoke volumes. He locked down each of the Bruins’ receivers with relative ease, unequivocally proving himself as one of UCLA’s best players.

“He’s showing the maturity, he’s showing the confidence and he’s showing the quietness … of corners who covered at the next level,” Martin said.

Entering the season, UCLA appears to have found its lockdown corner. And maybe, if Mora’s foresight is crystal-clear, an All-American.

Either way, it now seems Moreau is set up for success.