Virginia RB Mike Hollins on return - 'We need football right now' - ESPN

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Virginia running back Mike Hollins has thought about what it will feel like to step onto the practice field to begin fall practice next week.

Emotions are mixed, of course. Hollins survived a shooting last November that killed teammates Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D'Sean Perry, and he still grieves for them every day. Hollins, his teammates and the coaching staff want to keep the players' legacies alive as the new season begins.

But Hollins said during a news conference Friday that he is excited for what this season holds, too, as camp opens Aug. 2.

«Not just for this team, but for the city, the university. Because we need football right now,» Hollins said. «It does something to the atmosphere, just the whole camaraderie of the university. It will uplift the three we lost just by seeing them up on the big screen or just being in a football game, people will be remembering them. So I'm excited.»

Hollins returned to practice in the spring, four months after a gunshot wound to his abdomen that kept him hospitalized for a week. In the spring game in April, he scored on a 1-yard touchdown run in an end zone painted to memorialize Davis, Chandler and Perry and finished with 11 carries for 40 yards.

His performance throughout the spring gave Hollins a huge confidence boost that he said carried into summer workouts. Hollins said he feels 100 percent physically, and his weight is back up to 204 pounds after dropping to 185 last winter.

«I think it showed me that anything is possible, and I believe that the mind is very powerful as well,» Hollins said. «I had those days where I didn't think I wanted to continue but moving throughout the spring every day, waking up and making a decision to show up for