‘Sky’s the Limit’ for Robinson

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Had he wanted to go that route, Kam Robinson could have pursued baseball in college. Or basketball. Maybe even track & field. As an 11^th-grader, Robinson won the Virginia High School League’s Class 1 state title in the long jump.

Football, however, has always “been more my thing,” Robinson said. “Baseball was always my brother’s. So he just took the baseball way, and I took the football way.”

For that, University of Virginia head coach Tony Elliott and his program are immensely grateful.

A Freshman All-American in 2023, Robinson has elevated his play this season. He sprained his knee in the Cavaliers’ season opener, a setback that forced him to miss their next game, but the brace Robinson wears as a precaution hasn’t kept him from producing at a high level.

“Personally, I think he’s the best pure athlete we have on this team, and he’s still so young,” defensive end Kam Butler said. “It’s only his second year.”

At noon Saturday, Virginia (4-3 overall, 2-2 ACC) hosts North Carolina (3-4, 0-3) at Scott Stadium. The Hoos have dropped back-to-back games since rallying to beat Boston College at Scott Stadium on Oct. 5, and they “want to get back to winning,” Robinson said.

He’s doing his part. The 6-foot-2, 234-pound Robinson is fourth on the team in tackles (39) and leads the Wahoos in sacks (three). He also has an interception and a fumble recovery. And there’s more to come from Robinson, said Mike Adams, who’s in his first year as Virginia’s linebackers coach.

“I don’t even think he’s close to his potential,” Adams said. “He’s trying to be intentional about everything he’s doing, so he is constantly seeing increases in his play and his performance, but he’s also a guy that’s battling injuries and tough times every day. So I appreciate his mental approach. He’s a battler, a fighter. He’ll continue to improve. I can’t even imagine where he’ll be once he gets truly healthy. Shoot, the sky’s the limit.”

When Robinson got injured Aug. 31 against Richmond, Adams wasn’t sure how long No. 5 would be sidelined. “I knew he was a competitor, and he did everything we asked him to do and really pushed himself to get back,” Adams said. “So he’s in a good space now, but he’s a linebacker; he’s just dealing with a lot of nagging things.”

Robinson grew up near the state’s Northern Neck in Tappahannock. About 50 miles northeast of Richmond, it’s the oldest town in Essex County and has a population of about 2,200.

“It’s just like Charlottesville, but a lot smaller,” Robinson said, smiling. “A lot smaller.”

He attended Essex High, one of the VHSL’s smallest schools, and Robinson rarely faced players of comparable talent on the football field. Even so, Elliott never questioned Robinson’s ability to thrive in the ACC.

“When I watched him on tape, you can see it,” Elliott said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “It’s hard to describe. When you watch a young man on tape, you can see that he has the ‘it’ factor. He did everything for his high school. He would punt. He would play receiver. He would play running back. He would play linebacker, go back to the secondary. He returned punts. He was doing everything.

“So you saw that this guy is a football player. Not every player you can put at all these different positions and they can function at a high level. So that was the first thing that attracted me to him … Then you go watch him play live. Then you go watch him play basketball. Then you have a chance to meet his family. You see the big ol’ smile that he has. He’s a person that you just gravitate to.”

Elliott said he saw Robinson as “a potential program-changing kind of guy.”

That wasn’t hyperbole. “Obviously, Kam’s an in-state kid,” Butler said, “and I think if you get more players like him, you can really turn around a program, especially when they come from Virginia.”

No matter how small Essex High might be, Robinson said he was always confident he could excel in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision.

“I never had any questions about competing,” he said. “Mine was more so about learning the scheme. How fast I can learn the scheme, how fast I can get on the field?”

As signing day approached in December 2022, Robinson visited Florida State and South Carolina, but he’d long favored UVA. He announced his decision during a signing ceremony at Essex High School, after which Elliott weighed in on Robinson’s impact.

“I believe that he’s the most dynamic football player in the state of Virginia … I’m really just excited that the total package is coming to the University of Virginia,” Elliott said on signing day. “He was a guy that I told the staff I believe could be the cornerstone of this class, with his potential on the field, but more importantly with his potential off the field, with his charisma, his leadership skills.”

Some 22 months later, “I still believe everything I said back in December of ’22,” Elliott told reporters Tuesday.

Other Virginians on the Hoos’ two-deep include wide receiver Malachi Fields and safety Jonas Sanker, who are both from Charlottesville, offensive tackle Jimmy Christ (Sterling), tight end Sackett Wood Jr. (Lynchburg), wideouts Andre Greene Jr. (Richmond) and Kameron Courtney (Manassas), defensive tackles Anthony Britton (Norfolk) and Bryce Carter (South Chesterfield), defensive end Ben Smiley (Chesapeake), linebacker James Jackson (Pulaski) and safety Ethan Minter (Chester).

“My message to the high school coaches in the state is, we’ve got to hold up our end of the bargain,” Elliott said. “We’ve got to make sure when guys decide to stay home that they’re developed, being treated the right way, and having success on the field.”

Robinson, Greene, Courtney, Britton and Minter are underclassmen, and “as time goes on,” Elliott said, “those guys will be able to be spokespersons for the program in terms of what their experience has been like inside the walls of this building, inside the program, but also their experience on Grounds. So all of that is what you use to try to illustrate to folks that this is the place to come in-state. We’ve got to continue to have success on the field. That’s important. The young people want to see wins and we fully understand that. But we also know there is more to it than just that.

“We want to win all the way around. I think if you look at not only the success that Malachi and Jonas are having on the field, if you see the impact they’re having in the community, the way they’re being developed off the field, the connections they’re making for the rest of their life, all of those are selling points.”

Robinson’s brother Tahraun Hammond, the New South Conference Baseball Player of the Year for Virginia State in 2023, is now at Old Dominion. About 175 miles from ODU’s campus in Norfolk, Robinson is enjoying life in Charlottesville.

“Football-wise, it’s been great,” said Robinson, who lives with cornerback Dre Walker.

Off the field, Robinson has been trying to broaden his horizons by meeting more students who aren’t involved with athletics at the University.

He aspires to play in the NFL. To do so, Robinson knows, he must continue improving in multiple areas, including his grasp of the fundamentals and his time-management skills.

“Just pay more attention to detail,” Robinson said.

Intentional film study is part of the process, Adams said. “Not just going in there to watch film, but to actually try and gain information from what you’re watching. And so watching it in segments and just improving throughout the week in your knowledge of your opponent. And then I think most importantly, the knowledge of your own defense, knowing exactly your role and the roles of all the guys around you. That’s extremely important, so that you know how to function when a call comes in.”

Adams said Robinson has an “unbelievable attitude. I absolutely love his mental approach every day. From time to time I’ll challenge him, and his absolute response is ‘yes, sir,’ and you can see it gets on him. He wants to perform better.”

Robinson said playing for Adams, who in his long coaching career has worked with more than a dozen players who went on to reach the NFL, has been instructive.

“Wonderful coach,” Robinson said. “He knows what he’s doing.”

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