Mark Fleetwood remembers it like it was yesterday.

It was 2015, and the former head coach at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, Ga. was meeting Travian Robertson, a recently retired NFL player trying to break into the coaching world.

Going into the conversation, the two had one key thing in common: both were Gamecocks. Fleetwood was a kicker on the 1981-1983 teams, and Robertson was a defensive tackle from 2007-2011.

Coming out of it, it was clear they had even more overlap.

“I think that meeting probably resonated with him a little bit,” Fleetwood told GamecockScoop. “I knew within three minutes of talking to him that this guy was going to be an excellent coach.”

Eight years later, Robertson’s coaching journey has brought him full circle. The man who got married on campus and had his son’s first birthday party at Andy’s Deli in Columbia is back as South Carolina’s defensive line coach, replacing Jimmy Lindsey after he departed for LSU.

Robertson will reunite with Shane Beamer, the special teams coordinator under Steve Spurrier at the time. In so many ways, this is exactly where Robertson always imagined he would be. Not just Columbia, but coaching.

After three years in three NFL organizations, he knew there was more in his future. He remembered the coaches who helped pave the way for him, a former South Carolina captain and a staple of the most successful era of Gamecock football to date.

And he got to work on trying to pay it forward.

“It didn’t start when I started coaching,” Robertson said in his introductory press conference. “I was blessed to be coached by some great coaches. First of all, coach [Brad] Lawing. He was a great coach here, me and him developed a relationship a long time ago. When he was at North Carolina, he offered me when I was a freshman in high school.

“My biggest thing on coaching is relationships with my players. My coaches made a huge impact on me growing up.”

Relationships molded Robertson into who he is, and they boosted him on his coaching journey. Lawing — who was South Carolina’s defensive line coach 2006-2012 — introduced him to Fleetwood. He told him to meet the 54-year-old head coach for a conversation.

One conversation turned into another, and after several meetings that Fleetwood remembered as “over an hour” each, they got to know each other. Fleetwood wanted him on his staff, recognizing how he would fit in with his vision for developing high schoolers on and off the field.

“He didn’t know me from Adam’s house cat when he walked in,” Fleetwood said. “But he had a desire to help these kids, and he already knew the lingo a little bit. You could tell where he had been and what he had learned had resonated with him. His ability to talk to me and communicate with me when he had never coached before, I was like, ‘I want this guy with me.’”

Robertson was ineligible to serve as a full-time coach without a teaching certificate, but he did spend some time on the practice field the following spring. He was back around the game he loved. He learned some of the nuts and bolts of coaching. And those weeks on the field, combined with Fleetwood’s conversations, changed the trajectory of his life.

“He was excellent,” Fleetwood remembered. “He loved it, too. You ought to see the look on his eye after the first week. The more I think back at it, the more I remember how after practices he was like, “coach, I like this!’”

Former South Carolina assistant coach Shawn Elliott gave Robertson his first job as a graduate assistant at Georgia State, with some help from former Gamecock Cedric Williams to get the two connected. After a year as a graduate assistant in Atlanta he got his first full-time coaching job at Division II Albany State, serving as the defensive line coach under defensive coordinator and former South Carolina cornerback Cory Peoples.

One of Robertson’s college teammates —- safety Chris Hampton — was Tulane’s defensive coordinator when he had a defensive line coach position to fill, hiring Robertson for his last job before South Carolina.

One after another, almost like a planned procession, figures from his — and South Carolina’s — past led him back home.

“Without Gamecocks and the way we connect and the way we do things, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Robertson said. “I just want to thank all the Gamecocks that helped me get here, because this was a dream that I’ve been praying for for a long time.”

It all started with Fleetwood, a man who played at Williams-Brice Stadium before Robertson was even born.

And he couldn't be happier about it.

“I even echoed to him at that time that he’d be cut out for college coaching,” Fleetwood said. “Don't think because you haven't coached and all that you're that far behind and all of that. Yes it's going to be new to you, but I said, 'Travian, you have a chance at that.'

"I’m so proud, man."

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