Virginia shooting victim Mike Hollins returns to field in Cavaliers' spring game
No college football player's spring game snaps were more meaningful than Virginia running back Mike Hollins, who returned to the playing field five months after the mass shooting that wounded him and killed three of his teammates.
Hollins got the first carry of the game Saturday and ran it for 7 yards to a standing ovation, per ESPN. He finished the game with 40 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, all in the first half.
After that touchdown, Hollins paid tribute to his late teammate D'Sean Perry, placing the ball on his name.
Mike Hollins with one of the most meaningful spring game touchdowns in UVA's return to Scott Stadium.
Places the ball over the name of the late D'Sean Perry. pic.twitter.com/42L6rIJMzp— Preston Willett (@PrestonWillett) April 15, 2023
"It's great to be back. It's a blessing," Hollins said in a video posted by Virginia.
It was an emotional day for all involved with the Virginia program, which canceled the remaining games of the 2022 season after the deaths of Perry, Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr. Players and coaches locked arms before the game and were visibly emotional.
An emotional day in Charlottesville as @UVAFootball took the field for the first time since the deaths of D’Sean Perry, Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr. 🧡💙 pic.twitter.com/jS64cTEAM9
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) April 15, 2023
Hollins, who had 215 rushing yards and two touchdowns in nine games last season, was hospitalized for a week after the shooting, which occurred on a bus after a class trip. He later said he ran right into the shooter and was shot as he ran away.
As he recalled, he narrowly avoided a wound that would almost certainly have ended his football career:
"I felt him hit me in my back," Hollins said. "But I just knew I wasn't going down without a fight. I found a pre-med student, and that was God again. She was there to help me. She kept me calm, kept my breathing under control, was checking my pulse until the ambulance came … I think I got hit in the small intestine, kidney, and they were trying to see if it damaged my bladder. By the grace of God, it missed my spine by like, two centimeters or something like that."
It doesn't matter how many carries Hollins sees this upcoming season, he's already achieved a major victory.
