Patrice Robinson, the mother of Navy senior star nose guard and defensive captain Landon Robinson, painted a poignant picture of her gifted, caring, driven son that has little to do with the game of football.
 
She looked back at Robinson's boyhood with appreciation and amazement as she described her son's unusual maturity, evidenced by how the kid went about his business. It showed in the way Landon absorbed his schoolwork. It showed in his dedication to the sports (baseball was his first love) he enjoyed playing. It showed in his innate abilities to organize, focus, socialize and lead.
 
"When he was in second or third grade, Landon started this practice of writing his goals down on sticky notes. Notes like 'get all A's' or 'study for this or that test'," Patrice Robinson said. "He would put a check mark on each one after the goal was achieved. Whenever he had checked every one of those notes, he would start a new list. As a teenager, he started putting those notes all over his wall."
 
"That said something to me that became my new norm as a mom – watching a child who was focused and planning to achieve," she added.
 
Unknowingly, the precocious Robinson was on the early road that eventually would guide him to a special school such as the United States Naval Academy.
 
By fifth grade, Robinson had gotten a taste of and would soon become addicted to exercising on his own, at least twice a day in the family's back yard. His routine included calisthenics, dumbbell curls and bodyweight workouts, featuring push-ups, lunges, planks, squats and crunches.
 
That hunger too would develop on a huge scale.
 
If Robinson's mom had a reason to punish him, she had come up with a creative way to express her displeasure. She would forbid her son from working out at home that day. Message sent, message received.
 
"I can't remember any hardcore parenting with Landon," Patrice Robinson said. "He has always been very logical in his thinking, always had an even-keel personality in control of his emotions, easy to communicate with. As a young mom, I was thinking 'oh, this is how children are.'"
 
Clearly, the middle child among three boys in the Robinson family represented quite a deviation from the norm.
 
Fast forward to December 14, 2024 at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., where the 125^th edition of the hallowed Army-Navy rivalry football clash was presented before a sellout crowd and a national television audience. For years, it has been the only televised college football game that day in America.
 
On such a stage, it was fitting that Navy nailed down its first Commander-In-Chief's trophy since 2019 by whipping a worthy 19^th-ranked Army team, while barreling toward a 10-3 finish in a comeback season that stopped a four-year downturn.
 
By the time the Mids had dismantled the Black Knights, 31-13, the college football world had seen a rejuvenated Navy offense once again take care of its business with sustained drives and big plays.
 
But the Navy defense, led by a front that stifled Army's top-ranked ground game continuously, set the game's tone that day. It bottled up quarterback Bryson Daily, who entered the contest having gained 100 yards in 10 consecutive games.
 
Daily was held to a season-low 52 rushing yards. The Black Knights began the contest averaging an FBS-high 314 yards per game. Army managed a paltry 113 yards.
 
The day after Army's offensive line had been honored as the game's best in college football by receiving the Joe Moore Award, Navy's defense shredded that unit.
 
It all started with a defining show of force from the 6-foot, 280-pound man in the middle, who looked more like a seasoned veteran, despite playing in his first season as a junior starter, at a position he had started learning only a year earlier.
 
"[Robinson] is humble. He doesn't cut any corners. He's methodical with everything he does. He knows guys around him are watching him," said Navy head coach Brian Newberry, alluding to Robinson's captain status, which includes the additional honor of Deputy Captain of the Captains.
 
"With his [lack of] height, he's able to leverage people with his dynamic bursts and that strength. If he's taking on a double-team, it often doesn't matter. If it's a single blocker, good luck."
 
"Landon is obsessed with getting better. More than anybody, he loves watching film. He can't get enough of watching [retired NFL star] Aaron Donald [considered a first-ballot Hall of Fame lock]," said Jerrick Hall, Navy's defensive line coach. "He loves tackling the little things that go with playing on the defensive line, like when to be more patient before shedding a block. He's all about details, sharpening tools."
 
Robinson wore down the Black Knights with a game-high 13 tackles. He also forced a fumble. As the signal caller for the punt team, Robinson essentially iced the victory in the fourth quarter by taking a fake punt snap and rumbling 29 yards for a first down.
 
Besides sharing MVP honors that day with quarterback Blake Horvath, Robinson was an easy choice for All-American Conference First Team recognition.
 
"I still watch that game and I am amazed at Landon, the way he was moving, how he got it done. He has this stone-cold face, not talking any crap, just going about his business. There is never anything negative going on with him," said Griffin Willis, a junior defensive tackle who plays next to Robinson, his close friend and workout partner.
 
"We were all so focused on doing our jobs during that Army game. Nobody cared about stats. I knew he had played really well. But standing on the field after the game, I looked at the Jumbotron. What? 13 tackles? That's a linebacker stat, said Willis."
 
"More than anything, that [Army] game was a win that helped us finish the season with such confidence that we could go up against anybody. What an awesome boost, going into the offseason," Robinson said.
 
"That win proved again that it doesn't matter if [an opponent] is ranked. It doesn't matter what awards you have, or if you've got the best offensive line in the country. As long as your team goes out on the field and executes its job with attention to detail, you can beat anyone."
 
Robinson, who had been recruited by Navy as a linebacker at Copley (Ohio) High School, then moved to defensive line following his prep school year, in the anonymity of the Navy scout team, then converted to nose guard in the spring of his plebe year, had never played on the line before landing in Annapolis in the summer of 2022.
 
Before spring ball in 2023, after former nose guard mainstay Donald Berniard had to miss the spring session after having shoulder surgery, and two other seniors had quit the team, Navy coaches decided to make Robinson a first-string nose tackle.
 
"Landon is a wonderful example of pure enthusiasm," said P.J. Volker, Navy's former linebacker coach and current, three-year defensive coordinator. "He didn't get one second as a college linebacker, his natural position."
 
"But after he got here, weighing around 240, and we tell him that he's going to do things he's never done before, there was no griping. He just said, 'Whatever is best for the team. How do I get started?' We try to teach guys things about leadership around here. He is everything you want in a leader."
 
Robinson's incredible, physical transformation over nearly three months in the middle of 2023 is the stuff of living legend on the Yard.
 
After heading home for summer break weighing about 240, Robinson ate ravenously around the clock – even waking up to down protein bars and shakes in the middle of the night – to maintain a daily intake of about 6,000 calories.
 
His only supplements were the rabid workouts that remain his trademark. It is still typical for Robinson to end up in the Yard's public gym, with Willis and others likely with him, before morning meal formation and/or after practice and dinner.
 
"There were understandable questions about my speed and endurance, after putting on 40 pounds that fast," said Robinson, who maintained 280 last year while producing 61 tackles, four sacks and seven QB hurries. He weighed in recently at 287.
 
For the third straight year, he has been recognized on Bruce Feldman's college football Freaks List. This year, his place at No. 13 is Robinson's highest position yet. He remains the Mids' strongest player, squatting 665 pounds, benching 465 pounds, with a vertical leap of 33 inches. He was clocked at 20.13 mph on the GPS.
 
"From the beginning [of his transformation] It has never slowed me down. I would breathe a little harder, but I could still run 20 miles per hour. I could still keep the same explosiveness and endurance," Robinson said.
 
"I had no idea I would end up being a defensive lineman. I didn't know how technical it was, [starting with] the three-point stance. You need a certain mentality to play in the trenches. It is so physical," he added.
 
"On every snap, you're hitting someone, regardless of the scheme you're running. You've got to be out there with a selflessness. You're not going to make a tackle on every play. You must take on a block every time – maybe two, maybe three, to free up linebackers to make plays. You need to win our next play, 1-0. It's truly what football is all about."
 
No wonder the inside scoop on Robinson is that not a single Midshipman, at least 130 players, voted against Robinson to share Co-Captain honors this year with Horvath, although Willis said Robinson refused to vote for himself.
 
And the speculation that Robinson will get a taste of the National Football League next year is hot and heavy. Scouts from the league came to plenty of Navy games and practices last year to check him out, and preseason camp has included a steady presence of NFL eyes at each practice.
 
"From a skill set standpoint [Robinson] is what Alabama is playing with, only he is three or four inches shorter," Newberry said. "He's got the right smart mindset that fits [the league]. I think somebody is going to take a chance on him."
 
"Everybody knows Landon is going to the NFL," Willis said.
 
Robinson, who earned a 3.36 grade point average as a cyber operations major last fall and aims to earn a commission as a Marine Corps Officer upon graduation in May, said he would love to make two dreams come true.
 
"Ever since I got to Navy, I've heard that you can become an Officer and serve your country and you can play in the NFL. I wouldn't be against it," Robinson said. "This place is meant to challenge you in every aspect, from the classroom, to Bancroft Hall to football. It pushes you as a person, student and athlete to get better. I want to do things that help me grow."