A No. 2 cornerback needs to step up alongside Will Johnson for the Michigan Wolverines this year, and it sounds like sophomore Jyaire Hill could be the man for the job:
With a little more than a week until Michigan’s 2024 football season kicks off, position battles are still ongoing in fall camp. The battle for the starting quarterback job has been in the spotlight for much of the offseason, but the battle for the No. 2 cornerback spot is important as well.
In 2023, a big reason for Michigan’s defensive dominance was the play of its secondary, namely corners Will Johnson and Josh Wallace, along with nickel Mike Sainristil. Johnson is back for his third season and has a case to be considered the best overall player in the country, but new contributors are needed to fill the void left by Wallace and Sainristil.
Fortunately, Michigan has plenty of options, and even better, it seems as if someone is already rising to the top of the heap. According to Michigan defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator LaMar Morgan, sophomore Jyaire Hill has been making a strong push to start alongside Johnson.
“I think he’s done a great job,” Morgan said of Hill. “He probably has a little bit of an advantage over some of the other guys that’s in the program, just by getting all the reps he got this spring football — and now fall camp.”
Morgan would even go so far as to say the “early favorite would be ‘Sug’, Jyaire,” to start in Michigan’s season opener against Fresno State.
A former four-star recruit , Hill only appeared in four games last season but made the most of his opportunities. He was named the team’s defensive freshman of the week in games against East Carolina and Nebraska , and totaled eight tackles on the year.
His emergence as a potential starter does come as a bit of a surprise, though, considering Michigan added a pair of corners from the transfer portal in Aamir Hall and Ricky Johnson. Perhaps the added competition has only served to light a fire under Hill to greatly improve his stock with the coaching staff.
Hall and Johnson weren’t the only transfers brought in to compete in Michigan’s secondary, as Wesley Walker and Jaden Mangham were brought in at safety. The Wolverines could potentially use a committee approach at the safety position given the wealth of strong options and their tendency to rotate players in the past.
Meanwhile, Morgan also had some positive things to say about Zeke Berry, who emerged late in the spring as a potential candidate to take over at nickel.
“I think Zeke is probably the leader in that nickel role right now. (Ja’Den McBurrows) is behind him,” Morgan said.
With guys like Hill and Berry emerging at this point in the offseason, Wink Martindale’s defensive depth chart is becoming clearer and clearer. The competition isn’t over yet, according to Morgan, but the secondary appears to be in a good place before Week 1.
“There’s a constant battle, (and) we’ve still got two weeks for guys to make moves,” Morgan said. “I’m real excited about the group.”