Michigan DBs coach LaMar Morgan names four players vying for starting nickel role

On Monday afternoon, Michigan defensive backs coach LaMar Morgan and wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy met with the media to discuss their respective position groups as the 2025 football season inches closer. Now inside three weeks until opening kickoff, it’s becoming crunch time for the Michigan Wolverines in fall camp.

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Position battles will soon be won and lost, and it’s up to coaches like Morgan and Bellamy to determine which players give the Wolverines the best chance of winning football games. Morgan, though, is in a particularly unique position. The 40-year-old coach is dealing with arguably the deepest and most intricate position groups on the entire roster.

This fall camp, nickelback has drawn far more discussion than normal. Last season, Michigan rotated mainly between Zeke Berry and Makari Paige at nickel. With Paige now off to the New York Giants, most would assume that Berry would be the easy selection to be Michigan’s fifth defensive back.

However, at Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas last month, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore revealed that the Michigan coaching staff prefers Berry at corner rather than at nickel.

“We see Zeke as a corner that can play nickel if we need him to,” Moore said. “Really like Zeke at corner.”

But when asked specifically about the nickel position on Monday, Morgan threw Berry’s name into the ring, potentially implying that while Michigan may like Berry at corner, it may need him to play nickel.

“Some of the guys that probably worked a lot with the one group would be Sug [Jyaire Hill], would be TJ [Metcalf], you know, would be Mason Curtis, would be Zeke. That’s probably all the guys that have you seen already played,” Morgan said.

While Morgan did note that Michigan is working other younger players in at nickel like Jeremiah Lowe and Tevis Metcalf, he admitted that the position is meant to be played by an older, more experienced player.

“It’s probably one of the best DBs on the field,” Morgan said. “So I think that’s kind of an older position for a guy. He’s been in the program. He knows the system. He knows the scheme. He can run. He can cover. He can tackle. He can blitz. It’s a unique position. I think it’s really hard to go out and recruit a guy for that sometimes because usually it’s just a guy that has a lot of fight, really aggressive and all that.”

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