The assignment was simple: Go check out one of Southern Arizona’s top young running backs, a difference-maker for Tucson’s mighty Salpointe Catholic Lancers despite being younger than almost anyone on the field. The Lancers had just started their 2016 high school playoff journey, and the leader of the show could not have been more obvious.

His name was Mario Padilla, and he was a stud.

He was shifty, he was elusive and he was headier than his years, bound for an SEC program out of high school and en route to regional offensive player of the year honors with years left to pad his resume.

Only another young Lancers running back caught my eye that day.

Bijan Robinson had only been called up to the varsity program weeks before, Dennis Bene and the Salpointe coaching staff tantalized by his talent and willing to overlook the fact that he was a freshman, fresh out of his football diapers.

But it was all there. The vision. The speed. The strength. The patience. The overwhelming blend of athleticism and purpose.

They all saw it. And they all knew it then. Knew what every NFL fan is going to find out Thursday night.

That Robinson would one day blossom into the baddest back in the land. And he has. The NFL Draft isn’t the culmination of the journey, but just another step in a story that began back in Tucson, Ariz.

*****

It’s not easy to lose your job to a freshman, but truth be told, Robinson never really sent Padilla to the sidelines.

Bene and assistant head coach Al Alexander made sure to maximize the talents of both of their college-bound backs. Padilla would eventually take on more of a slot receiver role and play for Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin, who wanted to convert him to safety, before transferring to Louisiana-Monroe to play for new offensive coordinator and former Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez in 2021.

But back in 2016, the Salpointe backfield was his domain until a ferocious freshman proved too good to ignore.

“I knew of Bijan when we were playing Tucson youth football,” Padilla said. “His name was always in the mix. As the years went on, it was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ Then you saw greatness. His freshman year, I saw him hurdle someone, and I just thought, ‘That was crazy. This kid is different.'”

Playing behind a hulking offensive line chock full of future FBS talent, the Lancers were dangerous.

“We could do anything,” Padilla said. “We could throw the ball. We could run the ball. We were so dynamic. The ball could go anywhere. The possibilities were endless.”

Bene knew from Robinson’s first varsity game that he’d found a program-defining player.

“His first touchdown he scored as a varsity player — an outside zone to the left — he made guys miss, used a stiff arm, which is a classic of his, and a couple guys tried to take him down and he took it to the house. That’s when I knew he was good. His sophomore year, we were playing Marana Mountain View, and his first carry was the same kind of play, took it 70 to the house. From that run on, he never looked back.”

Long before then, Al Alexander knew he was dealing with a sky-high ceiling. He’d played a role in bringing the talented 8th-grader to Salpointe, as he already had a relationship with Robinson’s grandfather, Cleo, a Pac-12 referee for more than 3 decades. He and Bene sold the Robinson family on Salpointe’s faith-based educational opportunities, its demanding and structured schedule and a disciplined football program.

He knew the Lancers were getting something special when Robinson arrived, but he quickly learned to adjust his expectations.

“I had some big-time offensive linemen back then, too, and he used to come to our meetings as a freshman and sophomore,” said Alexander, now head coach at Tucson’s Sahuaro High. “For him to understand that he needed to understand what we were doing up front, as a 10th-grader, even a 9th-grader? People don’t get it. Some kids don’t get it until they get to college or beyond. That wasn’t normal for a 14-year old kid.

“I called him Bibi, and one thing I always said was, ‘Bibi, you came from my time.’ He was so much older, maturity wise, as a freshman in high school.”

Robinson started on the freshman team, but the varsity staff quickly realized what they had.

“We saw a couple freshman games, almost like a Ka’Deem Carey, and he made some crazy runs,” Alexander said. “We call him up, he comes to our meeting to learn the blocking scheme, and his first game, we call a Power Run A, with Bijan running through the A gap, and he started going outside, stuck his foot in the ground and went 70. I looked at coach like, ‘Oh my God.’ He said, ‘Did you just see that?'”

Alexander remembers showing clips of the run to some of his friends.

“I just said, ‘He’s special. He’ll be in the NFL one day,'” Alexander recalled. “I’ve been around big-time players. They all had an edge. You saw it right away from his frosh year.”

By the middle of Robinson’s sophomore year, he was a known quantity. By his junior year, he was among the most coveted players in the country.

Bene remembers getting a phone call from the Ohio State coaching staff.

“Coach, we’re in L.A., we can be in Tucson in 2 hours.”

They just wanted to say hello.

“Coaches would try to spend time with him and others would be waiting in the parking lot just to say hi to his mother, to talk to another coach, to touch base with him,” Bene said.

Texas, LSU, Washington, UCLA, Michigan — they were all in the hunt, as well.

One notable school is missing from that list.

“It’s a touchy subject, but I’ve talked to Coach (Jedd) Fisch about it,” Bene said. “There could’ve been a chance for him to go to Arizona. UA had a chance, but just didn’t close it.”

It didn’t help that the Wildcats went 5-7 in Robinson’s junior season and 4-8 in his senior year under Kevin Sumlin. Not that it likely would have mattered much. Robinson was being recruited by professional programs, with professional facilities, masquerading as college teams.

“I love UA football, but its so hard for local kids, once they go outside,” Alexander said. “Me, Bene, Bijan and (offensive lineman) Jonah Miller went down to Austin. The facilities and the money they put into football — as a 16-year-old, your eyes are so wide. All the alumni that came around — Earl Campbell was there. Tucson is a small big town. Some kids want to go to the big show.”

Robinson committed to Texas on Aug. 2, 2019.

As a true freshman in 2020, Robinson barely saw touches early in the year, carrying the ball just 5, 4 and 5 times in Texas’ first 3 games, for a total of 67 yards. Just past the midway mark of the season, Robinson finally made his mark, rushing for 113 yards on 12 carries in a 17-13 win over West Virginia. The potential was real and the myth was born.

Two games later, in the Longhorns’ regular-season finale, he had 172 yards and 3 scores on 9 carries. In a 55-23 Alamo Bowl win over Colorado, he had another 10 carries for 183 yards and a score and added 2 receptions for 37 yards and 2 more touchdowns.

And that was just the beginning.

As a sophomore in 2021, he had 6 100-yard games, including in 5 straight games, topping the 200-yard mark in a 32-27 win over TCU.

This past season, playing behind an offensive line that featured 3 freshman getting major time, Robinson had 1,580 yards and 18 touchdowns, scoring in all but 2 games. He cracked the century mark 9 more times, including two 200-yard games, with a career-high 243 yards and 4 touchdowns at Kansas on Nov. 19.

By then, he’d long became the biggest Longhorn leader in years, and the latest in a lineage that includes Campbell, Ricky Williams and Cedric Benson.

“Texas recruited him hard,” Alexander said. “And I remember sitting there, talking to the running back coach, Stan Drayton, and I said, ‘By his second year, he’ll be the face of your program. Dennis looked at me like with his eyes bugging out. With his personality, his moxie, his makeup, I just said, ‘He’ll be Texas football.’ Being around that kid so long, it was evident he’d be great.”

*****

Bene doesn’t love that word, great.

“The word great gets overused,” he said. “The totality of it defines his greatness. When you talk about Bijan, he’s truly a great student-athlete, a great player, a great person. It started with his family. When he was an 8th-grader and looking for schools, he was thinking football, but his family was thinking education. When we met for the first time, I said if the goal is to get to the next level, you’ve come to the right place. And for Bijan, he saw the bigger picture. I said, don’t focus on today. I want you to live 4 years from now. As he started to mature and time-manage, he became the face of our program and of Southern Arizona football, and really for the state of Arizona.”

Now Bene needs to tell a story.

“Senior year, it’s halftime of a game, and he’s about to break the state rushing record in the second half, but he probably would have to play 4 quarters, and we’re winning handily. But we’re at home. I ask him, ‘Do you want the record? If you want it, you can stay in.’ He said, ‘No, I don’t care about that.’ He got some touches in the third, and halfway through the third, we pulled him, and we let the other kids play. He was committed to his answer, so humble about it, didn’t give it a second thought. It speaks to his humility, his selflessness. He cared deeply about how well his other teammates did. Let’s say Bijan played in 42 varsity games — 50 percent he never played in the 4th quarter. It was never about Bijan.”

Now Bene’s on a roll.

“Another game, he’s got a sore ankle. I hold him out. He’s in shorts, has his little satchel bag, and his replacement goes on a 70-yard touchdown run. And I see this blur run by me on the sideline. Bijan ran into the end zone and was the first kid to celebrate with his teammate. The official just saw a fan run into the end zone and we got a 15-yard penalty. Yeah, I was mad at the time. Only Bijan would do it. You had to laugh.”

They’ve stayed close, Bene and his protege.

Two days before Christmas, Robinson popped by Bene’s house to visit his old coach. Two weeks ago, they spent some time visiting.

They texted just a few days ago, in preparation for Thursday. Robinson has invited Bene — along with his family and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian — to join him in Kansas City for the draft.

“I told him, ‘I’m gonna look pretty good in my suit,'” Bene said. “He said back, ‘I dunno, coach, I’m lookin’ pretty good.’ But I was teasing him — he had to fly all the way out to New York to get his suit.”

Bene takes a moment.

He surmises that he’s coached more than 70 future FBS/FCS athletes — including Ohio State star safety Lathan Ransom and UCLA offensive tackle Bruno Fina — but his relationship with Robinson is special.

“I’m honored to be going out there to share in this incredible, dream-come-true moment,” said Bene, who is returning to the sidelines this fall after retiring from Salpointe in 2019, joining his former assistant, Alexander, as defensive line coach for Sahuaro. “I was very blessed to have tremendous kids, and really good coaches and teachers. Bijan is at the top of the list, and deservedly so.”