Tayvion Robinson (No. 9) likes the culture he's found at Kentucky. (Photo by Vicky Graff)
Virginia Tech transfer Tayvion Robinson got a first-hand look at what the Kentucky football program was like when he played against the Cats in the Belk Bowl won 37-30 by Kentucky. He had one rush for five yards, two catches for 18 yards and one punt return for 11 yards.
“This is a place that guys really wanted to be at every day,” Robinson said. “Waking up at 5 or 6 (for practice) is not fun for anybody. I came on a visit and just sat back and watched how they prepared. Everybody in the building wanted to be there. It was like guys were dragging in. They were happy to be here and the culture in practice was fun. It was something I wanted to be part of. That was an attractive thing to me.”
Robinson said recruiting was different after he played three years at Virginia Tech compared to when he came out of high school.
“As soon as I was in the (transfer) portal, I started getting a million calls. I narrowed it down to a couple and this was the best opportunity for me,” he said.
Kentucky needed a proven receiver with Wan’Dale Robinson leaving for the NFL and Josh Ali graduating. Robinson was a three-year starter at Virginia Tech who had 113 catches for 1,264 yards and 10 touchdowns. He has also returned 49 punts in his collegiate career.
“I feel like that’s my go-to outside of playing receiver,” Robinson said about returning punts. “That was one of the things I told them when I was coming here that I wanted to continue to catch punts, so I’ve been doing that since spring started.”
Tayvion Robinson was impressed with the success transfers had at UK last season and with the way UK moved to a “pass friendly” offense under Liam Coen last season. He doesn’t expect that philosophy to change with new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello.
“They had the best recruiting class in school history and we have a lot of very good receivers. All these young guys kind of makes me feel young,” Tayvion Robinson said. “It’s going to be fun teaching them and seeing their development.
