Michigan DBs coach LaMar Morgan dishes on leaders at No. 2 cornerback and nickel
ANN ARBOR – Michigan Wolverines defensive backs coach LaMar Morgan is overseeing a bit of an overhaul in his defensive back room from last season. Star cornerback Will Johnson and safeties Makari Paige and Quinten Johnson are known commodities, but there will be a number of new faces in prominent roles.
Chief among them is sophomore Jyaire Hill at the No. 2 cornerback spot. He heads into the home stretch of fall camp as the favorite to win the job across from Johnson.
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The Michigan defensive backs boss agreed on Sunday.
“I think right now, you would say the early favorite would be Jyaire,” Morgan said. “I think he’s done a great job. He probably has a little bit of an advantage over some of the guys that are in the program. Just by getting all the reps he got this spring football and now fall camp. But I think there’s a constant battle. We have two weeks for guys to continue to make moves. Really excited about the group. We’re going to have to develop some guys that maybe y’all don’t know about yet and I think that’s a challenge and encouragement as a coach.
“It’s going to be a young group. I know everybody knows about Will, but all the guys behind him, there’s going to be a lot of guys that are going to play hard for this university and do a great job.”
Michigan’s cornerback battle is made up of a true sophomore in Hill and a pair of transfers in Albany’s Aamir Hall and UNLV’s Ricky Johnson III. Hill is ahead in some respects due to his experience operating within the championship expectations within the program.
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“It’s a different platform when you get here at Michigan,” Morgan said. “The way we practice, our process here.. this is blue collar, tough, a lot of reps in practices. I think for a kid that’s coming in here that’s not used to that, even though you’re an older player, sometimes that ends up being an adjustment. But I think those guys for the most part, are understanding what we want and what we need and where we’re trying to go as a defense and especially in the cornerback room.”
One of the other major battles raging on inside Michigan is at the nickel spot. Replacing the playmaking ability and poise of Mike Sainristil is no easy task. Junior Zeke Berry is the odds-on favorite with some competition for the role.
“I love Zeke,” Morgan said. “Zeke’s going to be a guy that we’re going to try to move around. He’s playing high and low. He’s trying to take on that role of trying to be a leader. Sometimes I think we have some talented guys like Zeke that just haven’t played as much. So, you’re just building confidence in those guys, getting reps in when they don’t feel well and their body’s sore.
“But I think Zeke is probably the leader in that nickel role right now. [Ja’Den McBurrows] is behind him. We’ve been playing some of the other guys behind them. But the two guys that’s been playing nickel the most at practice have been Zeke Berry and J-Mac.”
