Michigan cornerbacks: Three multi-year starters, young former top recruit taking big jump

For the first time since the 2023 national championship team, Michigan Wolverines football will have a veteran secondary, especially if graduate student safety Rod Moore returns fully healthy as expected, coming off a knee injury that required multiple surgeries. The cornerbacks have three players who have started in college football, making for a potentially exciting group.

Cornerbacks coach Jernaro Gilford made the jump from BYU to Ann Arbor with coordinator Jay Hill. Gilford, who spent 10 seasons as the cornerbacks coach for the Cougars, worked under Hill the last three years, including seerving as defensive passing game coordinator in 2025.

The familiarity with the scheme and Michigan’s new coaches were a big reason why he made the move, but he admitted he likely would have even if there weren’t those ties. This is a step up, and he believes he has a lot to work with.

“Talent. I’ll be 100-percent honest with you, we have some talent,” Gilford said on the ‘In The Trenches’ podcast when asked for his first impressions. “We have probably half the group that can play, play, you know what I mean?”

Both starting cornerbacks are in place in graduate Zeke Berry and senior Jyaire Hill, both of whom are entering their third seasons as full-time starters. Plus, senior transfer Smith Snowden, who was limited while recovering from an injury this spring, played in 38 games with 24 starts over the previous three years at Utah.

“The two returners, Jyaire Hill and Zeke Berry, they’ve both shown that they’re efficient in man and zone, and they have a high IQ for the game,” Gilford said. “That was one thing that really, really stood out to me, the way that they took the coaching and applied it to the field, especially with everything being so new.

“A guy like Smith Snowden came over from Utah, didn’t get as much live as everybody else, but when he stepped on the field, you could tell like, ‘OK, he’s going to be a player.’”

Snowden is more likely to play nickel back than on the outside, but Berry can slide over there, too. Both are expected to see time at multiple positions. Hill mentioned this spring that he took some reps at nickel, noting how challenging it is to have so much space on both sides of him.

Snowden was a big-time addition for the Michigan defense.

“Experience in this defense, a similar style of defense,” Gilford said of what he brings. “Coach Jay Hill was already with [head] Coach [Kyle] Whitt[ingham at Utah]. He knows everything that’s going on, he knows the calls, he knows all the adjustments from the shifts and motions and stuff like that. And then he’s a guy that’s cat quick and has man coverage and ball skills.”

Michigan sophomore Shamari Earls — a 6-foot-2, 205-pound former top-100 recruit out of Virginia — has seemingly stepped in as the fourth cornerback, a welcomed sign after classmate Jayden Sanders transferred to Notre Dame after making spot starts a year ago.

“And then we had some young guys,” Gilford continued. “Shamari Earls, a big, long guy who can run. Had his ups and downs, but by the end of spring ball he came around. And then everybody else is just kind of young, and we have to continue to develop those guys.”

From the sounds of it, Michigan will play more man-to-man coverage under Hill than when previous coordinator Wink Martindale was in charge.

“The thing that we have to work on most is playing man-to-man,” Gilford said. “It’s just different techniques that we have to teach and a different mindset of not letting your man catch the ball and having to compete. I think that was the challenge mentally, because guys were getting open, catching the ball — but that’s man-to-man.”

Moving on to the next play — no matter what came before it — is a mindset that Gilford is instilling into Michigan’s cornerbacks.

“Man-to-man coverage and having that short-term memory, knowing that guys are going to catch the ball sometimes,” Gilford said. “Of course, I want them to get irritated when they give up catches, especially when they knew what was coming and they were prepared for a certain concept. That’s when they get irritated a little bit, because they’re like, ‘Damn, coach. I knew it. I saw two on a side. I felt it.’ Trust it. Trust it. Because that’s the hard part of actually trusting what you see if you haven’t done it.

“Just the way they respond. I always tell them, ‘The way that you respond will make up for everything that’s happened prior to it, whether that’s good or bad. If you make a great play, good; respond again. If you make a bad play, respond.’ We have every single play being on that island, just like [offensive] tackle. You can give up two-straight sacks, but then all of the sudden your next 60 plays are lights out and you guys win, you had a damn good game. Just having the next-play mentality.”

Gilford has built a relationship with his Michigan players throughout the last several months and is gearing them up for the season.

“Just holding them accountable, and then the four keys to success that I go by,” he said of how they’re bonding. “Being disciplined, first off, just doing the small things right, on and off the field, and holding them accountable to that. The next thing is respect, giving each other respect — eye contact, ‘yes sir, no sir,’ and I’m going to say the same thing back. And there are two words that can take you a long way: ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ Period.

“And then I believe once you have the discipline, now the respect comes, now we can start earning trust, because trust is hard these days. I’m going to just call a spade a spade, it is what it is. That’s why I’m saying if we have the discipline and the respect, now we can trust each other. Now, once we trust each other, that’s when you always hear about players running through the wall for [coaches] and vice versa. With those four things, it builds the relationship, it builds the accountability, having the discipline, respect, trust and hard work.”