Tyreek’e Robinson did his best imitation of a wrecking ball in football cleats the last time East Tennessee State played a game.
Through one quarter against The Citadel, ETSU trailed 10-0 on a rainy day in Charleston, S.C., and desperately needed a spark. Enter the 6-2, 325-pound Robinson, who stripped the ball from Citadel workhorse running back Gavin Garcia. CJ Gilmore scooped up the ball and dashed 4 yards for a touchdown, and the Bucs had new life, going on to score 34 straight points in a 34-16 win over the Bulldogs.
Robinson has five total tackles (two solo and three assists) in the Bucs’ final two games. That doesn’t seem like much until you consider Robinson’s position, defensive tackle, is not often known for high tackle totals. Or that his numbers include three stops for loss (one solo and two assists), and half of a sack against both Chattanooga and The Citadel.
“He’s been dynamic for us these last couple weeks,” ETSU coach Will Healy said Monday at the team’s weekly press conference as the Bucs prepare to travel to VMI Saturday (1:30 PM, ESPN+). “I think his best football’s still ahead of him.”
Like many impact players on this ETSU roster, Robinson joined the Bucs back in January, arriving through the transfer portal. Robinson arrived from UCF, where he appeared in five total games across two seasons with the Golden Knights.
On Monday, Healy recalled getting a call from an administrator with the UCF academic support staff for athletes. The topic? Robinson.
“She told me that he was one of the best human beings she’d ever been around. And I had watched his film and got a chance to talk to him on the phone and it was like, I want this guy in our program,” Healy said.
For Robinson’s part, prior relationships with some of the coaches on ETSU’s staff helped draw him to Johnson City. Brian Blackmon, the current offensive coordinator, spent four years at UCF before joining Healy at ETSU prior to the 2025 season. ETSU cornerbacks coach Michael Mosah and quarterbacks coach Neal Posey also worked for the Knights as a grad assistant and analyst, respectively.
“Just knowing them from where I was previously, definitely helped me make my decision and get me where I am now,” Robinson said.
Healy discussed the challenges for players like Robinson, who join an FCS team through the portal from a Football Bowl Subdivision program. They tend to arrive expecting to dominate from day one, based on where they’ve been.
“And then they get here and they realize, well, dang, these guys have good players, too. And there’s good competition and I’ve got to earn my way,” Healy said, adding “There’s a little bit of learning curve to the resources and the facilities we have versus where they’ve come from.”
Robinson didn’t show any sense of grumbling or entitlement, according to the Bucs coach: “He’s very low maintenance. He’s worked his rear end off. He’s been exactly what they told me he would be from a character perspective, and what type of teammate he is, but now he’s worked himself into being a really good football player and his consistency, his behind-the-scenes determination has now shown up in the statistical category.”
Robinson agreed it took time for him to settle in with the Bucs.
“The process is different coming from a bigger place to here,” Robinson said, “but I think just being around the team and people that are here. Like coach Healy said, this team has a lot of really good people. So just being there kind of got me out of my comfort zone, doing a lot more things with the players and hanging out with them. Definitely I’m comfortable now.”
A midseason simplification of the defensive scheme has helped. Earlier this month, ETSU linebacker Jarvis Johnson shared how the Bucs had distilled their core defense down to just four calls by the time ETSU faced Western Carolina at the end of September. Robinson shared what that meant for the guys up front.
“We don’t have to think too much. We practice the same few calls that we do have, target those, get good at those, and then once the game happens, we just get to play fast,” he said, adding, “It just allows us to slow the game down in our minds, but play fast out there.”
Robinson also spoke to the improvement of the defensive line as a whole in recent weeks, especially since a season opener where Campbell gashed the Bucs for more than 500 yards in a 49-37 win for the Camels.
“How we started versus Campbell is not where we wanted to be … it’s like we could have been more physical, we just weren’t,” Robinson said, adding that position coaches J.C. Price and Chris Davis Jr. had been “really hounding on us to be more physical. We’re doing half-line, inside run drills, hitting sleds, just being more physical. I think that the most physical group up front, O-line or D-line, is the group that’s going to change the game.”
That physicality extends across positional groups. Healy shared that the Bucs spend a significant share of their weekly practice time in “good on good”, with the first-team offense and defense going against one another.
Micah Sumpter, a starting guard for the Bucs’ O-line, shared what it was like facing Robinson in practice.
“It’s competitive,” Sumpter said. “I mean, me and Tyreek’e go at it all the time when he lines up across from me. And the good thing about it is I know he’s going to give me his best. So, I got to give him my best. And I feel like that that spills over and allows us when it comes to game time that we feel comfortable and confident in ourselves that can’t nobody stop us when we play at our best.”
We’ll find out Saturday how VMI and its triple-option fare in stopping Robinson, the wrecking ball from Bradenton, Florida.