Christian Robinson had to sprint. After Missouri football’s loss to Auburn, the winning team’s defensive run game coordinator had someone he needed to see.

His target was dejected, heading off the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium. MU linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper wasn’t thinking about talking to anyone after the sudden and crushing loss; he was just going to the locker room.

Robinson had to move quick, but he got to Hopper in time.

“I went to go grab him because I just wanted to tell him just how proud of him I was,” Robinson said. “To see him living out his dream.”

Hopper played for the current Auburn assistant for the first three years of his college career, when he was a Florida Gator. Robinson was UF’s linebackers coach and had recruited Hopper out of Roswell High School in Georgia.

Now, the linebacker is one of Missouri’s defensive stalwarts, creating havoc for offenses as part of the Tigers’ rebuild on that side of the ball. On Saturday, he’ll return to Gainesville to face some of his old teammates when MU takes on Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Hopper will get to show the city he left how he's become one of the best defensive players in the SEC.

"He’s a competitor,” Robinson said. “He does not want to get beat in any situation. As quiet as he’s been, I know him and those other guys are going to be going toe-to-toe.”

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‘Whatever our team needs'

Hopper used to be a cornerback. He played his first two years of high school football in his home state of South Carolina, where he locked down receivers on the outside.

Between his sophomore and junior seasons, he moved in with his uncle in Roswell, Georgia, searching for more opportunities in one of the nation’s best football recruiting states. Roswell’s then-head coach, Matt Kemper, saw his potential elsewhere.

Kemper, now at Etowah High School, brought Hopper into his office. He offered two options: Hopper could stick at cornerback, where his coach figured nobody would throw at him all season, or he could move to the Sam linebacker spot and become the centerpiece of the Hornets’ 3-4 defense.

“Yes sir,” Kemper recalled Hopper’s response being. “Coach, I’ll do whatever our team needs.”

Without much trouble, Hopper took to the position. As expected, he excelled.

Kemper wasn’t surprised. He knew about the Hopper family from coaching Ty’Ron’s cousin, Tyrone, who also plays for the Tigers now.

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The family also includes Tyrone’s brother Tyneal, who plays at Boise State, plus Tyjai, a Division I prospect who visited Missouri last weekend.

Ty’Ron fit right in among his cousins.

“He has everything you want,” Kemper said. “He’s long, he can run, he likes contact, he plays with great energy. He plays relentless pursuit of the football.”

Hopper finished his senior season with 78 tackles, along with five interceptions, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He was rated as a four-star recruit by 247Sports and had offers from a good chunk of the SEC including Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee and South Carolina.

Robinson was recruiting him for Florida and was thrilled when the Gators landed Hopper.

“He was one of the guys that just jumped off the screen,” Robinson said. “I remember when we offered him, he’s a quiet kid just when he meets anybody for the first time, but I saw him get excited when we offered him, then later on when he decided to commit, you could tell he was excited.”

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'He stayed the course'

Hopper was the best player on Florida’s defense during the Gators’ loss last year against Missouri. The linebacker was all over the field, finishing the game with 12 tackles.

Despite the defeat, Hopper impressed both sides in the game, especially his own position coach.

“That’s why everybody was so excited about him,” Robinson said. “He just believed in himself and just did his job.”

The linebacker redshirted his freshman season at Florida in 2019. He played in four games that year, earning one solo tackle.

However, in practice he was thrown to the wolves early, having to face off with one of the Gators’ future NFL stars.

“He was having to cover Kyle Pitts,” Robinson said. “Especially when he was younger, we’d put him on Kyle Pitts, and maybe we’d say, ‘Don’t even worry about the coverage, just play man-to-man,’ and that was when I saw, this guy, if he can keep up with (Pitts), he’s just got to continue to work with all these other aspects.”

From his background as a corner, Hopper’s coverage skills were never in doubt. In contrast to some other players with defensive back experience in their background, he wasn’t afraid to hit.

According to Robinson, most of what Hopper needed to work on with the Gators was his awareness, figuring out where he fits in the scheme. That was tough to do at times.

It didn’t take immediately.

“It’s not something you can just do in one day,” Robinson said. “But he stayed focused. There was tough days where, like anybody has, they’re wondering, ‘Was it worth it?’ Just because we had some older guys, but he stayed the course.”

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Hopper doesn’t talk much in public. When asked questions by media members, he is unfailingly polite but is careful not to share too much.

That’s not a trait Kemper remembered him for, instead recalling a player who liked to cut up with his teammates and always had a smile on his face. Still, Hopper’s high school coach said he was extremely mature, even back then, which carried over to college.

The young linebacker learned from every mistake.

“The more reps he got, he learned to correct those and not let those things that happened to him define him,” Robinson said. “Let them be learning opportunities for a bigger opportunity coming down the road.”

It turned out that Florida would not be the platform for Hopper’s bigger opportunity. By 2021, he was in the rotation and played well.

In 2022, he likely would have taken over full-time as a starter. Then, after the Missouri game, the one he played so well in, Gator head coach Dan Mullen was fired and new staff was brought in.

Fortunately for Hopper, people had been watching.

'You're going to get his best'

When Hopper entered the transfer portal, his cousin blew his phone up.

“I probably called him 100 times,” Tyrone Hopper said.

Ty’Ron’s elder cousin had already joined the Tigers as a transfer defensive lineman from North Carolina. The two had never played on the same team, and Tyrone wanted his relative to join him in Columbia.

Hopper was unsure, so Tyrone invited him for a visit to see MU. Eventually, the younger Hopper committed and the two began to prepare for the coming season.

It wouldn’t be easy. Missouri was in the midst of a defensive rebuild with new coordinator Blake Baker, and expectations were murky.

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Hopper would be a major help.

“I want to get better at everything,” he said during the offseason. “That’s just the type of person I am. I was just focusing on every aspect of my game."

When the season began, Hopper was immediately involved. He was a starting linebacker from the jump and quickly stood out as one of the defense’s top threats.

Against Louisiana Tech in the season opener, Hopper had six solo tackles, a sack and an interception.

Missouri’s defense has reversed its fortunes from last season, and the linebacker is a major reason why.

“That’s a dawg, that’s a dawg, man,” defensive end and team captain Isaiah McGuire said. “That’s a dawg. He makes my job way more easier. That’s a dawg. That’s one heck of a player.”

So far in 2022, Hopper has 32 tackles, two sacks and an interception. He has shown the ability to get after the quarterback, help in stopping the run, but also dropping back into coverage to help there.

In the Tigers’ near-upset of Georgia on Saturday, Bulldog running back Kendall Milton had a long gain. Unfortunately for him, Hopper came running from behind, knocking the ball loose so Missouri’s Ennis Rakestraw could jump on it.

It was a move that looked familiar to one of his old coaches.

“That was my drill from the turnover circuit every Tuesday,” Kemper said with a laugh. “Wrap up the ball carrier from behind and get the ball. I take full credit for that.”

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The play also thrilled Robinson.

“Everybody started sending me that fumble that he punched out,” Robinson said. “He was one of those guys that we identified last year, he sees it and he can go get it. Some guys have a knack for it, some guys don’t. Those are the ones that affect the game.”

Now it’s time for Hopper to return to Gainesville. Coming off the loss to Georgia, the Tigers are set to play at “the Swamp” on Saturday.

According to Hopper, it’s like any other opponent.

“Honestly, it’s easy,” he said of how difficult it might be to treat it that way. “It’s just another game we’re trying to win in the SEC. Going to be a big game. Going to be a dogfight.”

Not everyone is fully buying that. Drinkwitz said he would be having a conversation with Hopper about staying cool this week.

Baker said he had already talked to Hopper, who told him the Gators are just a “nameless, faceless opponent,” and he felt the linebacker was in the mental space going into the contest.

“I’m sure in the back of his mind, it’s human nature,” Baker said. “I’m sure he wants to have a big game.”

Robinson also guessed that Hopper would like to have a solid performance against his old team. He was full of praise for his former player, from his on-field dominance to the man he has become away from the game.

“Sometimes he just sits back and he observes,” Robinson said. “I think as a teammate, as a player, you’re going to get genuineness from him. You don’t feel like you’re ever going to get anything fake. I think the same thing is true when he plays the game of football. You’re going to get his all. You’re going to get his best, and I think the best is ahead of him.”

Tribune sports editor Chris Kwiecinski contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Ty'Ron Hopper's career led to facing Florida as a top-tier LB