LINCOLN — Right in the middle of a conversation about Cameron Meredith perhaps being poised to become a starting defensive end at Nebraska, the sophomore thinks back a few years. And 80 or 90 pounds.
“Funny thing is, I always played linebacker,” Meredith said. “I'd been playing since I was about 8 years old, flag and tackle, and it wasn't until my sophomore year in high school that I got moved to defensive end. That's where it all started, I guess.”
Meredith was a rangy sort, going about 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds. It never occurred to him his future might be somewhere else on the field.
“I just wanted to play,” he said. “They put me there, they thought I'd do good, and it just went from there.”
That old position back in Huntington Beach, Calif., is but a memory these days.
Meredith now goes 6-4 and 265. His physical tools match what Nebraska wants on the outside of its defensive line. It could work out that he starts for the Huskers in just his third year in the program.
“He's a powerful kid,'' NU assistant coach John Papuchis said. “He plays the run well. And he's a deceptively good pass-rusher.
“If you were just to watch him with a naked eye I don't think you would see him as an explosive pass-rusher, but he knows how to work his hips and work his pass-rush moves that allow him to have some success in that area.”
In that regard, Meredith is still figuring some things out. He's using spring practice to work on his steps and being stronger with his inside arm. He felt like his weakest link last season was playing over a tight end.
But the bottom line is that Meredith has played and played early as a Husker.
After redshirting in 2008, he appeared in all 14 games a year ago, finishing with 21 tackles, five tackles for losses, two quarterback hurries and a fumble recovery. Papuchis said he felt comfortable substituting Meredith for either Barry Turner or Pierre Allen last season.
“Since about the second or third game of last year I always viewed Cameron as a guy who was a third starter for us,'' Papuchis said. “I would have felt equally as comfortable with him in the game last year as anybody else. His confidence has grown and he has really stepped into the role well right now.''
The NU staff liked Meredith immediately and even inserted the former All-Orange County player into a game in 2008. That experiment was stopped by an injury and resulted in the redshirt via a medical hardship.
Last season, he had the luxury of playing a decent amount but not being thrown fully under the microscope, allowed to be an understudy on one of the best defensive lines in college football.
The departure of Turner swings a door open, and teammates see Meredith as somebody who can get through it in a hurry.
“Off the edge, he's just as fast as Barry,'' NU offensive tackle Marcel Jones said. “He' still learning the game a little bit, but he's got a natural eye for it, which helps him out a lot.”
Meredith admits things have set up nicely for him. That's why the last thing he wants to do is get lazy or complacent and blow the opportunity.
“Obviously you can always grow as a player, so I'm growing every day,” Meredith said. “That's what I'm trying to do. But I think I'm definitely ready for the job, if I can rise up to the occasion and take it.”
LINK
