Michigan’s secondary has a clear headliner heading into 2026, and Zeke Berry is right in the middle of it.
The fifth-year senior from Pittsburg, Calif., comes in at No. 9 in our countdown of Michigan’s most important players for the upcoming season. At 5-foot-11 and 196 pounds, Berry is no longer just a promising piece in the room - he’s a third-year starter with 1,236 career defensive snaps and a résumé that already includes second-team All-Big Ten honors from the media and third-team recognition from the coaches.
Berry’s 2025 season was productive. In 11 games, he posted 33 tackles, 11 pass breakups and one interception. Among 224 power-four cornerbacks who played at least 300 snaps, per Pro Football Focus, he finished third in pass breakups, sixth in forced incompletions and 23rd in forced incompletion rate.
The numbers also show where the rough edges still live. Berry allowed completions on 38 of 55 targets, a 60.3 percent clip that ranked 121st in that same group, and his passer rating allowed ranked 113th.
He gave up just one touchdown on 58 targets and was flagged only once, but tackling was the clear problem area. Berry missed nine tackles on the year, including five against Ohio State and Texas combined, and ranked 186th in missed tackle rate among those Power-Four corners.
Even with that, Michigan brought him back for another year after he turned down the NFL Draft and withdrew from the transfer portal. That decision matters because the Wolverines now have three corners with multiple seasons of starting experience: Berry, Jyaire Hill and Utah transfer Smith Snowden.
There’s still another step for Berry to take. He’s a former top-100 recruit with NFL Draft potential if he sharpens the tackling and tightens up his deep-ball coverage. Last season, he allowed 11.9 yards per reception, in part because he gave up 10 completions of at least 15 yards.
What makes Berry so valuable is the combination of experience, athleticism, versatility and leadership he brings to a room that doesn’t have much proven depth beyond him, Hill and Snowden. Shamari Earls, Jo’Ziah Edmond and Jamarion Vincent are names that come up around the program, but that’s a different thing from making plays against top passing attacks on Saturdays.
That mix of a high floor and a higher ceiling is why Berry lands in the top 10.
The fan vote reflected that same tension. Supporters slotted Berry at No. 10 overall, but the split was sharp.
A healthy 45.8 percent of voters placed him between Nos. 5 and 8, while 43.5 percent left him out of their top 10 entirely. He drew the most votes at Nos. 14, 15 and 19, which says plenty about how differently fans see both his career so far and what he might still become.
Michigan cornerbacks coach Jernaro Gilford summed up the returners this way: "Yeah, the two returners -- first off, Jyaire Hill and Zeke Berry, they both showed that they're efficient in man and zone, and they have a high IQ for the game. That was one thing that really, really stood out for me. The way that they took the coaching and applied it to the field, especially with everything being so new."
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