To all outward appearances Davonte Robinson was ready for anything. He was a tall, physically impressive defensive back built more like some athletic high school linebackers, and he was a track star to boot.
It probably looked like he was ready to take on the world.
But nothing had prepared him for what he was about to go through in Kentucky's fall camp before the 2016 season.
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Derek Robinson is Davonte's father and he knows Kentucky's freshman defensive back as well as anyone.
The elder Robinson has his own story and has faced his own adversity. Nearly 10 years ago, on April Fool's Day in 2007, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer. There have been plenty of scares in the mostly cancer-free decade since then. Just last Thursday Robinson's father went to his pain management doctor and learned that a cyst had been found on his vertebrae in the lumbar region. He'll meet with a family doctor on Valentine's Day to determine how to take on this latest hurdle.
But he's a survivor. Every one of Robinson's father's text messages come with the signature, "Cancer survivor." So when he talks about persistence, courage and staying the course, it means something.
He's had a few of those talks with his son, Davonte, since he arrived at Kentucky over the summer.
"I would say the most trying time for him was the adjustment period coming from high school, trying to learn everything from the speed of SEC football to the playbook, getting to know the other athletes and getting acclimated to just being a college athlete himself," Robinson's father told Cats Illustrated this week.
"In the beginning it was really rough for Davonte. I know camp was something he had never, ever in his life thought he'd go through. I used to tell him all the time it was going to be rough. He just never knew it was going to be that rough. He even mentioned to me one day, he said, 'Dad, you should have just talked me into just running track.'"
Robinson and his father can laugh about that and other conversations like it today. That's a testament to how far the freshman has come during his redshirt season.
"But even today I still remember that look on his face when he told me that," his father said. "I just kept telling him to hang in there."
Robinson's journey to Kentucky began in earnest during his freshman year of high school. The Henry Clay athlete set the 100-meter record for a high school freshman at a New Balance event during the 2013-14 school year. He won the state championship in the same event the very next year.
That might seem like a long time ago, but those accomplishments were important in helping Robinson to cultivate a confidence in himself and in his future that prodded him along the way to the University of Kentucky.
After that sophomore year of high school Robinson attended a football camp at Kentucky. He might have been known as a star track athlete, but his name hadn't registered on major recruiting sites and he was mostly an unknown on the football field outside of his immediate proximity in Lexington.
He turned in a blinding 40-yard dash time and that's the kind of thing that doesn't go unnoticed under the watchful eye of college coaches who are always on the lookout for the next big thing.
"When he ran that 40-time I remember Coach (Vince) Marrow running over to me," Robinson's dad said. "He told me that with speed like that if he stays healthy and learns the game he could possibly play on Sundays."
That got Robinson fired up.
Robinson has thought about running track at some point during his college career at Kentucky. Mark Stoops has told the family in the past that if Robinson is making the right kind of progress on the field then during his second year at the school track is something he could do with his blessing.
"But Davonte really loves football," his father said. "Football's his number one sport. I'd say he probably still would (like to run track) but I don't really know where his head's at on that."
Track aside, that camp at Kentucky netted Robinson an offer from the Cats, fired him up about the future, and placed him on the map as one of the state's top recruits from a stacked Class of 2016. It also put him in a place he didn't expect to be in.
"Starting out as a freshman and into his sophomore year he didn't really think he was going to attract the attention of big schools," Robinson's father said. "He was kind of down on himself. I used to tell him all the time, 'Speed's what's going to get you there.' With his track success and then the camp at Kentucky, he realized, 'You know, maybe I could do some things.'"
That led to Robinson working harder than ever and doing what it takes to prepare for the highest level of football possible.
But Robinson's rise in popularity and name recognition didn't lead him to toss aside a kind of humility he has always seemed to carry with him.
"He isn't a flashy guy that demands a lot of attention," Robinson's father said.
He's also the kind of person who's more likely to have a small circle of close friends an confidants than a large social network. That means those relationships, fewer in number but perhaps more intimate than some others', are important. And that helps explain another difficulty in transitioning to Kentucky.
Robinson's early struggles transitioning to life as a freshman at UK had something to do with the complexity of the playbook, the speed of the game, the physical demands and the seemingly impossible task of time management for an SEC athlete.
But it also had something to do with Derrick Ansley's decision to leave Kentucky, where he was set to be the program's defensive backs coach and co-defensive coordinator - the latter title just added after the 2015 season - for Alabama, where he's still Nick Saban's secondary coach.
"There was a time when he told me things were coming at him so fast and he couldn't get a grasp of it," Robinson's father recalled. "But a big thing was Davonte had built up a really, really big rapport with Coach Ansley. During the recruiting process Coach Ansley was coming to our house, eating dinner and everything. He had built up that rapport with him.
"When Coach Clink (Steven Clinkscale) came there was an adjustment. Davonte's not one of those guys who's just going to come up with you and have a conversation. That doesn't mean he doesn't like you. It's just not who he is. He's going to be good friends with a smaller group of people."
Over time Robinson has built a relationship with Clinkscale and more players in the program.
Robinson arrived at Kentucky as one of three defensive backs from the Class of 2016 along with Jordan Griffin and Tobias Gilliam. While Griffin played in nine games for Kentucky as a true freshman, Robinson redshirted.
"I didn't even know he was thinking about redshirting 'til we got the Florida game," Robinson's father recalled. "My brother, nephew and my brother who attends church with me were en route to Gainesville and I talked with him and he said, 'Dad, I don't think I'm coming.' I was like, 'What?' I called Coach (Dan) Berezowitz and he said, 'Yes, he's making the trip.' At that point in time I started to get the understanding that he may be thinking about taking a redshirt year."
There was a method to Robinson's thinking on that. He's a perfectionist when it comes to his craft and he wants to make sure that when his time comes, he's ready. Really ready.
"He told me things were coming along but he didn't want to make a mistake on the football field," his father said. "He didn't want to do something that would hamper him from getting on the field again. The redshirt, I really thought, was part of the process of trying to learn the playbook and becoming ready."
Towards the end of the season Robinson earned some praise from the staff for his play on the scout team, just as did others like A.J. Rose and Jaylin Bannerman, just to name a couple.
"I think the scout team really helped him with his confidence," Robinson's dad said. "I tried to stay away from going over there because I didn't want to stress his mind out. I used to go a lot when he was being recruited, by myself to check things out. This year I didn't do it as much but I remember going over and I saw him walking out wearing a No. 10 jersey. I was thinking, 'Why's he got No. 10 on?' After practice he told me not to be alarmed, that he was wearing No. 10 for the opposing team (for the scout team)."
Now Robinson is riding that momentum and a new wave of confidence. With his redshirt year behind him, the future is as bright as ever. That speed, which his father said would carry him, is still a reason people around the program believe he can be a major contributor. And that could happen as soon as next year.
