Everything LaMar Morgan said during his fall camp press conference

On the second cornerback position

Well, I think right now, you would say the early favorite would be, you know, Sug, Jyaire. I think he's done a great job. He probably has a little bit of an advantage over some of the guys that are in the program. Just by getting all the reps, he got this spring football and then, you know, now fall camp. But I think there's a constant battle. We got two weeks for guys to continue to make moves. Really excited about the group. You know, we're going to have to develop some guys that maybe y'all don't know about yet and I think that's a challenge and encouragement as a coach. It's going to be a young group. I know everybody knows about Will, but all the guys behind him, there's going to be a lot of guys that's going to, you know, play hard for this university and do a great job.

On adjusting as a young corner

Well, you know, I think this is a different, you know, it's a different platform when you get here at Michigan. The way we practice, our process here, you know, this is blue collar, tough, you know, a lot of reps, two-spot practices. I think for a kid that's coming in here that's not used to that, even though you're an older player, sometimes that ends up being an adjustment. But I think those guys, for the most part, are understanding, you know, what we want and what we need and, you know, where we're trying to go as a defense and especially in the cornerback room.

On Jaden Mangham

I think Mangham's a good kid. You know, I think he works really hard. A good thing about him is he's a mature player and he started games at Michigan State. Once again, you know, I think you got to ask all the transfers. We do things different here and what I mean by that is just the style of practice, what you face at practice every day, the offense that we run, you know, downhill, play-action shots, a lot of different things like that. I think that's, you know, could be challenging for a guy that comes in here with just the spots and how we practice. But he's done a good job of trying to learn the new playbook. You know, he wasn't here in the spring. You know, we got him later in the summer. So, just the adjustment of trying to put like, you know, it's different between a meeting and a sheet of paper or a playbook and then now actually being out there, you know, executing the defense. I also think his safety is a little bit different than at corner. I think his safety, one of the elite traits, is making other people around you better. So, I think if you look at all the great safeties that we have had here before, you know, I know you all talk about Rod all the time. When he's on the field, everybody feels comfortable. And I think it's hard for a safety if you don't know everything that's going on to make others around you. So, I would think that's probably a challenge with all our new young guys in the secondary, whether they're freshmen or transfers.

On Brandyn Hillman

I think the one thing here is you got to work for it every day. And I think that's the culture here. I think when you wake up in the morning, when I wake up every morning, I know, you know, you got to win today. Don't worry about the next day. And I think that's probably the mentality you want, especially in that safety group. I think we got a lot of guys that can play next year. I think there's a lot of guys that we roll the ball off against Fresno, six, seven guys that you will be okay with being in the game. You know, I think that's encouragement too as a coach and also to those kids in their work. You know, whatever they do, we'll find out what they do well and find a role for them. So, I'm really excited about B. Hill. You know, last year he played like 60 plays on defense. You know, he didn't do as much in the spring, but he's been out there every single day trying to be a leader. And I'm really excited about him this season.

On how much of what Rod Moore did can be put on Wesley Walker's plate

I think the thing with Rod is, you know, I think it's kind of like having a coach on the field. You know, he's a quarterback. You know, all the stuff, the adjustments, the checks, the communications, how you see it, I think that's what Rod got. I think for me to say that one of those guys would take that role, I think that's probably more on Macari's plate or Q's plate, just because they've been here longer. I think those guys are just trying to make sure they can execute the defense, build trust in the coaches, and build trust in the other teammates. But, you know, I think Wes has played a lot of snaps too. I think that's one of the things that we try to do to bring guys in here as transfer that's played a lot of college snaps. Now, does that mean they're better than what we have here? I'm not sure. You know, the games will tell that. But I think that's something where I try to value, you know, trying to keep the culture of a room, also bringing new guys in. I want guys with a lot of reps. So, you know, I'm excited about Wes. He has some versatility. You know, when he was at Georgia Tech, he played nickel. When he was at Tennessee, he played high. So he's played a lot all over the field. All right, Ryan.

On what his biggest strengths are in his career

You know, I love talking to people. I love to find out about their mom, dad, grandma, what they like to eat, you know, what they enjoy, what do they like besides football. I think I want to know who I'm going to surround myself with. You know, I want to know when they get to a place like Michigan, do they want to compete in the classroom? Do they want to, you know, play in this environment that's here, the pressure that is you got to try to win every single game and you're always, you know, in the media. And can they come in front of people like y'all and talk and, you know, tell their story and express themselves. So, to me, I try to look at the big picture. I think there's a lot of players that are talented. I don't know if they fit here at Michigan. I think it's a little bit different. You know, I think it's a blue-collar kid that's talented, you know, always want to have growth, and that's kind of what I look at as a player if I'm trying to get a player. And then after that, I think my strength is just being authentic, just trying to be who I am. You know, sometimes I say jokes that are not funny, and that's okay. Sometimes I say something they think is funny and it wasn't a joke. But I just think I'm going to be myself with parents, and I know when their kids get dropped off here, whether the kid's hurt, whether the kid's a starter, whether the kid's red-shirting, I'm going to talk to them and I'm going to be a mentor to them, and I think that's kind of what I believe in because, you know, as a coach when I was a player, sometimes you can see when you're not up, there's that tension and, you know, do you matter? And I think here everybody in our program matters. So, I think that's just me just trying to be as a person, you know, loving everyone, trying to show them that, you know, I'm open to mistakes and tell them things that I mess up, and I think that's kind of how I do recruiting and just trying to do a good job doing that.

On whether there's differences in recrutuing at a power conference compared to a major level

I think the thing that, you know, I think you can catch yourself, you know, I'm big on development, so, you know, I take a lot of players at other places I've been that never played DB and we had to teach them how to backpedal, and I think here you're not getting that raw of a player, maybe like a B. Hillman, you know, he played quarterback in high school, he never really actually played DB. So, I think that's an advantage for me coming to a place like this because I'm used to not getting a kid that's that high talented. But I do think a place like Michigan when you're recruiting, it's more of a national scene. I mean, I've been a regional recruiter besides the one year I was at Vanderbilt. You know, I've been down south. I haven't been to Chicago or Cleveland or California or, you know, that's just a little bit different here in Michigan. This is a national brand. I mean, I'm in Jamaica and I'm at the resort and they say go blue. My wife's like, this is crazy. I'm sitting at the Hibachi bar thing whenever they're cooking in front of the kids and they've got a Ohio State fan besides there. And they're like big fans, like, and we're just talking, you know. It's just crazy that, you know, when you have that logo on, when you walk into schools and you're out in the community, where you can reach. So, I think that's just kind of where it's unique here. But I do think, you know, I learned this being here, it's the right blend of academics with football. And I've been to some schools where academics were like top ten in the country, but football's not. You know, here you get the best of both worlds. So, you've got to have a family, a kid, environment, all that stuff to, you know, it's just the right mix to me, I think, to get Michigan recruiting here over being at Louisiana Lafayette, which I love, and I played there.

On whether Zeke Berry has held onto the nickel spot

Yeah, I love Zeke. You know, Zeke's going to be a guy that we're going to try to move around. He's playing high and low. So, you know, I think he's trying to take on that role of trying to be a leader. You know, sometimes I think we have some talented guys like Zeke. They just haven't played as much. So, you're just building confidence in those guys, reps in when they don't feel well, you know, when their body's sore. But I think Zeke is probably the leader in that nickel role right now. J-Mac's behind him. We've been playing some of the other guys behind them. But the two guys that's been playing nickel the most at practice have been Zeke Barry and J-Mac. Yes, sir.

On players like Kody Jones and Myles Pollard seeing the field who haven't cracked the depth chart yet

You know, I think during fall camp, it's a selfish time for kids. I think you've got to focus on what can you do today to get your mind and body ready for that day. And I think those two guys have tried to do that and just focus on what they're doing. You know, Myles, I think it's a little bit different when you're, like, the sixth or seventh or eighth corner and now you move up and now we're counting on you. So, when you mess up, it matters. And I think that's what sometimes kids don't understand. Like, it's a big adjustment for young guys sometimes in a program, especially when the guys that they've been playing behind have been All-Americans, NFL pros, so they kind of know what it looks like. Now it's their turn to do that. So, you know, Kody's playing nickel and high safety as well, kind of like how Zeke does. Myles is playing corner. He's been playing left and right. Hopefully, those guys have a really good year. They've been doing a good job in camp. I'm excited about those guys. You know, I do think we have, like you said, we have a lot of guys that y'all know because y'all cover us, but the average fan that maybe not know how long these guys have been in it. I mean, we got guys in their third year of the program maybe played 40 or 50 snaps last year that we're going to be counting on this year. So, it's a challenge. But I think those two kids that you mentioned, plus others, are really excited about the challenge.

On the transfer DBs

I think all of them have been doing a great job. I didn't want to say that they're, like, behind or anything. I would say just, like, it's not about – Michigan football is more than just X's and O's. It's about how we train, how we practice, you know, how you respond, the schedule that we do, all these different things. A lot of kids have never done this. So, like, Wesley's a six-year player. He's never had – he told me after his first couple practices he's never practiced the way we practice. The amount of reps that we do, the style, you know, all those things are just, I think, an adjustment for any kid that comes in the program. I don't care. You could be any program in America. It's just going to be a little bit different here. So, I think all those guys are on the same level of, like, working. Wesley's been getting reps with ones and twos. A lot of these guys have. We try to keep guys rotating in because that's how the games are. You know, your ones aren't always out there. Just trying to interchange them some. I think that's what all of our transfers along with, like, B. Hillman has been getting reps with the ones as well. So, a lot of guys have been getting reps with the ones, and that's kind of how I like it.

On Wesley Walker playing both safety spots

We haven't, like, experimented with him there, but that's something that I think Wes is super talented. He can do, you know, and Wink's very creative. You know, he's going to find a role. He's going to find the top 22 kids or whatever it is, and he's going to find what role those guys are in. So, we're still in that kind of development stage. We've got two weeks, which I think is really exciting for us. You know, I think every day we can try to find a way to get better. So, we've got an off day today. You know, tomorrow we'll get back at it, and we'll try to move as many guys as we can. We want to be a positionless defense where guys can play multiple positions, whether it's you can move a guy in on third down, they don't know what he's doing. I think that's something where Coach Wink, hell, he's been coaching 20 years in the NFL and another almost 20 years in college. I think that's where his specialty is, finding roles for players.

On whether being a positionless defense is putting a lot of people's plate

You know, to me, like I told you when I first met a lot of y'all, is, you know, the teacher background. So, like, to me, when we start teaching concepts, we just teach with X's on the board. It's not like it's a certain position. This is the corner. This is the safety. So, we try to teach the guys in different techniques. If you're a half-field player, playing man in the slot, press in the slot. So, whoever is at that spot, they just know that technique already. So, now when we put a call in, in the corner is going to be a half-field player, which safeties usually are. They know how to use those techniques. So, I would say initially, I do think that could be a challenge for some of the players that maybe not have played a lot, just because they don't know it a lot. But I do think our best, our secret, the weapon here is our players that play so much. Like, Rod Moore is meeting with guys. They got questions. They go to him. You know, me as a coach, I'm going to ask the guys in the meeting room how they see it. Do you see it the same way I see it? If I don't see it the same way they see it, why am I not? Where's the gap at? So, I do think there's a lot of conversation, probably more than most meeting rooms, that I try to encourage because it is a lot when you're playing two or three different positions.

On how he's seen Sherrone Moore grow as a head coach

Well, I think Sherrone is a leader. And what I mean by that is, I think he shows us by example who he is. You know, he hops back and forth to different meeting rooms. He was in my meeting room one day, and we was talking about a play that the offense did, and he told the guys that, you know, this disguise that we're doing is really good, because this is what the offense is doing. I just think his background, he's a people person. Most O-line coaches are, right? Like, they got five O-linemen. Those guys never get any credit a lot, right, until they mess it up. I just think his personality has won over all the coaches and all the team. And these guys love him, and they appreciate him. Us, too, as coaches, just get to know him. So, you know, I might not know him as much as the other guys, but a lot of my mentors that spend so much time with him, that know him, he just, you know, he's just an O-line coach. There's a reason why there's a lot of O-line coaches that will come head coaches and do a really good job. He just has that personality of always wanting to learn, always wanting us to grow as coaches. He'll call us out if we don't do the things right, just like the players. Everybody's challenged, and no one's above approach. And that's the environment that I think me as a coach, I can still grow. And I think that's how our players grow, because how he demands, but he does it with a loving, you know, it's focused on love.

On how his previous coordinator experience benefits his day-to-day process

Well, I think as you're a position coach, right, if you're a position coach, your number one job is to stake something off of Coach Wink's plate. And I think that's the advantage with us, that we have all the coaches that have been coordinators before. So I know what he's trying to do every day, what he has on his plate, trying to get ready for practice. I think that allows me to say, hey, Coach Wink, these are the two things that I did a study. I watched 600 plays of this call. These are the two things that I think are really good. How do you see it? And usually he'll say he trusts me and let's go with it, right, because he really trusts us. So I think that's kind of where I think that allows me just to know how much time and task on hand you have as a DC. You know, I'm used to trying to call everything and have all these things on your plate. But I think us as a staff can allow Coach Wink to do his job. Because at the end of the day, you all know this, you're going to be judged on the coordinator as what happens on game day, right? If I can take something off his plate, all of us, I think this makes him a better coordinator. And if I do that, that makes me a better position coach, and then we win more games.

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