Bruins seeking to overcome inexperience at cornerback spot

The most experienced of the bunch still wears braces. That’s how young UCLA’s cornerbacks are.

With the departure of Fabian Moreau, a likely high-round pick in this spring’s NFL draft, junior cornerback Nate Meadors – who said after Wednesday’s practice that he expects to get the braces off next month – has been thrust into a leadership role.

“My dentist takes forever,” Meadors joked after Wednesday’s morning practice.

The metal mouth is deceiving. Meadors has played 19 games in his two years at UCLA and started eight times for the Bruins last fall opposite Moreau.

He will hold down one of the starting corner spots this fall, but the other side is an open competition between a group of inexperienced defensive backs.

Of the three primary competitors – redshirt junior Denzel Fisher, redshirt sophomore Colin Samuel and redshirt freshman Keyon Riley – none have started a game in college, and the little game action they’ve seen has mostly been on special teams.

“We have a lot of young dudes, but they’re coming along well,” Meadors said.

To increase positional flexibility during the season, defensive backs coach Demetrice Martin pushes his players to learn the responsibilities of every defensive back slot during spring meetings.

“Guys have to learn how to play nickel, dime, free safety, strong safety and play corner,” Martin said. “We’re in the Pac-12, and the ball is up a lot – the conference of quarterbacks – so we like to get guys cross-trained and able to play every position because it’s a matchup league.”

That only adds to the difficulty of a position that both Martin and defensive coordinator Tom Bradley agreed was the toughest to learn as a young player. They both lauded highly touted early enrollee Darnay Holmes for his ability to integrate quickly into the unit.

“It’s not so much the physical (adjustment),” Bradley said. “He’s getting tired – he’s not used to this type of tempo, obviously – but mentally, there’s a lot of stuff we put in. … The learning curve in the pass game is a lot different than high school.”

That said, Holmes has looked impressive during the spring, inspiring some thought that he could see the field this fall.

“He just needs to get his strength up – get used to how fast the game is and how strong the guys are – but his athleticism supersedes a lot,” Martin said. “He makes up a lot with his athleticism. I think he’s a guy that can definitely impact.”

Even if Holmes doesn’t play much on defense, he could be a difference-maker on special teams.

Holmes came flying off the right edge during the final play of Wednesday’s 11-on-11 action to block a field goal that determined whether the offense or the defense won the session.

“Darnay is special,” Martin said.