Last season, Nathan Robinson got a nibble of playing in a big-time college football game. This year, the University of Tennessee defensive lineman wants the full four-course meal.

The former Greenbrier High School standout played four snaps in the Vols’ blowout 49-13 opening game win over Virginia at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium before shutting down his freshman season to redshirt and have surgery on a nagging torn labrum. Now back healthy, the 6-foot-6, 285-pounder has been turning heads in spring practice.

Come August 31 and barring injury, look for Nathan’s number 94 to be making contributions on defense, special teams, and maybe even a few offensive plays as UT opens the 2024 campaign at Neyland Stadium against Chattanooga.

“Actually being able to get out there and go through every practice this spring has been a lot of fun, and I'm starting to get comfortable with everything,” says Nathan, who amassed more than 30 sacks and 200 tackles in three full seasons at Greenbrier. “I’m loving it. I can’t wait to run through the ‘T’ in front of our home crowd.”

This goosebump-inducing moment to come is rarified air for Greenbrier football. While the program has produced Division I-AA signees and Division I walk-on players, Nathan is the first Bobcat to earn a full D1 scholarship since 1962, when Steve Edging signed with Mississippi State. In addition to Tennessee, Nathan also fielded offers from the likes of Ole Miss, Kentucky, Stanford, Notre Dame, Indiana and Virginia Tech.

“From the time he was an 8th-grader, you could tell Nathan was becoming a good player,” says Greenbrier Head Football Coach John Elmore, a UT graduate in his own right. “I had no idea at the time he’d be good enough to become an SEC football player, but his work ethic was extremely high, and he pushed himself and his teammates to be better. He was always one you could count on, and he was fun to coach because you knew you were going to get his best effort night in, night out.”

But there’s a compelling backstory that can’t be ignored in this narrative. And that’s where Nathan’s father, Sean, comes in.

Now a mechanical engineer, Sean served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps in the early 2000s. Among his highlights as a Marine was having the honor of being a pallbearer at President Ronald Reagan’s funeral in 2004.

A year later, while on deployment in Iraq during the height of the insurgency, a miracle occurred, one that forever cemented the bond Sean had to Nathan, who would enter this world as the firstborn of Sean and wife Christy’s four children.

“I would pray when I was overseas,” says Sean. “I was not a committed Christian then, but I would pray this jailhouse-type prayer saying, ‘God, you’ve got to get me home so I can see my son.’

“One day in Iraq, I was maneuvering around a clearing, and I heard a shot go off and felt something on the back of my neck. I stumbled forward into a wall. The back of my neck was wet. Another shot pinged off the wall next to me and I'm thinking, ‘Why do you still shoot at me? I'm already dead.’ Luckily, I wasn’t. What I felt was water. The bullet had gone through a water hose from my camelback hydration pack before being deflected by the machete I had strapped on my back.

“I told Nathan about that before he left for college. My life changed because I needed to go raise my newborn son. I've been promised by God to be here for you, and it's probably what saved my life. Nathan’s story and mine are kind of tied together in a way that's really special.”

Nathan credits his father’s loving yet disciplined guidance, in both personal and physical development, as being crucial elements in making him attractive to college recruiters.

“A lot of my teammates here at UT didn’t have that father figure to instill discipline in them growing up,” explains Nathan. “I’ve had that my whole life, and it prepped me for how I should handle things in college. My dad molded me into a man that a coach already wanted, not one they would have to spend a lot of time dealing with on classroom or off-the-field issues. Not just my dad, but my whole family has been so loving and supportive.”

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As for his football coaches and fellow players in Knoxville, Nathan asserts that the team’s bond is strong.

“Everyone loves one another,” he says. “It feels like family.”

At the head of this family on Nathan’s side of the ball is Defensive Line Coach Rodney Garner, a seasoned veteran with more than 35 years of SEC coaching under his belt. Nathan says he has gained immense respect for Coach Garner’s approach.

“It's really just the order he has; he doesn't allow dysfunction,” says Nathan. “He tells us often that playing under him is not a democracy, it’s a benevolent dictatorship. He’s a strong leader, and I’ve seen the growth among my peers as men, both on the field and off. That’s what I love about Coach Garner.”

Sean has been similarly impressed with Coach Garner and Head Coach Josh Heupel.

“Coach Garner is a little more ‘old school’ than Coach Heupel, but their mentality is the same about having accountability, structure, and an expectation that leads to good consequences,” Sean says. “Every school we visited talked about culture and family. These guys are actually practicing what they preach.”

Nathan calls it “a great honor” to be representing Greenbrier as a student-athlete at the University of Tennessee.

“Greenbrier is the place where I grew up and played all my youth, middle school, and high school sports,” he says. “I attribute all my success to the coaches and teammates who helped me along the way. It’s home.”

Nathan the student has a heavy course load of 21 hours this semester as he works toward a degree in kinesiology. Along the way, Nathan the football player will proudly don the orange and white and live out the motto hanging above the exit to the Vols’ locker room before each game: “I will give my all for Tennessee today!”

He admits that it all seems surreal to him at times.

“We had a scrimmage inside the stadium the other night, and even though it was empty I was like, ‘Wow, I’m in Neyland Stadium about to play football for the Vols!’ Nathan says. “It is truly a tremendous blessing. I feel that God has gifted me with the physical traits and the ability to have this opportunity very few people get to experience.”