Rod Moore knew the potential that lay ahead of him this season. The safety knew that by returning to the Michigan football team for his senior year, he set himself up to take on a key role for the Wolverines.
From the moment spring practices began, Moore embraced that role. He drew praise from his teammates for his leadership and elicited comparisons to former Ravens All-Pro safety Eric Weddle from Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale. He was primed to quarterback the defense and serve as a cornerstone in maintaining the high standard set by previous Wolverines defenses.
But then Moore went down with an injury, and Michigan defensive backs coach Lamar Morgan confirmed on April 10 that he’ll need surgery. While Moore can still be a leader for the Wolverines and can be the second “Coach Moore” on the sidelines, he can’t do it on the field for the foreseeable future.
So, in looking down the depth chart for somebody to take on some of the newly available snaps, Michigan found someone else with some — albeit not All-Pro level — pretty good comparisons of his own.
“I think a guy that’s really stepped up is (junior defensive back) Zeke Berry,” Morgan said April 10 in response to a question about who could replicate cornerback Mike Sainristil’s production this season. “I think Zeke Berry is gonna be a unique player for us here. He’s still young and he’s still gotta develop them, but he’s got those traits.”
Sainristil-like traits or not, Berry won’t be taking on all of Moore’s snaps right away. He played mostly on special teams last season, appearing in just three games at defensive back. Rather, graduate safety Makari Paige will likely shoulder the brunt of Moore’s duties, helped by fellow graduate safety Quinten Johnson.
There’s still plenty of remaining snaps in the secondary to go around, though. And while the circumstances that led to Berry’s opportunity are unfortunate, he’s ready to take it nonetheless.
“It’s sad that (Moore) goes down, that’s one of our top guys,” Berry said April 11. “So I feel like him going down was like a sad moment for all the DBs in the room, but it created opportunity for me to come out there and showcase what I can do for the team and the DBs.”
In the wake of Moore’s injury, Morgan said he expects Berry to move around and fill multiple roles this season, which Berry has done in practice thus far. He’s taken snaps at both safety and nickel corner, following in the footsteps of Moore at the former and Sainristil at the latter.
Berry is also paying special attention to what both of them do best. From Moore, that means understanding how to read opposing offensive formations and make calls at the line of scrimmage. From Sainristil, he’s learned tenets of how to be a leader and wants to put his own spin on them.
“I want to be a leader just like how he was, but in my style,” Berry said. “So how he would, if we had a bad practice, he’d bring up the whole defense and be like, ‘OK, we gotta get it going.’ … I’m trying to take things from him and how he did things and just put my own style on it.”
Berry admits that he doesn’t know exactly what that style is yet. But just like he’s figuring out how to read offenses, he’s figuring his style out too. The upcoming season will likely be his first time in a sizable role with the Wolverines, and there will be plenty of teachable moments along the way.
For now, though, Berry has his opportunity to play, and he’s ready to show what he’s already learned.