CHAPEL HILL – Every athlete in every sport has a favorite position or element of the game with which they’re most comfortable.

That’s pretty much true for all walks of life, be it vocationally or otherwise.

For Trey Morrison, playing cornerback is just fine. He’s done it and excelled. But deep down, the North Carolina junior is a nickelback and he's back home after veering off to the edge last season.

“I feel like nickel is more my natural position on the field, so they moved me back to nickel,” Morrison said, referring to UNC’s defensive staff.

Morrison started at nickel as a true freshman two years ago under then-coordinator John Papuchis in Larry Fedora’s final season. He played well, finishing the campaign with 46 tackles, two sacks, 5.5 TFLs and four PBUs.

A year ago, however, he was moved to cornerback and before halftime of the Tar Heels’ opener, which was also Mack Brown’s debut in his return as UNC’s coach, Morrison went down with an injury. He played the following week but it was still a battle he wasn’t 100 percent for much of the season.

He still had a positive impact on the Heels, though, finishing with 31 tackles, four PBUs and an interception. That experience playing outside, however, was huge for the Norcross, GA, native, and should make him better now that he’s back at nickel.

“Playing corner helped me a lot with me man-to-man skills,” he said. “In our defense my freshman year, it was really man-to-man all the time, so that really prepared me for playing corner a lot.

“I think corner helped me a lot just in my man-to-man and working with Coach (Dre’) Bly, he’s helped me so much on my press man-to-man and just playing the ball and everything. So, it’s going to really help me a lot in the slot when I have to press and everything.”

That’s in a nutshell, but there’s much more to playing nickel in Jay Bateman’s always-coming, highly-disguised defense. That’s the challenge.

“In Coach Bateman’s scheme, it’s just a lot of defenses in his defense – a lot of different things he runs,” Morrison said. “So, it’s way more complex. It’s a lot to learn but I’m getting everything.”

While Morrison is at home at nickel, and the staff likes him there, too, Bateman’s nickels must be run-stoppers as well. That means fending off large blockers at times. And at 195 pounds, Morrison is a bit on the smallish side.

But that doesn’t mean he won’t get all or most of the reps at nickel. And with his cover skills, Morrison bouncing between some corner and a lot of nickel isn’t entirely out of the question.

“I think Trey is a really, really good slot defender,” Bateman said. “The problem is you move a guy like Trey into the nickel – the run game that the nickel has got to be involved with, he’s a 195-pound kid, how many snaps are you going to ask him to go be a linebacker, right? Because it’s a nickel linebacker. It’s a small linebacker.

“We talk all the time we can have a big body there, a medium-type and a low body, and we thought going into the season last year we could play Trey there as a third-down guy, second and long and certain personnel groups, and it just didn’t happen because of injuries. I think for sure that will be a part of our attack moving forward.”

Okay, so Morrison may not entirely fit the suit, but more than anything, the staff wants football players on the field, and there’s no denying that Morrison is a football player. And in the end, that's the suit a player must most fit.

Morrison's teammates heap praise on him without hesitation whenever queried. And his head coach puts it bluntly when Morrison’s name comes up.

“Trey Morrison's really good,” Brown said.

So playing his favorite position in Bateman’s defense is a considerable task, but it’s also a blast. Morrison would rather be there more than any other spot on the field because it’s who he is as a football player. It also helps that Bateman’s fly-to-the-ball mantra is to simply get after it.

“I’m enjoying it a lot,” Morrison said. “It’s an opportunity to make a lot of plays. That’s what I love.”

And he loves doing so the most as a nickel, his home on a football field.