Virginia running back Mike Hollins returned to the football field five months after he was the victim of a shooting. On Saturday afternoon, Hollins took part in the Virginia football spring game.
The November shooting put Mike Hollins in the hospital for a week and killed three of his Virginia football teammates. Hollins' comeback is now underway after he rushed for 40 yards on 11 carries in the exhibition contest.
“It's great to be back,” Hollins said in a social media post after the Virginia spring game. “It's a blessing, and I wanna thank all you Wahoo fans for coming out and supporting us. Go ‘hoos!”
The Virginia football team canceled its last two games of the 2022 season after the shooting. D’Sean Perry, Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr. were killed after returning from a class trip.
Hollins passed up the chance to leave Virginia, following the shooting. The senior will play for the Cavaliers in his fifth year at the school during the 2023 college football season.
“I could have left, I could have transferred, but I think of that as sweeping things under the rug and not handling the situation as best as I could,” Hollins said last month. “The best place for me to move forward — not move on, but move forward — is in Charlottesville with the people who shared that experience with me.
“No one across the country feels the way we feel here in the facility. No one in the country knows how I feel about the situation besides the people here in this facility, and I got an uneasy feeling when I thought about leaving. I'm glad I stayed because the support is what I need right now to get through.”
Hollins has 540 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in his career.