Nelson: From Walk-on To Starter To ACC Defensive Rookie Of The Year

Brenton Nelson’s journey to his Virginia football home reads like a Hollywood script.

The story is something one might expect coming out of the 1960s, the kind of tale that just doesn’t occur these days. Walk-on shows up, earns a scholarship, becomes a starter and is awarded ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Before that part of the odyssey, we have to go back to 2013 in Winter Springs, Fla., where Nelson was a football and track & field star. He began to attract attention from colleges when he led the talent-rich state of Florida in interceptions with 10.

He also broke the school’s long jump and triple jump records.

All of a sudden, poof, Nelson’s family moved to Maryland where he enrolled at DeMatha Catholic, and where he earned All-Met honors in 2015 for DeMatha’s football team, and where he also broke that school’s long and triple jump records, earning All-American recognition in that sport.

Rated a 2-star by the recruiting services, Nelson received some offers while in Florida and picked up some more at DeMatha, eight in total. There were either offers or interest from Boston College, Kentucky, Louisville, Marshall, South Florida, Florida International, for football. Mississippi and Penn State looked at him in terms of track.

“I was talking with my mother and we wanted to wait on a specific team, but things never worked out,” Brenton Nelson said.

His mom, Tashunda Edwards, said that Brenton had always wanted to go to LSU, but never received any mail or contact from the Tigers. She also thought Michigan State might come calling, but the phone never rang.

“Us not having the right direction about when to go visit, or when to say ‘yes,’ to an offer was a problem,” Edwards said. “We didn’t fully understand the recruiting process. A lot of schools misunderstood his quietness for not being interested.”

DeMatha and Virginia track coaches talked about the talented athlete and Cavaliers assistant Mario Wilson told Nelson he could come on a partial track & field scholarship. As the summer progressed, Nelson decided he was going to attempt to walk-on the Virginia football team.

Because finances were a problem, he believed a potential full scholarship for football would be more helpful to his family than a partial track scholarship.

So at the appointed time, Tashunda bought a bus ticket from Maryland to Charlottesville for her baby boy. At that time, it was the only way she could get him to UVa for the first day of football workouts.

To write that Brenton was intimidated by the process would be a gross understatement. As he got off the bus and made his way to the McCue Center _ football home for the Cavaliers _ all the other players were being dropped off by family members.

Brenton was alone, didn’t know a soul except for assistant coach Marques Hagans, and was like a lost golf ball in the high weeds.

“I was terrified,” Nelson said, looking back upon that moment. “Didn’t know anyone. It was just me.”

Tashunda was worried as well.

“He’s the baby of four boys and is my first child to go to a four-year school and stay on campus,” she said. “Him going was scary for both of us. Once he got there, I finally got a phone text from him that said, ‘I’m here.’ I knew he was in good hands.”

Once on Grounds, Nelson met the Virginia coaches that Sunday, then walked over to John Paul Jones Arena with the rest of the team to eat dinner. There was a hierarchy at the training tables, unknown to the rookie.

“All the upperclassmen were sitting together, I didn’t know where to go,” Nelson remember. “I was about to sit down and they were like, ‘first-years sit at the first-year table.’”

He moved along and met up with Joe Reed, Chris Moore and others. They exchanged numbers and was quickly accepted.

On the football field, he was accepted just as quickly. Nelson started all 13 of Virginia’s games, finished the season with 64 tackles as a safety, had six pass break ups and four interceptions, including some big ones.

His performance caught the eye of ACC media and he was voted ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year, a Cinderella story that would even warm the heart of Carl Spackler.

Nelson told this sportswriter early last season that Bronco Mendenhall called him up in front of the whole team. At first he thought he might have done something wrong.

He stood at the side, and Mendenhall told the team, something like “here is Brenton Nelson,” then made Nelson move to the other side of the coach, and said, “here is Brenton Nelson, scholarship player.”

The team erupted in joy. Nelson cried. He call his mom and they cried together on the phone.

“Every time he called home, I kept asking him if he had been given a scholarship,” said Tashunda, who confessed her lack of football knowledge. “He kept telling me, ‘Mom, it doesn’t work that way.’

“The day he called and told me about getting the scholarship, we both cried,” she said. “I wish I could have had that videoed.”

His next big call would come after the regular season ended.

Brenton Nelson, ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year.

“He called and said he had some big news but couldn’t tell me yet because the news had to officially come out,” Tashunda said. “The funniest thing about it, he sent all the information to me about the award. I didn’t know how big of a deal it was until I showed family members and my work family, some of the girls who follow football.

“They all said, ‘OMG, this is a really big deal. We have to celebrate,’” his mom said.

Nelson was informed of the honor by Gerry Capone, Virginia’s longtime associate director of athletics for football administration.

“It was breathtaking when I learned,” Nelson said. “When Gerry told me, I didn’t believe him at first. Me? Really me? I was extremely grateful for the honor. It meant so much to me.”

Nelson was already a confident player, but the award only boosted that confidence.

“Not only can I play with these guys but I can actually be one of the top athletes at my position in the ACc, and that’s big time,” Nelson said.

He’s been busy this season, trying to build off his success as a rookie. He considers himself stronger, faster, more knowledgeable about the game and Virginia’s playbook. He knows what it takes to get the job done.

“Because of last year, I have definitely become more confident in myself,” Nelson said. “I’ve gone from being terrified to confident, but some of my friends say I’m even more humble now.”

Nelson has gotten off to a good start this season as a sophomore. He suffered a concussion with 8:45 to play in the second quarter of last Saturday’s game at N.C. State. He has 15 tackles so far this season, two PBUs and an interception.

Virginia co-defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga has even higher expectations of the former DeMatha player, and so far Nelson hasn’t disappointed.

“Especially the way he played at the end of the season last year, really the whole season he was really consistent,” Poppinga said. “That’s who Brenton is, a very consistent guy, a very mild-mannered kid.

“He’s always going to be right there,” Poppinga said, holding his arm at level. “Never gets too excited about smoething, never gets too low about something. That’s the perfect kind of guy you want as a defensive back, a guy with a short memory.”

Poppinga said that Nelson has been the surprise of Virginia’s football team going back to the beginning of the 2017 season.

“I’d say that continues to be the case,” the coach said. “He’s a guy that amazes us every single day, every single game, making us say, ‘Wow,’ this guy really can play. I’d say he’s the most consistent guy on our defense right now.”

Tashunda and lots of family, particularly the ones from Florida, will be coming up for the Miami game on Oct. 13.

“The majority of our family is in Florida, and if you grew up in that part of Florida, you were fans of the ‘U,’” she said. “But we’ll all be rooting for Brenton and Virginia next week.”

With any luck, there will be more good fortune to add to Nelson’s story.

We’re all pulling for an eventual Hollywood ending.