Former Mr. Football Wan’Dale Robinson, a onetime UK commit, is leaving Nebraska
Wan’Dale Robinson, a former Kentucky Mr. Football winner, is transferring from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Robinson announced Monday that he is entering the NCAA transfer portal. In a message posted to Twitter, Robinson cited the previous hospitalization of his mother due to COVID-19 as a reason for his departure.
“For anyone who knows me knows she’s the biggest reason I play the game of football,” Robinson wrote. “Being away from my mother and not seeing her during the season hurt me. … I intend to find a place closer to my mother and family that will still allow me to achieve my dreams and goals.”
Robinson played in 18 of a possible 20 games while with the Cornhuskers, including all eight of their games in the 2020 season. He led Nebraska in receptions (51), receiving yards (461) and tied for the team lead with one receiving touchdown, and also finished with 240 rushing yards and a touchdown on 46 carries. Robinson over his two-year career has scored seven touchdowns and accumulated 1,494 total yards of offense. He’s also returned 11 kicks for 236 yards.
By the end of his time at Western Hills High School, Robinson finished as the state’s second all-time leading scorer with 781 points. He amassed more than 2,500 total yards of offense and scored 41 touchdowns as a senior season, during which he also played quarterback for the Wolverines (8-for-10 for 173 yards and two passing touchdowns). He was the first player from a Frankfort high school to win the Kentucky Associated Press Mr. Football award, was the first recipient of the Kentucky Football Coaches Association Mr. Football award and was that season’s Paul Hornung Award winner.
Robinson originally committed to the University of Kentucky as part of the 2019 recruiting class but had a change of heart a couple weeks before the early signing period, during which he officially joined the Cornhuskers. Nebraska head coach Scott Frost was then in his first season at the school, and finished with a 4-8 record that year. Nebraska hasn’t finished above .500 or played in a postseason bowl in his three years as a head coach (12-20 overall).
In his message, Robinson was complimentary of Frost and his staff, as well as the fans of Nebraska.
“Husker nation is like no other,” Robinson wrote. “You guys had our backs through all the ups and downs. I can’t thank you guys enough for the cheers, screaming and yelling for myself and everyone.”
The other schools in Robinson’s top six coming out of high school were Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State and Purdue. The NCAA this month was expected to approve recommended legislation that would allow for all first-time transfers to be eligible right away at their destination school, effective as of the 2021-22 school year, but that vote has reportedly been delayed due to legal developments.
If that legislation were to eventually pass, because of it and and the organization’s one-year blanket waiver granted to all 2020-21 fall sports athletes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Robinson, a true sophomore in 2020, could play for up to three more years in college.
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 3:13 PM.
