Michigan DB Zeke Berry on 'regaining' his 'confidence,’ what positions he's playing, more
Michigan Wolverines football junior Zeke Berry is slated to be a breakout player on defense. He’s splitting practice reps evenly between safety and nickel back, after playing exclusively at the former spot his first two seasons in Ann Arbor.
Berry has played just 45 total defensive snaps during his career, but he’s expected to be a major part of a unit under first-year coordinator Wink Martindale. Berry played behind multiple All-Big Ten defensive backs but stayed persistent and knows his time is coming.
“I’ve been waiting my turn for two years now, practicing hard, making sure I’m doing the right things to get the opportunity now,” the 5-foot-11, 196-pounder said. “Coming from those guys, it makes me feel good about myself and make me be able to regain my confidence again.
“Actually, when we were practicing for the spring game, I started to regain my confidence. I started making more plays out there, getting in the play book a lot more, picking the brain of the older guys to see how they think of football and then try to take some of the things that they do into my own game. After that, I started to regain my confidence and just be me on the field.”
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Berry learned quite a bit from Michigan’s starter at nickel the last two seasons — Mike Sainristil, the No. 50 overall pick in the NFL Draft — and some veterans who are still on the roster.
Sainristil and senior safety Rod Moore, who went down with an ACL injury in a spring practice, have been two he’s looked up to.
“Both of those guys really know football a lot,” Berry said. “Being able to watch Mike on the field at practice or even off the field, he’s a role model for me, and I just looked up to him every day. I tried to pick his brain on football and even outside of football, just to see how he can help me.
“And also with Rod, too, he’s a smart guy. Being able to have guys you can use as resources, that makes me feel good.
“Guys that I’ve tried to latch onto more are [junior cornerback] Will Johnson, [graduate safety] Makari [Paige] and Rod. Those are some great guys that we have in the defensive room. And just being around them and helping them while they help me, that’s been helping me a lot more than I could do myself. So that means a lot.”
Moore going down with his injury in March was stunning and saddening for Michigan’s entire secondary group, per Berry.
“When Rod went down, it hit all of us, like, ‘Wow.’ But he’s grown from it,” he said. “He’s still been able to help us on the field and off, in the meeting room, whatever we need. Just being able to still have him there — whether it’s on the field or not — has been helping us as a defense a lot more.”
Berry has used the resources in the program to adjust to playing both nickel and safety, and he’s getting more and more comfortable playing closer to the line of scrimmage.
“Something that I had to adjust to was just the position,” Berry said of nickel. “Being at safety, you’re further back in the defense, but being at nickel, you’re up in front. Just being able to juggle those and finding the right spots and positioning. Obviously, that’s something that I struggled with at one point, but I feel like I’m getting better at it now.”
Michigan will be led into battle by first-year head coach Sherrone Moore, who said he doesn’t have any “nerves” heading into the opener. Berry shed some light on how Moore’s demeanor has been with the preseason practice cycle winding down.
“He’s confident, like how he always is,” the Michigan defensive back said. “He’s ready to go out there and lead the team into where we want to go. He’s been locked in, focused throughout the whole camp, and even more locked in now than he was before.”
