Two former Mountaineers are now UFL champions after a one-sided end to the league’s inaugural season.
Wide receiver Gary Jennings Jr. and safety Kenny Robinson Jr. earned their first professional titles on Sunday, contributing in a 25-0 victory for the Birmingham Stallions. On the losing side were the San Antonio Brahmas and four-year WVU long snapper Rex Sunahara.
The championship victory ended both Jennings’ and Robinson’s first season with Birmingham, and with that, the first season of the United Football League. Both players played in the XFL previously with the St. Louis Battlehawks but were most recently on offseason rosters in the NFL.
For Jennings Jr., the journey to the UFL title was one packed with relocation. After four years at West Virginia, the receiver was drafted in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft to the Seattle Seahawks. He was cut before ever seeing the field and was then signed by the Miami Dolphins, with whom he got injured and was cut.
Jennings had stints on the practice squads of both the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills in the 2020-2021 NFL season before signing a contract with the Indianapolis Colts in January of 2021. He was once again placed on injury reserve and cut in August.
After signing briefly with the Las Vegas Raiders that November and the Kansas City Chiefs the following year, Jennings found the XFL, where he was drafted in the eighth round by the St. Louis Battlehawks. His 11-catch, 149-yard season earned him an offseason signing with the Carolina Panthers in 2023 before his title run with Birmingham.
In the UFL Championship, Jennings Jr. caught two receptions for 19 yards and the only receiving touchdown of the night. Jennings was nearly brought down on the eight-yard touchdown that got Birmingham on the board, but he fought through two defenders to score.
Kenny Robinson Jr., who played in 2017 and 2018 at WVU with Jennings Jr., last found himself in spring football in 2020, also with the XFL’s Battlehawks, which he joined after being expelled from West Virginia for academic fraud.
Robinson joined the XFL despite being eligible for the 2020 NFL Draft, in which he went in the fifth round, due to the league’s offer to pay for his college classes and the opportunities it opened for his family financially. Now, after a three-year stint in the NFL, Robinson Jr. finds himself back in spring football as a UFL Champion. Robinson Jr. secured two tackles, both solo, in the championship game.
Photo from WVU Football
