ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The 2025 season started out so strong for Michigan football safety Brandyn Hillman, but he hit something of a lull. Of course, facing stiffer competition is going to cause problems for most any team or player, but with Hillman, the strong start ended up turning into a couple of games where he wasn’t quite the player he looked to be at the start of the season.
That can also be said of the entire defense in Ann Arbor.
There were momentary lapses, but when the Wolverines went to Los Angeles to face USC, everything came to a head. Suddenly, the stiff, strong defensive attack was porous, weak, and dominated by a team that Michigan had dominated the year before.
But sometimes, it’s the response to adversity that counts. You can see that across college football. And for Hillman, not only did he personally persevere, his entire unit did, as well. How and why did that happen? He explained on Tuesday.
“I’d say just staying together, just playing team football,” Hillman said. “One person makes a play, everybody gets excited. You know, just little things like that keep everybody going. It’s not just like an individual stat. It’s something for the team. So, like, just being around each other, being happy for each other, stuff like that.”
Of course, other teams haven’t been so lucky. Penn State, Florida State, LSU — these are among the teams looking for new head coaches as one loss turned into more. The adversity was too much, even if it appeared momentary. But Hillman says that the maize and blue have a different mindset in how they approach things.
After the USC loss, head coach Sherrone Moore noted that the team had some ‘tough conversations.’ Player-to-player, Hillman admits that also happened, but it was a net positive for his unit. Because instead of it being about shifting blame, it became about sharing accountability.
“I know it’s hard because when you get back in that locker room, it’s like your players are going to have, like, real conversations with each other,” Hillman said. “Like, some people fall down from that, but it’s not one of those teams. Like, take a loss, we had a real conversation, we realized what we wanted to do, and that’s what we did. We came back and responded the right way.”
As for Hillman himself, he took a look in the mirror after that game and recognized what didn’t go so right. And then he went to work.
Being a defensive back, it’s requires having a short memory, but it’s also important to recognize even your momentary shortcomings. And Hillman figured out what he needed to fix and went from there.
“Just open field tackling, keeping my energy up,” Hillman said. “Some people, after they mess up on the play, they get down on themselves. I probably got through one of those during that game. Probably got down on myself on the play. But that’s what I’ve been working on. Just keep playing fast. Keep playing me. Keep bringing Brandyn. Don’t let nothing change me.”
Against Michigan State, Hillman posted his second-best PFF defensive grade of the season — no surprise given that he set the tone with his forced fumble on the Spartans’ opening drive. He’ll have another chance to set the tone this week with a moribund Purdue team that is coming to town with an explosive offense.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan S Brandyn Hillman explains how team’s tough talks fueled defensive resurgence
Reporting by Isaiah Hole, Wolverines Wire / Wolverines Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
