Mike Hollins, Excited For Virginia Football Season, Says ‘It’s So Much Bigger Than Me Now’

Virginia running back Mike Hollins inspired his teammates, coaches, and Hoos everywhere in the spring when he returned to the football field just months after suffering a gunshot wound. He even topped it off with a touchdown in the Spring Game that the team joyously celebrated in an end zone painted in memory of Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler, and D’Sean Perry, who lost their lives in the same shooting at the University.

Hollins said Friday that he didn’t really know what to expect emotionally when he walked into Scott Stadium for that April scrimmage, but the desire to come back to football came as early as getting staples removed from stitches after his surgery. While Hollins said he knows anyone would have understood if he chose not to play again, he wanted to return to the field.

“I don’t know. I just feel like enough was already taken from me so I just wasn’t going to let football be taken from me as well,” Hollins said. “Simple.”

Little else has been simple for Hollins since the tragedy in November.

Returning from a school field trip to Washington D.C. on a bus, Hollins was shot by another student. Davis, Chandler, and Perry all died from gunshot wounds just as the bus returned to Grounds near the Culbreth Garage and UVA drama building. Fellow UVA student Marlee Morgan was also wounded.

Hollins, who initially ran from the bus but turned back to try to help according to his mother last November, ended up with a gunshot wound that sent him to the hospital. He underwent emergency surgery that Sunday night and then a secondary surgery the following Tuesday. Doctors initially believed it could take four to six months before Hollins could lift anything or possibly even do minor everyday tasks. Instead, Hollins got out of bed the next day and walked to the bathroom. The doctors altered their timetable for future possibilities physically.

The Louisiana native has adopted a dog that he said provides emotional support and that he likes the responsibility of raising. He slowly worked his way back physically, rejoining winter workouts at first and then spring practice beginning in March. Contact drills waited until later that month. Along the way, he worked with UVA coaches and nutritionists to build back physically. His weight dropped from around 207 or 208 pounds last season into the 180 to 185 range through recovery. He’s up to around 204 pounds as Virginia prepares to open training camp next week.

Hollins also returned to the classroom and learned to navigate the changes there. That included getting questions from others or stares or frequent interactions. It also required learning how to answer those questions or how to respectively handle those days where he simply didn’t feel up to doing that. Still, Hollins persevered. Already with an undergraduate degree in hand, he has started work toward a master’s degree in higher education.

Hollins dealt with mental hurdles at each and every step. That continues each day.

“I definitely won’t ever return to my old self,” Hollins said. “I’ll always carry something with me. It’s just learning how to carry it that best fits you and your circumstances if that makes sense. You’ll never find the proper way to carry such a traumatic experience. It will always weigh on you. There’ll never be a day where you won’t remember it or feel something missing from your heart when thinking about it so just learning to accept that. … It will be a life-long journey. It’s not something that comes easy. I just thank the Lord for allowing me to carry it as it looks gracefully, but it’s not at all. It’s just a constant battle of just acceptance really.”

With that load omnipresent, Hollins would have been an inspiration to many even if he chose to never play again. His roommate Perris Jones called him a super hero earlier this week at the ACC Football Kickoff for how he carries himself with as much grace as he does given everything that happened. Once he returned to the field, however, the nickname Iron Mike came through a different lens for teammates.

Back in the spring, he did finally start getting into those contact drills. Running backs coach Keith Gaither said Hollins started competing and was winning races. Then came the day of the Spring Game. The Cavaliers began the practice day and walked arm and arm across the field at Scott Stadium into the end zone where Davis, Chandler, and Perry had their names painted. Before the game began, a video board tribute and moment of silence honored them.

Hollins didn’t know what to expect, but felt blessed looking back.

“It was an emotional roller coaster to say the least. I didn’t really know what to expect emotionally walking into the stadium. Just being hit with a ball of emotions, I couldn’t really explain ’em,” Hollins said. “I know that I did feel blessed in that moment walking on the field and when I first touched the field and got to play, I just felt free, free from my mind and thinking about what’s going on and the circumstances I’m in. It was a lot easier just to play ball and that’s what I felt during the Spring Game. Once again, I must say I felt blessed because months before I was stuck in a hospital bed and I didn’t know what to expect.”

The White team eventually topped Blue, 34-19, but Hollins had 11 carries for 40 yards. He scored a touchdown for the Blue team that had players celebrating as well as Hollins’ little brother Deuce. When he got into the end zone, Hollins put the ball down on Perry’s name and tapped his name twice before a kiss and a final pat to the ground. He’s named his adopted dog after his fallen friend.

“That moment, it was special. It was a moment I never thought I would experience again,” Hollins said. “I just, I don’t know, like I’ve said in the past, I never really questioned my physical ability coming back, never questioned if I would be able to play football again, it was more that feeling that reaching the end zone again gave me in such a sad time, just knowing how powerful the game could be in helping me to move forward with everything going on. And I don’t know, just having my team there, my little brother there in the end zone, it meant the world to me.”

It took time to build up physically, but Hollins is 100% again. He also needed to find the mental space to compete again. The confidence that each side of that coin would hold up took time to nurture too.

While the healing process continues, Hollins’ return in the spring and that Spring Game touchdown gave him an added boost of motivation. And not specifically or exclusively on the field. Hollins said everything that happened formed a new perspective for him on football and how it fits into the big picture of his life. And the life of others.

“It’s so much bigger than me now. Football as a whole has kind of shrunk and when I say that, it’s like football is a vehicle to so many other avenues in my eyes now,” Hollins said. “It’s not the end all, be all and it can’t be. So now I’m just looking at football as yes, it is my dream, but how many other ways can I use it to better myself off the field because on the field comes easy to everyone who’s made it to a Division 1 college. It’s what you’ve been doing, it’s how you got here. I think what separates is how you can better yourself not only on the field, but off the field as well. You only have 48 games in your career, practices every few months, but those times off the field outnumber the times you get to actually have a ball in your hands. So just a complete change of perspective for this season, just wondering how I can build deeper connections with my teammates and my professors and the people who are here to support me, how can I show gratitude and appreciation. And all of that has been keeping me motivated every day.”

With July winding down over the next few days, that motivation shifts to preseason soon. Virginia opens preseason practice on Wednesday. That leaves exactly one month until the season opener against Tennessee on Sept. 2 in Nashville. One week later, the team’s first home game comes against JMU on Sept. 9. Both games are scheduled for noon kickoffs.

Those firsts will be part of this season at every turn. It will all be emotional for Hollins and others. UVA has not played an official game since Nov. 12 of last year. The senior running back thinks the community needs football to keep moving forward. In many ways, naturally, the 2023 will be one of tribute and honoring the lives of Davis, Chandler, and Perry. The results of that are difficult to frame or put expectations around. For Hollins, he said just competing to the best of their abilities while coming together as a team will be the type of respect and honor the fallen players deserve for their legacies.

“It’s going to be an emotional season, but I think see this team moving forward, I see the team and coaches bonding, and I’m excited for this camp. I’m excited for what this season holds not just for this team, but for the city, the University because we need football right now I feel,” Hollins said. “It does something to the atmosphere, just the whole camaraderie of the University and Grounds. It’ll uplift the three we lost, just by seeing them up on the big screen or just being at a football game people will be remembering them.”