CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — No college football team in the country will be taking the field with heavier hearts more than the Virginia Cavaliers this season. The Wahoos are set to start fall camp on Wednesday without former teammates Lavel Davis, Jr., DeSean Perry, and Devin Chandler who were killed in a shooting on the grounds last November.
Running back Mike Hollins survived the tragedy that night and will compete for the starting job ahead of the season. He practiced with the team this spring and his physical recovery has surpassed expectations, even playing in Virginia's spring game just six months after suffering a bullet wound where he even scored a touchdown.
The Cavaliers are making this entire season a tribute to their fallen brothers which you can't measure in wins or losses or by any means of overcompensating for their teammates, but rather doing what they do best, and what made their teammates happiest, playing football together.
"We don't have to go out or try to overdo ourselves or overwork or go undefeated or win a championship just to justify their legacy," said Hollins. "I think us just showing up, waking up every day, returning to practice, returning to the field and the locker room and just continuing to be a team in their honor is doing their legacy really well in itself."
On why he decided to continue playing football, well it's quite simple.
"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."