CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Physically, Mike Hollins said he felt ready to rejoin the Virginia football team from the moment doctors removed the staples and stiches from the once-existent gunshot wound in his stomach.
Mentally and emotionally, however, there was more healing to be done. And in some ways, there still is.
"It was hard to come into these same walls, into this same locker room, after seeing what I saw," he said.
As the Cavaliers open fall camp Wednesday, the fifth-year running back is doing something that seemed improbable. Eight months after being severely wounded in an on-campus shooting that killed three of his teammates, he is returning for another season of college football − carrying with him a new purpose, and a new burden.