Coach Tony Elliott and countless Virginia players and staff spoke to the competitive standard the team held itself to last season. During the offseason, Elliott also spoke to the challenge of all the new transfer additions, as Virginia underwent both a roster overhaul and a culture rebuild.
Players like fourth-year safety Brandyn Hillman, similar to 2025’s stable of locker room upperclassmen leaders in Chandler Morris, J’Mari Taylor, Devin Neal and Mitchell Melton, kill two birds with one stone — the former Wolverine has brought elite playmaking ability and emerged as a leader in the secondary for the Cavaliers.
Hillman did not arrive in Charlottesville as an unknown. His hard-nosed style was notorious among his Big Ten opponents, and he joined Michigan out of high school as a four-star recruit out of Portsmouth, Va. — defensive coordinator John Rudzinski knew what he had in Hillman during the offseason.
“He’s one of those safeties that those receivers and tight ends are like ‘alright, where is he?’” Rudzinski said during summer media availability. “They want to know.”
Hillman ended his lone season as a full-time starter in Ann Arbor with just one forced fumble and one interception. Already, his ability to generate turnovers across Virginia’s first two contests is far beyond what he showed at his old school.
Fourth-year linebacker Kam Robinson noted how the former Wolverine has cemented himself as an undeniable star and a strong presence in the locker room following a dominant 59-3 victory over Norfolk State in which Hillman snagged his second and third interceptions of the year.
“He’s just a playmaker, I think we all can see that,” Robinson said. “He just goes out there, every day, every game … He’s a very great player and I mean, he’s a great dude.”
The presence and impact of Robinson has been scarcely rivaled by his Virginia teammates in his years with the program. Last season, then-third-year defensive back transfer Ja’Son Prevard was that player, filling the void when the star linebacker missed time and complementing him when the pair shared the field.
Just as the portal giveth, it taketh away — Prevard only took a pit-stop in Charlottesville and departed to Kansas State in the offseason. To partially offset that loss in playmaking ability, Elliott looked to Ann Arbor, poaching Hillman from Michigan.
Elliott’s relationship with Hillman dates back to the latter’s high school days, back when he dreamed of playing a different role on the field — quarterback.
“Coach Elliott is my number one,” Hillman said. “I trusted him through high school. I had offers through high school. He even trusted me [with] a position that not many people look at me as when I played quarterback — he gave me a scholarship for that.”
Hillman was one of the first players Elliott offered after he took the reins of Virginia football following Bronco Mendenhall’s decision to step down. The Cavaliers were the fourth Power-conference program to extend the two-way phenom and Virginia Class 4 Region A Player of the Year a scholarship.
The offer was made in September 2022, before the world of NIL and before Virginia ascended up the college football hierarchy. The next spring, Hillman committed to Michigan, a program led by now-Los Angeles Chargers Coach Jim Harbaugh that had just won a national championship.
Three years later, Hillman finally took Elliott up on his offer.
“I'm not going to sit here and say that we're responsible for Brandyn Hillman,” Elliott said. “Brandyn Hillman is Brandyn Hillman because of his DNA, right? … He's being challenged in all areas of his life, and he's embracing it … I told him, ‘I brought you here to be the guy, not one of the guys’ … I didn't have the firepower three years ago to get him. Just glad now he's on my team.”
Thus far, the return to the Commonwealth has proved fruitful — the Cavaliers are 2-0, with a dominant conference victory already under their belt. The defense held the opposing offense to single-digit points and forced multiple turnovers in both games. Hillman is responsible for three of the unit’s four interceptions, as well as a forced fumble.
“The culture at U.Va., you don't really get too much better than this,” Hillman said. “School's great, football's great, everything's great, people here are great. That's why I needed to come back home.”
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