Bruins Add Bit of Green to Secondary, Making Cornerback Gray Area

UCLA’s young secondary got a little younger last week, when freshman Carlton Gray started at cornerback in the Bruins’ 24-6 victory over California.

A true freshman hadn’t started for the Bruins since Jan. 1, 1985, when tailback Gaston Green opened in the Fiesta Bowl against Miami. And a true freshman hadn’t started on defense for UCLA since 1983, when cornerback Chuckie Miller did it against Brigham Young University.

In many ways, though, Gray is not like most freshmen.

Intelligent and serious-minded, he finished fourth in his senior class of 198 last spring at Forest Park High School in Cincinnati, earning better than a straight-A average while taking accelerated academic courses.

And athletically, the 6-foot-2, 180-pound Gray is talented enough to draw interest from almost all the major college football powers, eventually deciding on UCLA after first announcing that he would sign with Miami.

A grandson of Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, Gray won the Dial Award last spring as the nation’s outstanding high school scholar-athlete.

In some ways, though, Gray is no different than any other freshman away from home for the first time.

Only a few weeks ago, in fact, he was so homesick that his mother, Patricia Hooks, believed that the youngest of her two sons might pack up and leave and show up on her doorstep at any moment.

“I think he had that in the back of his mind,” she said. “But I told him, ‘You’ve made a commitment. It’s too early to decide to go someplace else.’ ”

In the weeks since, Gray has moved up on the depth chart, making his debut as a reserve strong safety and nickel safety against San Diego State, then playing those same positions against Michigan.

Last week, his coaches moved him back to cornerback, which was the position he played in fall camp, and into the starting lineup ahead of Randy Beverly, who is hampered by a broken toe.

Gray, 18, is expected to start again Saturday night at the Rose Bowl against Arizona State.

“Football has really helped me get over the homesickness,” Gray said. “Since I’m playing, I don’t constantly think about being away from home.”

His mother has noticed.

“He’s settling in,” she said. “I can tell the difference in his voice.”

Like most first-year Bruins, Gray expected to spend a year on the sidelines as a redshirt. Before this season, UCLA had used only four true freshmen in four years.

Injuries, suspensions and poor grades, however, have taken five defensive backs out of the Bruins’ lineup, and Gray was the first freshman to step forward and show that he is ready to contribute.

(Another freshman, Patrick Bates of Galveston, Tex., may start at strong safety Saturday night in place of sophomore Matt Darby, who is listed as doubtful after pinching a nerve in his neck last week.)

Bill Rees, UCLA’s recruiting coordinator, considered Gray one of the nation’s top five defensive-back prospects last season, but he said that Gray has exceeded even the Bruins’ high expectations.

“He’s been advanced in regard to his poise and his understanding of the coverages and what’s expected of him,” Rees said. “He’s a very heady player for a guy so young. He’s very bright, has very good instincts and anticipates very well.

“Larry Coyer (who coaches UCLA’s defensive backs) calls it moxie. He says Carlton has a great deal of moxie.”

The son of a businessman and an elementary school teacher--his father, divorced from his mother, owns a country-music radio station in Vevay, Ind.--Gray also has a great deal of athletic talent.

He was a multisport star at Forest Park, where he gained All-American recognition in football and basketball and ran on the school’s state champion 400-meter relay team. Depending on how he feels at the end of the season, he may play basketball at UCLA, too. Last November, Gray said, he seriously considered signing a letter of intent to play basketball at Stanford.

He ultimately chose football over basketball.

“I just felt, in the long run, I’d have a better chance to play professionally in football than in basketball, because of the numbers,” he said.

His goals at UCLA, in order of preference, are to earn a degree, win “not just one, but at least two national championships” and earn recognition not only as an All-American, but also as an academic All-American.

At first, he said, his loneliness affected his relationship with his new coaches and might have held him back.

“I wasn’t responsive,” he said. “I wasn’t talking back or anything, but I was moping around.”

His high school coach, Lou Cynkar, who considers Gray a close friend, said of his former student: “Unless you know him well, he stays kind of locked up in a shell. He can be funny--he can be a kid--but he’s a serious kid.”

In the last few weeks, though, Gray has started to relax.

Still, he’s a little surprised to be playing so much so soon.

“My biggest strength is that I’ve been able to pick up the system and been able to recognize formations,” he said. “Of course, that comes through help from Eric Turner and Matt Darby and Dion Lambert (his teammates in UCLA’s secondary). They constantly talk to me.”

So does his mother, who arrives tonight for a weekend visit.

“I’ve built up a pretty big phone bill,” Gray admitted.

And, in a short time, a pretty good reputation, too.