Editor’s note: This article will be published in the 2026 Playbook football preview magazine, included in the Wednesday, Aug. 26 edition of the Record-Eagle. The Playbook previews 14 area football teams and includes several feature stories and rosters for band and cheerleading teams.
TRAVERSE CITY — Brayden Tillman was on an official visit to the University of Wisconsin.
He and his father arrived early and were strolling through the state capital building a day before touring campus.
Tillman’s phone rang. It was Traverse City West head coach James Wagner, saying Florida State football coaches wanted to talk with him.
FSU offered him a football scholarship before he could even make the June visit to Wisconsin’s campus.
“That’s a crazy feeling, Florida State being the program it is,” Tillman said. “I was surprised it was Florida State. I didn’t have any communication with them at all.”
He and his father Aaron went to lunch after the phone call. Brayden couldn’t eat.
After the visit the next day, Wisconsin offered on the spot. Purdue’s offer came the next day. Michigan State another two days down the line.
Florida State had been some of Tillman’s tape online, after the 6-foot-4 quarterback started as a sophomore at West.
MSU quarterbacks coach John McNulty came to TC West to invite Tillman to their camp.
Tillman bulked up from 165 as a sophomore to about 185 now.
“Not only has he been better throwing the ball, but he’s been putting the work in,” TC West teammate Henry Olson said. “He’s always putting in the work.”
Wagner echoes that sentiment.
“He’s a worker,” Wagner said. “He’s stepping into his own. He has those offers by his name, but he’s worked hard to get where he’s at.”
Eastern Michigan was the first Division 1 school to offer Tillman, back in February.
“He doesn’t brag or anything,” Olson said. “He just lets his play do the talking. I admire that about him.”
His parents, Aaron and Kayla (Dutcher) met at Northern Michigan University, where Aaron played wide receiver and Kayla was on the soccer team. Aaron Tillman coaches West’s wide receivers.
Brayden also has a Division 1 receiver to throw to in 6-foot-4, 220-pound Aidan Jacobs, a Kent State University commit.
“Him out there one-on-one with anyone, I’m taking Aidan every time,” Tillman said. “Great speed, great routes, great hands. He’ll probably get some crazy looks thrown his way.”
Tillman drops off his 11-year-old brother Landon and 14-year-old sister Addy off for Titan Training twice a week during the summer, and said they’ll be contributors down the road at West as well. Landon plays basketball and Addy is a three-sport athlete who broke her older brother’s fifth-grade 55-meter dash record.
With offers from big-name schools comes expectations. Tillman said he’s ready for it.
“I can feel it,” said Tillman said, who has played QB since seventh grade. “There’s going to be pressure. That’s going to come. That’s what I worked for.”
West eased Tillman in at quarterback last year, putting more and more on his plate as the season progressed. This year, the kid gloves are off.
“He’s a very responsible, humble young man,” Wagner said. “But when the lights go on, he takes commands and is a silent assassin.”
TC Central head coach Eric Schugars said he noticed a difference in Tillman while seeing him at track meets this spring.
“The growth you have from sophomore year to junior year, he certainly hit it,” Schugars said. “He’s a different guy than when we played them.”
Schugars said the SVL Blue is loaded at quarterback between Tillman, TC Central’s Isaac Turnwald and the league’s two first-team all-conference QBs — Midland Dow’s Wynn Diegel and Mount Pleasant’s Xavier Creguer.
Tillman said playing three sports — he’s also on the basketball and track squads — really helped his avoid the pitfalls of struggling with growth spurts, since he was always active and didn’t notice nearly as much as he shot up from 6-1 as a freshman.
“He runs the offense and now he’s more physical,” Schugars said. “That growth is why college coaches are looking at him.”
Tillman qualified for the state finals in the high jump — setting West’s sophomore record at 6-foot-2 in the process — but didn’t go, as he had football camps already scheduled that weekend.
Tillman opened up recruiting eyes at the 10 or so camps he attended in the last year. He’s going to the Florida-Florida State game to visit the Seminoles’ campus in Tallahassee.