Since his first carry in flag football, which he happened to take 90 yards to the house, senior Marcus Robinson-Jenkins has dreamed of playing in college. The dream is becoming closer and closer to a reality, as he currently holds offers from Air Force, Navy, Campbell, Elon and Virginia Military Institute.

SINCE THE BEGINNING

“It’s always been a dream, especially to get up on the big stage of Division I football. That’s every high school kid’s dream. For me to make it reality is just a blessing,” Robinson-Jenkins said.

Robinson-Jenkins’ football career started as a way for him to get his energy out, and has turned into a possible career path.

“I started in flag football, and I was about five or six years old. I was goofy., [My parents] didn’t think I was going to be the athlete that I am now. They just put me in because I was an active kid, and I got my first handoff and I took it all the way for 90 yards,” Robinson-Jenkins said. “That continued into pee-wee and I just kept getting better and better and better, and then football became my passion. I wanted to work hard. Everybody’s dream as a high school football player is to go to the NFL. Everybody should know that it’s a long run for that, but I’m working hard for it. I believe that I can make it there one day though.”

THE COME UP

After playing JV his freshman year, Robinson-Jenkins got a shot at varsity his sophomore year and wasn’t expecting much playing time at all. It turned into his breakout season after the starting running back was injured in the first game.

“I was definitely not [expecting to make such an impact on varsity my sophomore year]. It was definitely unexpected because I was the third string running back. Raekwon [Smith] got hurt the very first game and then I had three touchdowns [in my]very first game on varsity ever, so it was a kind of overwhelming, but also a blessing,” Robinson-Jenkins said.  “I would never wish for anyone to get hurt, but it gave me an opportunity to show my talents. Nobody really knew about me like that yet. I took advantage of the opportunity.”

From sophomore year until now, Robinson-Jenkins has really worked on getting bigger and stronger to help out his game on varsity.

“I’ve always been a skill back, like an all-purpose back. Go out of the backfield, catch the ball. My weakness has always been how big I was. I hit the weight room really hard for the past three years. Now I’m a lot bigger than I was my sophomore year. I actually have muscle mass now that I didn’t my sophomore year. I’ve been working hard, working on my speed, my cuts, a lot of stuff that’s key to being a college running back,” Robinson-Jenkins said.

THE NEXT LEVEL

He has been to many colleges up and down the East Coast on recruiting trips to see which places could become a home. In addition to the five schools that he has received offers from, Robinson-Jenkins has also visited other Division I programs such as Virginia Tech, Old Dominion and Rutgers.

“I’d actually say Navy [was the most surprising]. For my first offer I wasn’t expecting a military offer, that kind of threw me off guard. I was like ‘Okay.’ A FBS school offering you your first offer is a big time deal. It kind of overwhelmed me, I told my dad and he knew it was coming, he wasn’t shocked. It was just overwhelming at that point because all my work had paid off,” Robinson-Jenkins said.

Playing just for the Blue Streaks wasn’t going to be enough for his name to get out there for him, so Robinson-Jenkins decided to head south and play on a 7-on-7 team down in the Hampton Roads area.

“I went down to Virginia Beach to get my name out there. I went down and played on a 7-on-7 team and that really exposed my name. Colleges are looking at me now; they had their eye on me my junior year and me putting up numbers like that my junior year really helped out and got their attention. That’s when they started shooting offers,” Robinson-Jenkins said.

The next part of Robinson-Jenkins’ agenda is to go and check out all the schools that have given him an offer.

“[The next step in my selection process] is going to be taking my official visits and seeing what college treats me the best and what feels like it could be my home for the next three to four years,” Robinson-Jenkins.