The Virginia Cavaliers passed their first (official) conference test against Stanford on Saturday night. And while Chandler Morris — with the help of Trell Harris — put on a show with 380 passing yards and five total touchdowns, the ‘Hoos also received a shot in the arm on the defensive side with the return of Kam Robinson, who made his 2025 debut after suffering a collarbone injury back in mid-August.
Robinson started the game alongside James Jackson up the middle and made his presence felt throughout
his team-best seven-tackle performance.
UVA had little problem handling the ground game of William & Mary a week ago, but notably struggled to contain NC State’s athletes down in Raleigh, allowing 216 rush yards in the loss. Getting Robinson and his athleticism back in the fold helped contain the Cardinal to just 35 yards on the ground. The stats agree with that sentiment as well, with Robinson receiving a tackling grade of 81.6, the second-highest of any Cavalier, per Pro Football Focus. Safety Ethan Minter led in the category with a grade of 82.
Robinson’s return was, of course, capped off with an impressive turnover in the middle of the fourth quarter on a heads up play as he hustled to not only strip the ball out of the hands of Ben Gulbranson — who was moments away from being sacked by Jason Hammond — but recover it after initially falling to the ground.
In his postgame presser, Tony Elliott emphasized his desire for UVA to finish games when the opportunities present themselves in the fourth quarter, and what better example to throw on film than Robinson not giving up to make two plays in one while up by 21 points.
This week, the ‘Hoos set their sights on a familiar team in Florida State and a familiar quarterback in Thomas Castellanos. UVA last took down the Seminoles in 2019 in front of a jam-packed Scott Stadium crowd, while Castellanos makes his return to Charlottesville after last season’s loss as Boston College’s signal caller — a game in which Kam Robinson helped seal with a forced fumble right in front of the Cavalier bench that was taken to the house by Jonas Sanker.
The ‘Hoos will look to find another strong performance by Robinson and the rest of the defense to help keep pace in what will likely be an offensive shootout on Friday night.
