Michigan DB Zeke Berry discusses how defense is moving on from Texas loss

Michigan Wolverines football junior nickel back Zeke Berry is one of eight new starters on the defense. He said the scheme has remained similar under first-year coordinator Wink Martindale but that there are a lot of “moving parts” — new starters, new players with key contributing roles that haven’t been as prominently featured in the past.

Michigan suffered a humbling, 31-12 loss to Texas Saturday, its first home setback since 2020 and first regular-season loss since 2021. Martindale has stressed the basics since the game.

“Just make sure that we play with the pillars that we do every day in practice, on game days,” Berry said of Martindale’s message. “Just play with effort, block destruction and things like that, make sure we play the way we play all the time.

“Everybody has been having the same attitude toward what happened. We’re going to leave it in the past. A loss is a loss, but now we’re just going on to Arkansas State.

“Just out there at practice today, I feel like everyone was focused on the next opponent, had energy and just didn’t let it affect us.”

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said he felt communication with the defense was lacking during the loss, but Berry felt the group handled that pillar (“obnoxious communication”) well.

“I felt like on the field we talked as much as we can, when we saw things out of the ordinary that we saw on film,” he said.

Whatever the mistakes were, Berry said Michigan has to learn from them and move on so that they don’t compound.

“Just not letting it affect us going throughout the season,” Berry noted. “Just moving on, moving forward and control what we can control.

“I would say just flush it. Anything in the past doesn’t really matter. Just worry about the future and the future opponent.”

Michigan’s defense was crippled by Texas getting short fields due to one short punt and 3 turnovers. The Wolverines held Texas to 10 points off turnovers, and Berry said the group is excited to hit the field no matter the situation.

“Yeah, we stay fired up all the time,” he said. “Whenever we have the chance to go out there and play as a defense, it doesn’t really matter what happened. We just take it as a challenge and do what we gotta do.”

Saturday’s opportunity against Arkansas State will give Michigan the chance to show it has improved and moved on heading into the Big Ten slate.

“This is a chance for us to go out there and play our brand of football that we know we can play,” Berry said.

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