CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Virginia running back Mike Hollins knows he will never be the same, and he admits the position of football on his list of his priorities “has shrunk.”
He still can’t wait to run onto the field with his Cavaliers brothers when they open the season against Tennessee on Sept. 2 in Nashville.
“I can only imagine the emotions that’ll be flowing through my body. I just — I literally can’t. I have no words, because the spring game hit me like a sack of rocks, and I didn’t expect it at all, so I can only imagine,” he said. “I’m ready, though. I’m ready for it.”
Hollins, a 5-foot-9, 204-pound running back Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was one of two survivors of a shooting last November that left three teammates dead. He was shot in the back, needed several surgeries and spent a week in the hospital before beginning a long rehabilitation.
The shootings, which also left student Marlee Morgan injured, rocked the team and the community, with the Cavaliers canceling their final two games.