ANN ARBOR – Quarterback Bryce Underwood wasn’t the only freshman starting for Michigan in the team’s Big Ten opener Saturday in a tough road environment at Nebraska.
With starting cornerback Zeke Berry missing his second straight game because of injury, freshman Jayden Sanders stepped up and played the second-most snaps on the Wolverines’ defense. Head coach Sherrone Moore said during Monday’s “Inside Michigan Football” radio show that Sanders graded out among the best on the team in the 30-27 victory. Pro Football Focus agreed. The 6-foot-1, 193-pounder earned the third-highest mark among Michigan defenders.
“Jayden Sanders is a guy, I remember talking to (defensive coordinator Wink Martindale) during camp, he said he’s going to be a dude,” Moore said. “He was going (through the bridge program) and was going to class, so he wasn’t getting all the full practice and everything. We said, ‘I don’t know what week it is – maybe it’s Week 3, Week 4. Usually around here, it’s Week 6 or Week 7 that the freshmen start to turn it on, and he just turned it on in Week 4. The dude is really good.”
Against Nebraska, Sanders had a pass breakup and finished with eight tackles, including multiple that brought down a Cornhuskers player short of the sticks. He earned the highest coverage grade on the team, per PFF, allowing four receptions on six targets but only for 28 yards.
What is most surprising about Sanders’ rapid rise up the depth chart is his late start to his college career. He wasn’t among the 15 true freshmen to enroll early. Underwood, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 class and expected starter from the moment he signed, plus the 14 other early enrollees had the benefit of participating in spring practices, working out with the strength and conditioning staff and getting a head start on learning the playbook.
Sanders, the son of former TCU standout cornerback Nick Sanders, didn’t have that luxury and instead arrived on campus this summer. Saturday was his second straight start in place of Berry, but he played at least 25 snaps in Michigan’s first two games as well.
“He’s mature,” Michigan defensive backs coach LaMar Morgan said last week. “You can coach him. He’s smart. He works really hard. When his time came, he was ready to go. I think that’s really all about football. You never know when your time is ready, but a lot of guys aren’t ready when their time comes. I think he’s done a good job of working.
“When he got here, I think he was maybe the seventh, eighth corner on the depth chart. Had some injuries, beat a couple guys out, and he’s done a good job. I’m just excited about him growing.”
Junior defensive back TJ Metcalf was an early enrollee at Arkansas before his freshman year and recalls how challenging it was to still see the field. He played 20% of defensive snaps in 2023 but didn’t start.
“Usually you don’t see guys that come in and start game three of their freshman year,” Metcalf said Tuesday. “I feel like that’s impressive he did that. That’s big time.”
Sanders was a top-300 recruit nationally coming out of Kilgore High in Texas but was the lowest-ranked among Michigan’s five defensive back signees. However, once recruits arrive on campus, rankings become irrelevant.
“I’ve seen it from the start of fall camp,” Metcalf said of Sanders’ potential. “When he got here, I felt like he was eager to learn and eager to catch up to speed on things. Then when fall camp came around, he was making plays, catching pick sixes and doing stuff like that. We knew that he was going to have an important role for the team. He continued to show that coach can trust him.”
Sanders isn’t the only freshman to carve out a role in Michigan’s secondary, though. The other four have played at least 11 defensive snaps so far in 2025.
“I feel like it’s special that we got a lot of freshmen rotating in with guys that play a lot of snaps,” said Metcalf, the team’s starting nickel. “I feel like that’s big for us. Like, whenever we have a starting D line in, starting linebackers in, we throw freshmen in there, and they gotta grow up, gotta step up. I feel like they’ve done a good job at doing that.”