Name: Brandyn Hillman
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 200 lbs.
High school: Portsmouth (VA) Churchland
Position: Safety
Class: Junior
Jersey number: #6
Last year: I ranked Hillman #49 and said he would be a backup nickel (LINK). He played in twelve games and made 21 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 2 pass breakups.
TTB Rating: 83
Hillman seemed to slide into some serious time last season after playing a minor role in 2023, albeit burning his redshirt during the national championship season. He played over 300 snaps in 2024 and turned into a ferocious hitter, perhaps Michigan's most exciting hitter at safety since Ernest Shazor. A former high school quarterback - a trait I love in defensive players - he should move into an even more prominent role in 2025 now that Makari Paige and Quinten Johnson have moved on.
Michigan has a deep safety group, and Hillman should be in a battle with the likes of Jaden Mangham, T.J. Metcalf, and Rod Moore to start. Moore's health is a question mark (thus his placement at #20 in the countdown), and Metcalf seems a likely pick for the nickel spot. That could leave the trio of Hillman, Mangham, and Moore playing safety - keeping a third starter-level player available to be insurance for Moore - and Metcalf as a chess piece who can be moved around a little bit.
Prediction: Starting safety
Mister Bring The Wood!
ReplyDeleteWe have depth at Safety, so while I'm a big fan of Hillman, I'd still have RB1a & RB1b ahead. Our season hinges on them carrying the offense
Yep I like Hillman too and am all the way bought in on Thunder's ex-QB thing defensively. Obviously not the type of QB that is afraid of contact LOL. Hillman is going to be stepping into a starting role and may lead the defense in snaps if he stays healthy all year.
ReplyDeleteI am not as confident about the depth at Safety as Thunder is though. We have very few options beyond the starters. Compared to say RB3 it's a bigger concern to me, because it wasn't just Johnson and Paige (600-700 snaps each) gone but Walker (340 snaps) and Berry (630 snaps) moving over to CB full time. That's 4 of your top 13 players in snap counts gone from the safety rotation.* Michigan needs guys like Hillman (~250) and Curtis (~100) to step up into MUCH bigger roles.
You need 3 starters here (including nickel) and as Thunder says you've got 3 solid proven ones here in Hillman, Metcalf, and (eventually) Moore. But you also need to rotate 4 of them. Mangham and Curtis are your other options but assuming Mangham starts until Moore comes back, it's bare bones with those 4 for a while at least.
If any of the top 4 are injured early in the season you are drawing in someone with zero experience to play meaningful snaps on the road against Oklahoma and Nebraska. Not great! So that's where you start looking at Teven (the younger) Metcalf and Oden being thrust into big roles.
For context: the safety rotation against OSU was Johnson (59 snaps), Paige (57), Walker (52) and Hillman (13). Against Alabama with Paige out it was Johnson (55), Walker (52), Hillman (37), Curtis (17). That's essentially the minimum number of guys that you need every game but note that it's 5 guys named since attrition will definitely happen.
I'm not saying you panic here, I'm just saying the options are kind of limited behind the starters. Last year you had Hillman as your 5th safety option (after Paige, Johnson, Walker, Berry) and he ended up playing 244 snaps (more than Jordan Marshall, Hansen, and Sprage played combined). This year you've got Curtis as your 4th safety option, essentially rotating in to cover 3 spots before you look at some newbs or consider moving Berry back. Getting Moore back is going to be critical since it's unlikely everyone from the presumed "starting" rotation (Hillman, Metcalf, Mangham, Curtis, Berry, Hill, and whoever wins CB3) is healthy all year.
If Curtis is your 5th safety you feel pretty good about things but while he is the 4th option it's a bit tenuous. Hopefully we keep hearing buzz about the younger options.
*Can't count all of Berry's snaps in the safety rotation because he moved over to CB midseason, but assuming about half were nickel is the right ballpark. .