BOULDER — Halfway through spring camp, cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin is happy with what he’s seen from his group.
“We’re pretty good right now,” Martin told reporters Wednesday. “We’re on the incline.”
Colorado returns most of its 2020 group, which was arguably the best in the Pac-12. Free safety Derrion Rakestraw transferred to Tulane, but the rest of the starters are back with the team for 2021.
But just because the players largely remained the same, doesn’t mean everything else has.
“Coach (Chris) Wilson brought over an NFL scheme and guys are taking a liking to it,” Martin said.
Wilson was promoted to defensive coordinator this offseason and he made a bunch of tweaks and changes to the defense. The terminology was overhauled and Wilson doesn’t think of his defense as having any sort of “base,” after running a base 3-4 previously.
Martin teams up with safeties coach and defensive passing game coordinator Brett Maxie to teach the changes to the secondary. The pair joined Colorado’s staff 13 months ago when Karl Dorrell built his initial staff. They’d never worked together but—at least so far—things have gone well.
“We’re like the good cop and the bad cop in the old westerns,” Martin said. “Maxie has that smooth, smooth taste but don’t let it fool you and I kind of get rough around the edges a little bit. We’ve got the perfect mix.”
Martin and Maxie want their defensive backs to have a perfect mix, too. They don’t want to see inside corners and outside corners, and free safeties and strong safeties, they want to see well-rounded defensive backs.
“We want guys to be able to play different positions and be true defensive backs,” Martin said. “(We’ve been) moving guys around and getting them familiar with the defense with them playing different spots, that way they can better match to the spot they hold on to during the season.”
The coaches call this process “cross-training” and Mekhi Blackmon knows all about it.
Blackmon moved around the secondary a little during the 2020 season but he played the majority of his snaps as CU’s left outside cornerback. But Colorado has too many young guys who project as outside cornerbacks, so Blackmon told the coaches he wanted to move inside to open up reps for the younger guys outside.
“I told them I wanted to go to nickel,” Blackmon said on Monday. “I wanted to play in the slot, which will help me more when I do go back to corner in the fall. Going to nickel, I had to understand different leverages. I feel like it is going to boost my game.”
While Blackmon and second-year true freshman Christian Gonzalez figure to run it back as the starters in 2021, Martin said that some of the other corners—like Nigel Bethel—could get in on the action.
“I don’t want to pin him in, saying that he’s just going to add solid depth,” Martin said. “He’s gonna be a guy that’s gonna be up for the front-running.”
Head coach Karl Dorrell said last week that the ball seems to find Bethel in practice and he consistently comes up with interceptions. That lines up with what we saw last season, when Bethel notched an interception and a pass breakup despite being targeted only three times all season, per Pro Football Focus.
According to Martin, Bethel kept his hot streak alive on Wednesday during the eighth of 15 spring practices.
“Shoot, today he got two interceptions, one in a situational (drill) that was kind of big,” Martin said. “Nigel has a natural knack for getting around the ball. It’s just (up to) him refining his tools as far as the technique.”
Outside of Bethel, there are plenty of other competitors for the cornerback jobs next season. One of them is Tyrin Taylor, a first-year true freshman who arrived on campus a semester early.
“It’s almost the equivalent to a whole season, him being here (for spring ball),” Martin said. “When we come back for fall camp, I think that’s going to be one of his biggest leaps as far as confidence, knowing the different techniques and knowing the terminology within the defense. Like I said, he’s a very smart kid who finds himself around the ball.”
But unseating Blackmon, one of the best cornerbacks in the Pac-12, or Gonzalez is going to be difficult. Especially when you consider the growth Gonzalez has reportedly shown this spring.
Martin said that high school football was too easy for Gonzalez, and that may have held him back. Now that he’s refining his technique and watching film, Martin says he’s developed as a player.
“The main thing where he’s grown up a lot is—because of the film study—his communication on the field,” Martin said. “He used to keep secrets out there. He could know what was coming but he wouldn’t tell everybody.”
In other words, Gonzalez recognized the plays offenses were running in 2020 but didn’t trust his reads enough to tell the rest of the secondary what was coming.
“Like, ‘Hey man, it’s okay to let your boys know on defense what play they’re about to run if you know it,'” Martin said. “He’s getting a lot better at that and I expect that to keep rolling.”
If you were wondering whether Colorado could repeat its defensive success from a year ago in 2021, the fact that Gonzalez will be tipping the secondary off as to what play the offense is running should put your mind at ease.
