Virginia Corner Darrius Bratton Hopes To Be Fully Back This Season

Virginia corner Darrius Bratton started 5 games in 2018.
Darrius Bratton returned to the field last season, but may finally have his “swag back” this spring. ~ Photo Courtesy Mitt Riley/Virginia Athletics Media Relations

Darrius Bratton returned from a 2019 preseason injury to play in nine games for the Virginia football team in 2020. Playing, yes, but back? Not fully.

Bratton tore an ACL during preseason practice in 2019 and missed the entire season. The Roanoke receiver worked through rehab, returned to strength and conditioning, and was cleared for the late-starting 2020 season. He showed enough resilience and leadership during that process to earn an early pick in the Cavaliers’ annual jersey number draft. He took No. 8.

Still, rehab and real action are two different things. Bratton never broke into the lineup regularly and finished with 8 tackles and a single pass breakup. Physically, he was playing but he wasn’t completely back with the mental edge needed to play corner at the ACC level.

“I feel like I was close to 100 percent, but you know just having to get back and get that mental aspect out of it,” Bratton said. “I feel like I was close, but right now I’m ready to move on and continue to be the best for the team.”

This spring, early signs point to Bratton finding that confidence again. Assistant coach Ricky Brumfield, who took over the cornerback position this spring, said that he likes what he’s seeing so far in practice.

“I don’t want to say he’s back, but I really, truly feel like he’s got his swag back,” Brumfield said. “He’s got confidence. He’s ready to roll. Last year, he was injured. He came off an ACL, he was still kind of slow and he probably was questioning his knee strength, cutting, and different things like that and he played timid in that regard because of his injury. … He has that confidence and I think now that the injury is over and behind him, I shouldn’t even have said it because he ain’t even thinking about it anymore. He’s moved on. I believe his confidence from that [previous 2018] year is completely back.”

Brumfield referred to what appeared to be Bratton’s breakout season in 2018. That fall, he appeared in all 13 games with 5 starts and posted 16 tackles. He earned the early season starting nod after a close camp competition with Tim Harris and the duo continued to split reps during the season. Harris, of course, went on to become a sixth round pick for the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL Draft. That completed a story of perseverance for Harris, who battled through multiple injuries at Virginia and stayed in the program for six years before making it to the NFL. He appeared in 2 games for the 49ers in 2020.

Now, after an injury of his own, Bratton is writing his own comeback story. If he can return to 2018 form and reset his development curve, he’ll provide some much-needed depth at corner. Nick Grant, who has started 24 straight games for UVA, is back for an unexpected extra year thanks to the NCAA’s decision to freeze eligibility due to the pandemic. Anthony Johnson, a transfer from Louisville where he appeared in 32 games with 5 starts, has started off well this spring too. Beyond that, there’s not much experience on the roster – De’Vante Cross moved back to safety, which is viewed as his most natural fit – meaning Bratton has a shot to re-establish himself in the rotation.

Cross said he is excited to see Bratton looking more like himself this spring.

“It’s great having Darrius back. He’s a great player. He brings energy to our team, he’s a leader on our team, and ultimately he’s a great player so he also changes the game,” Cross said. “I played corner, but let’s be honest I was a make-shift corner and I did what I could – Darrius is a real deal corner and he changes the game. Like last year, balls went over our head a lot – he’s a guy that cancels that. Having him, like having Joey [Blount] back, is a game changer. It changes our team and makes our team that much better. So having him is a blessing.”

At 6’1” and 200 pounds, Bratton has similar measurables to Harris (6’2”, 205), Bryce Hall (6’1”, 202), and Juan Thornhill (6’0”, 205), a trio of defensive backs he shared the field with in 2018. That’s the look of the oft-sought shutdown corner.

Brumfield said this year’s defensive backfield is more of a team-oriented scheme coverage group than pure shutdown corners, but he picked Bratton as his choice to go one-on-one with a receiver in a jumpball battle and thinks Bratton would get the job done. He noted that Bratton has been in the right spots on top of receivers this spring and has been knocking down some balls in practice.

Bratton’s focus remains on doing “what’s best for the team” and whatever it takes to boost the defense. In 2020, UVA’s defense allowed 304.4 passing yards per game to rank 123rd nationally and opponents frequently connected on home run throws over the defense. That led to a coaching staff shuffle to allocate more coaches to the secondary in an effort to get back on track. In 2018, the Hoos ranked 16th nationally by allowing only 183.0 passing yards per game with 17 interceptions (that tied for 11th in the nation).

The latter is the direction Bratton wants thing to go.

“Major responsibility,” Bratton said. “We have a big standard of no deep balls and we are the line of defense for big plays and points. We’ve got to be on our A game every practice and that’s what we’re striving to do to hold that standard because we know we can do it and in the past it was one of the best DB units in the country. We’re going to try to get back to that.”