You thought the 2023 cycle was over? Well you were WRONG, just like Notre Dame was WRONG to think that they're allowed to have safeties. Sorry, Notre Dame! You're Notre Dame! You don't get to have safeties. Go drink Donovan Edwards's wake with Ohio State, the other school with an empty chair they thought Hillman would be sitting in.

Hillman was a late mover up the rankings who wasn't on radars until the middle of his senior year. Notre Dame—in mid-October(!!)—was his first major offer, and led from then to a commitment shortly before the December signing day. Hillman was expected to enroll early, so the timing of this, and reports of an "admissions hiccup"($), suggest the breakup was related to, or at least made possible by, that rushed early enrollment. Jay Harbaugh was in contact within minutes of Hillman going back on the market, quickly followed by Ohio State and USC, who were expected to get visits after the one to Ann Arbor. Instead he committed on his Michigan visit. Let's see what we stole.

GURU RATINGS

Hillman is still listed as an Athlete to 3/4 sites because he played quarterback for a high school in Virginia.

RATINGS BY SITE
247: 6'1/191	On3: 6'1/190	Rivals: 6'1/200	ESPN: 6'2/190
4*, 94, #130 Ovr #7 ATH, #4 VA	4*, 94, #137 Ovr #5 ATH, #4 VA	3*, 5.7, NR Ovr #54 S, #12 VA	4*, 80, #40 East #39 ATH, #8 VA
4.43	4.53	3.74	3.94
COMPOSITE RANKINGS
247 Composite	On3 Consensus	MGoBlog
4*, 0.9201, #214 Ovr #9 ATH, #5 VA	4*, 91.98, #206 Ovr #6 ATH, #5 VA	4*, #268/777 Ovr #21/55 Ss since 1990
4.20	4.20	4.20

Rivals is the big outlier, with ESPN also dragging him down the composite lists. If you're picking which two services would see a top-150 player, these are the two. They're also the most reactive. 247's composite ranking saw him rise from unrated to top-250 in 4 months.

That was mostly fueled by On3 and 247, who had him an 88, #576 overall, and the 39th ATH, which equates to a 3.7 on my 5-star scale. It's a massive jump, explained by the fact that Hillman wasn't putting safety tape out originally. Going into his senior year he had one D1 offer, to Norfolk State.

One of our longstanding rules in recruiting is guys who move up late don't move up enough, and vice versa. That Hillman rose so quickly is an even better sign that Notre Dame's very well respected scouting department believed in him.

[AFTER THE JUMP: There's 5-star potential. It's also a few years away.]

SCOUTING

It's not often that Michigan gets a freshman three months after the guy signed elsewhere, so let's celebrate with Marcus Freeman's take:

“WiFi. Anywhere and everywhere. He can play literally anywhere. This kid is going to be an elite safety. He will run 53 1/3, track someone down, and make a play. He played quarterback, punter, holder, safety, linebacker, returner, he can literally do it all. He’s fearless. He could even grow into a rover. He’s just a special player. He also brings a ton of energy to our locker room.”

Getting a guy who went so far as to sign with Notre Dame is a special treat for us, because that means 247's Notre Dame scouts Tim Prister and Kevin Sinclair weren't holding back. Prister put Hillman the #9 player in ND's class but you can tell there's a special affinity:

May be a bit of hyperbole but plays with an aura about him.

He thinks Hillman's best fit is at safety, or growing into their hybrid role, though the offensive tape is worth watching:

Hillman is an exceptional athlete with quickness and strength. He’s in a hurry to get things done on the gridiron. He’s tough and physical. He plays with suddenness and “powerful speed.” As an offensive player, he has separation speed. He’s shot from a cannon. He gallops around the football field with a palpable glee. He leaps over potential tacklers because the spirit strikes him.

“I try to predetermine what I’m going to do to keep the game electrifying,” said Hillman in a burst of post-game energy.

... He plays with natural aggression and physicality. He was a wrecking ball on the back end of the Truckers defense, ranging from sideline-to-sideline to make plays. He is a Point A to Point B missile.

….

plays light on his feet defensively. He plays with a search and destroy mentality. He shows block-destruction ability and edge run support. He has some pretty natural backpedal and break-on-the-football skills for one relatively new to secondary play. He even matched up with wide receivers in press coverage on occasion.

His comp is Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, an undersized hybrid who took some time to learn to let others make plays. Also a guy with a certain attitude:

This is a guy who inspires optimism on the football field with a captain’s leadership and mentality that should be infectious in the Notre Dame camp. It’s hard not to get excited about Hillman when one sees his passion for the game.

Prister's partner Kevin Sinclair loved the "quick-triggered speed" while finding Hillman the most positionally variable player he'd scouted in years. Helpfully, Prister also made a video breakdown, with the hurdled fool at the top.

In the accompanying post Sinclair added he thinks Hillman could play RB, WR, S, CB, or LB, and focused on two broad traits:

Speed and strength.

Offensively, Hillman shows a twitchy nature, a suddenness in cutting, shaking defenders, and accelerating. There’s a natural playmaking element to his decisions with the football in his hands, and once he accelerates, he shows the speed to separate.

Along with that impressive overall quickness, this athlete is clearly very physically strong. Offensively, you see it in the way he applies a stiff arm, in how he blasts through arm tackle attempts, and through his overall ability to break tackles.

It’s tough to take Hillman down. It’s as simple as that.

You see these same components shine on defense, too.

Hillman’s speed surfaces when he’s exploding off the backside hash to make a tackle on the opposite sideline. You see it in his touchdown-saving tackles from the defensive backfield, and you see his strength in his big-time collisions in the open field.

On3's director of recruiting Charles Power noted Hillman is young for his class—he turns 18 this June—and the measurables already break the charts.

That [6-1/190 reported size] is from the offseason; he could be bigger now. He has a 6-5 wingspan, and he ran a 4.74 40-yard dash at the Elite 11 with a 4.1 shuttle and a vertical over 40 inches. Athletically, he piques your interest off the jump.

“And more importantly, you see what he does as a player on Friday nights, and it’s very intriguing. He’s talented and skilled enough to play multiple positions at the next level. I like him the most at safety from my judgment. His physicality, athleticism and experience as a playmaker on offense projects well at safety. And it’s not much of a projection from his striking power and tackling ability. He’s a big-time hitter who’s not a full-time defensive player.

The raw tools were also the focus of his site's official evaluation (except the Shuttle was 4.15):

Movement skills are fantastic. Has the long speed to pull away from defenders as a ball carrier and can see the hip fluidity and change of direction when working as a defensive back. Physical player that runs through tacklers with the ball in his hands and more than willing to come downhill and play in the box from the secondary. Extremely high ceiling player whose upside is at its highest as a safety prospect but could also be productive on the offensive side of the ball as a gadget player.

247's national people really got on board after Hillman was a late addition to the Polynesian Bowl, then turned out to be their defensive MVP of the week (and was to the Polynesian Bowl as well). West scout Blair Angulo:

He was really quick to the football, showing the instincts and closing speed to make things difficult for opposing receivers at the catch point. Physically, the all-star game setting is a bit more lax than usual but Hillman didn’t shy from contact and made numerous statements with his pads throughout the week.

And national recruiting editor Brandon Huffman:

Hillman was a late addition to the game but then spent the week showing that he should have been in all along, the most consistent defensive back we saw throughout the week and in the game. He's got an alpha personality too, coaching up his teammates and rallying them each rep in practice, then going out and backing it up with his own play.

Huffman reported Hillman played safety all week—the first time the scouts got to see him an extended time at his projected position—and

flashed a smooth backpedal who high pointed the ball in drills and had really good footwork throughout.

This brings me back to recruiting when I got into it in college, when talent was diffused through every high school in America, and your next Charles Drake (RIP) or Brandent Englemon (RIP) was some running back or quarterback winning all-division at three different positions. On3's ND site has a Sinclair/Prister type as well in Tim Hyde, expressed a similar reaction.

“When we first watched him a couple months ago, it felt like we were back in the 1980s and 1990s recruiting when you’d find a guy late in their senior year, and that’s exactly what it is with him. He blew up late as a prospect this season.

“He is the ultimate athlete. He can throw the ball. Hillman can play receiver, running back, and I love him on defense. He can male plays [sic] on the ball; put him at strong safety. That dude loves to hit people; he’s a physical football player. You see that on his offensive film, as well.

Man that is some Recruiting 1999 stuff right there. All that's missing is Tom Lemming having a take. [scrolls down same article]. Tom Lemming has a take.

“He’s a very good athlete who runs well and has good body control and balance. He could be a wide receiver, slot, running back or cornerback and could return kicks. He has explosive moves. Notre Dame could use someone who could return kicks.

“It’s a very good, late catch for Notre Dame. Unless you steal someone from another school, all the good players are already off the board. You can never have enough athletes, and he’s an athlete. They’ll find a spot for him.”

Thanks Tom! Back in the day guys would get these writeups but the ranking magazines/sites, such as they were, were loathe to raise their rankings. On3 had him ranked the highest by his commitment in early December, but reporter Mike Singer was stumping for him to rise a lot more.

Hillman’s measurables and tape are off the chart. So, my question is, why is he not ranked even higher? Only one of the four major ranking websites has him in their national rankings (On3, at No. 291 overall), but his athleticism and upside are extremely high. While you don’t see him playing wide receiver at the high school level, it’s not hard to project him at the position for the next level. And he’s a dominant running quarterback. He looks fantastic as a defensive back with his instincts and tackling. There’s just so much to like on his tape as an overall athlete, and it’s no surprise the Irish wanted him in their 2023 class so badly.

The plan, Singer said, was to give him a swing at QB but move him to safety (most likely) when CJ Carr arrives.

“That’s an ongoing thing. One week it’s, ‘We don’t know.’ The next week it’s receiver or running back or safety. And when we got up there, it was, ‘Hey, we want to take a shot with you at quarterback first.’ Whatever it is, he’ll be on the field somewhere.

“He if he doesn’t pan out at quarterback, he’s willing to move positions. He’s told the big schools that.”

Miami seemed genuinely interested in [recruiting] him as a quarterback:

“He’s a dynamic quarterback (at 6-2 and 200 pounds) who can make every throw,” Leonard said. “We have an RPO play action system, similar to what the colleges do. Also he doubles up because he’s a dynamic runner as well. We have designed runs for him from the QB spot. And on defense we use him at safety and a little corner when we play top receivers.”

…but their recruitment played out like a swing and miss. By that time ND head coach Marcus Freeman was already trying to decide what to do with Hillman:

“That’s one of those guys you kind of watch the film and say, ‘OK, he’s a football player,’” Freeman said on signing day. “Get him into your program and figure it out. He’s tall. He’s long. He has great athleticism, and he’s physical and tough and intelligent. That guy will make us better. Where? To be determined. But that guy will make this program better.”

Rivals appeared to think the Polynesian Bowl performance offered clarity.

"Hillman's a really interesting prospect because he can play all over the field," Rivals national recruiting analyst Adam Friedman said. "He can play on offense and get the ball in his hands as a running back or receiver. But he's also a high-potential player as a defensive bank. He's got good speed coming downhill as a defensive back. He's really impressive in run support and plays physically.

"It'll be interesting to see how he can quickly adjust to the college passing offenses and really learn to cover in the back end there. His range is pretty good for a high school player and somebody who hasn't played against elite competition. So, there will be some adjustments to ensure that he can effectively cover the middle of the field and even match up sometimes with slot receivers or tight ends as we go forward in his college career.

We could probably call it there but what used to be SI has been trying to build out their recruiting coverage and, wouldn't you know it, found a Notre Dame guy who likes to watch tape on prospects. Bryan Driskell:

A case could be made, and I plan to make it, that Hillman projects best at rover and wide receiver, with rover being where I personally like him best. It's hard not to see the similarities between Hillman and former Notre Dame star Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. Notre Dame views Hillman truly as an athlete, and they'll figure out where to play him down the road.

As a rover, Hillman projects as the kind of athlete you want at the position in a true 4-2-5 defense. His potential in coverage and ability to make plays in space would allow him to be more of a true rover, one that can run and hit, run and cover and provide much needed length and range to the position. Notre Dame has been using linebackers at the position, but Hillman would bring a more natural defensive back skillset to the position.

….

He gets downhill in a hurry and arrives at the ball with force. On offense his combination of length, athleticism and playmaking ability projects quite well to wide receiver, but he's so dynamic with the ball that he could also make plays in the backfield.

Hillman has good speed, but his athletic talent is more about suddenness, elusiveness and burst than it is raw speed. He's an exceptionally quick and elusive athlete that can cover a lot of ground. When he has the ball he shows impressive lower body strength, which makes him hard to bring down in space, and combines with his agility to make him a legit weapon with the ball.

That is also why he arrives at the football with so much authority as a tackler. As he fills out his ability to deliver punishment will be enhanced. All of this is why he reminds me so much of Owusu-Koramoah. More explosive and quick than fast, thin in high school but top-notch strength and a good frame, plays all over the field in high school and a very high football IQ.

On defense, Hillman is more about instincts and athleticism. If he ends up on defense he'll need to improve his footwork and the nuances on that side of the ball, but the natural tools are impressive. He will also need to continue getting stronger and fill out, but his athleticism talent and football instincts are top notch.

Did I say one guy? They have a reporter, Ryan Roberts too, who got on the horn with Hillman head coach Dontrell Leonard.

"It’s funny, the first time I was really around Brandyn was when he was a freshman and we were playing 7-on-7 ball,” Leonard explained. "He was so nervous. You could literally see his heart beating through his compression shirt. We were actually just joking about it the other day. He’s come a long way.”

Hillman then got the pads on. The confidence and swagger quickly exploded, and what was on the horizon became more and more apparent.

"There was a moment in practice that really showed how special Brandyn was,” Leonard said. "He was a freshman and he was running the football, he broke outside and he’s running right towards me on the sideline. There is a linebacker coming from the inside in pursuit and a safety coming over. I thought that he would just get knocked out of bounds but then Brandyn put on the breaks. The linebacker dove and completely missed, and went flying out of bounds.

"It was like when you first started playing Madden and you hit the wrong button on defense and you just go diving in the completely wrong direction,” Leonard continued. "Then Brandyn proceeded to hurdle over the safety and run for a touchdown. Me and an assistant coach just stood there literally in awe. I had never seen anything like that before. Brandyn just started telling me that that is what we have to look forward to for the next three years and he wasn’t wrong."

As with all of these links there's a lot I'm leaving at the jump. Leonard is stumping for Hillman to remain to at quarterback—I mean the guy passed for 1300 yards and rushed for 1200 yards with 33 TDs (22 on the ground) last year.

Our On3 reporter EJ Holland swung back around to Leonard, this time focusing on the safety skills($):

“The kid will excel,” Leonard said. “You don’t have to worry about him cheating a work out or anything like that." … "Defensively, he knows what he’s doing. He’s a human hit stick. He runs through guys. He has good coverage skills. In the playoffs, he locked up one of the top wide receivers in our area. That says a lot about a kid that had just played defensive back part-time. If he puts his mind and heart into it like he did at quarterback, I have no doubt in my mind that he will excel as a defensive back.”

Tom Loy, who had Hillman ND's most underrated recruit (yes, at #129 overall), also a got a new coach quote out of Leonard (emphasis mine):

"He's a big old kid. Always smiling. He wants to make you smile,” said his coach. “He's most most definitely a leader. The leader of our team. Sometimes the kids will listen to him before they listen to me."

Loy had Hillman his fourth-favorite signee of the class, and made another comp to Owusu-Koramoah, aka "JOKer." Since there's a Brett Kollman video out there about that guy, and Brett Kollman is the best in the business, I feel obligated to make you watch it, even if video's premise is Owusu-Koramoah is the best *linebacker* in the draft:

This was Peppers in a Don Brown defense kind of stuff, and today JOKER is playing that OLB role at 6-2/220 that the Browns originally drafted Peppers to play. For a safety-flavored comparison, On3 gave us Kenny Vaccaro.

Vaccarro is a go-to comp for really athletic, almost linebacker-sized safeties with average speed. Stevie Brown, who wound up a pretty good 3-3-5 hybrid LB at the end of his college career, and then put together a pro career at strong safety, was a version of Vaccaro.

OFFERS

Ohio State was the other school to get a visit after Hillman broke loose from Notre Dame, so yes we are counting this one as a head-to-head. USC also offered. When he committed to Notre Dame on Early Signing Day it was over Kentucky, Oklahoma, and some last-ditch efforts from Miami (YTM) and USC.

HIGH SCHOOL

Portsmouth is Norfolk—technically it's an independent city but in the way that Cambridge is independent of Boston, IE it's just across the river, and representing a sizeable chunk of the Hampton Roads metro area. It is also one of the oldest continually inhabited European settlements in America, begun as an outpost for the Jamestown settlement in 1620, though Portsmouth didn't get its charter until 1752, when the Colony of Virginia was being run out of there. It's been a major port town ever since, including the famous shipyards that erroneously carry Norfolk's name.

Churchland is the Northwestern section of Portsmouth, across the western branch of the Elizabeth River. It's not the upscale part of town, but not poor either; the feel is more like a small East Coast town that just happens to be attached to a middle-sized city instead of a train route or canal. Churchland High is the largest of the three in the district, and the magnet school for the arts.

They play in the Eastern Division of Class 4, which is the 3rd classification down, though it's hard to equate Virginia ball with other states because teams routinely play schools well out of their classification. MaxPreps had the Truckers 11th in the Norfolk area, and the 47th-ranked team in the state last year; they were competitive against 6A rival Western Branch (#15 in VA), defeated 3A Lake Taylor (#24 in VA) got blown out 56-0 by 6A rival Maury (#7 in VA), and avoided state champion Phoebus, which is the program that gets most of the football transfers. Needless to say, this isn't the toughest competition.

Also Churchland's JV girls basketball team got caught using a coach as a ringer this year.

If you haven't traveled to Southeastern Virginia before, do so. They are very bad at naming things—"Great Dismal Swamp" doesn't bring the tourists—but there's a reason Terrence Malick made a movie here that was all about sitting around enjoying the scenery.

STATS

He's already in the MGoBlue database so I'll just quote.

Key Statistics
• A 1,000-yard passer and rusher in both his junior and senior seasons
• His senior year (2022), passed for 1,312 yards with 11 touchdowns and added 1,236 rushing yards with 22 rushing touchdowns
• As a junior, amassed 2,400 all-purpose yards with 31 combined touchdowns

FAKE 40 TIME

Hillman reports a 4.47 on his Hudl page. That is disputed by the 4.7 he ran at the Elite 11, so we're giving the 4.47 a good ol' fashioned five FAKES out of five. He also reports a 4.07 shuttle, 41.5 vertical, 255 bench, and 405 squat. It would have been really interesting to get a SPARQ score, but SPARQ didn't exist in 1999.

VIDEO

His senior highlights are mostly at quarterback—if you watched the Prister breakdown already it's the same thing as this:

There are videos from Churchland's three playoff games that didn't make the senior highlights above, as well as a junior reel (at QB) on his Hudl page. There's also this to back up the "smooth backpedal" they saw at the Polynesian Bowl:

ETC.

Prister reported on March 8 that Hillman was going to be enrolling in the summer, which was when rumors of a breakup started rumbling. Day in the life commitment day video. Kevin Sinclair breakdown of day in the life commitment day video. Did I mention I love everything about Notre Dame recruiting coverage?

I'll add that Hillman's a military brat. His mother Shawn recently retired from her career as a materials and logistics officer with the U.S. Army. Hillman's lived in Hawaii, Georgia, New York, and Virginia, with Shawn serving deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Poland, and Korea. Shawn's also part of a motorcycle club that does work around the community. Shawn's mother Shelia Hillman-Manderville was an All-American basketball player for Hampton University, where her jersey number is retired.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Hillman may be a late edition to this class, but he also exemplifies it as a freakish athlete to stash away for the future. He's not brand new to defense, but he definitely focused on offense in high school and will need time to find his role. The ability to jet forward like that would make Hillman an obvious candidate for Viper in Michigan's old defense. In this one I think they want him to take on a hybrid role that allows them to create all kinds of different fronts with the same players, whether you want to call that a box safety or what. Minter kept things pretty vanilla for the safeties last year, but Makari Paige was doing some of that stuff in the blitzy bowl game. Clearly they're bringing back hybrids since they brought in Keon Sabb last year and Hillman's class already has a freaky freak athlete in Jason Hewlett who's coming in 10 pounds further down the linebacker branch. Cornerbackish D'Juan Waller is the only other safety in the class.

Hillman seems like the biggest hit or miss of the class—I could rattle off a lot of names in my database with crazy athletic potential who did or didn't pan out. He could be a 1st round safety, a 1st round hybrid linebacker, or if the secondary gets too crowded with the 2022 guys, running back and receiver are options as well.

One thing I would count on with that acceleration and general athleticism is a role on special teams. Having Michael Barrett back means the job of former QB upback on the punt team won't require a redshirt burn.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Okay, NOW they're done, unless a Michigan State DL wants out of his LOI now that BT Jordan is in the NFL or one of the best players in Ohio realizes where the best players in Ohio play or something.

THE CLASS AS IT STANDS

OFFENSE
Pos	Player	State	Stars	In a nutshell
QB	Kendrick Bell	MO	3.5	Ronnie's little brother
RB	Cole Cabana	MI	4.3⬆	Speedy receiver back
RB	Benjamin Hall	GA	3.5⬇⬇	Battering ram with vision
WR	Karmello English	AL	4.1⬇	Go Go Gadget Gallon
WR	Semaj Morgan	MI	3.8	Homegrown Gattis-ian slot
WR	Fredrick Moore	MO	3.7⬆	Crafty Roundtree 2.0
TE	Deakon Tonielli	IL	3.9⬆⬆⬆	Catchy bouncy bballer
TE	Zack Marshall	CA	3.8⬆	1,000-yard receiver in Cali league
OG	Amir Herring	MI	4.0⬇	West Bloomfield's interior mauler
OG	Nathan Efobi	GA	3.9⬇	Ineffable teddy bear
OT	Evan Link	DC	4.1	Agile OT with a Wisconsin offer
DEFENSE
Pos	Player	State	Stars	In a nutshell
DT	Trey Pierce	IL	3.9⬆⬆⬆	Polished, rising 3-tech
DT	Brooks Bahr	IL	3.7	Lengthy build-a-bear
DE/DT	Cameron Brandt	CA	3.9	Versatile, academic tweener
SDE	Enow Etta	TX	4.4⬆	Poor man's Rashan Gary
WDE	Aymeric Koumba	FRA	3.6	Long/French athletic freak
MLB	Semaj Bridgeman	PA	4.1	Formerly elite, WLBish
WLB	Hayden Moore	CO	3.5	Versatile tackling machine
OLB	Jason Hewlett	OH	3.9	Hybrid S/OLB/DE
OLB	Breeon Ishmail	OH	3.5	LB/Edge tweener
S	Brandyn Hillman	VA	4.2⬆⬆⬆	Raw athletic freak
S	D'Juan Waller Jr.	OH	3.6⬆	Lanky Youngstown boy
CB	Jyaire Hill	IL	4.2⬆⬆	Playmaking CB/S with vibe
CB	Cameron Calhoun	OH	3.9⬆	Polished, not-fast playmaker
PK	Adam Samaha	MI	3.1⬇⬇	Local #6 kicker
TRANSFERS
Pos	Player	Last Sch	Elig '23	In a nutshell
QB	Jack Tuttle	Indiana	Sr/6th	Backup QB
TE	AJ Barner	Indiana	Jr/Sr	Catchy 6'6"/250 off-TE
C	Drake Nugent	Stanford	Sr/5th	The good part of Stanford's OL.
OT	LaDarius Henderson	Arizona St	Jr/5th	ASU G who could play LT
OT	Myles Hinton	Stanford	Jr/Sr	5* brother of Chris, injured '22
WDE	Josaiah Stewart	C.Carolina	Jr/Jr	Danna-sized Tasmanian Devil
MLB	Ernest Hausmann	Nebraska	So/So	Quickster started as a True Fr