KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee enters Tuesday's start of spring football practice with exactly one fully healthy scholarship running back.
And head coach Butch Jones is ready to hand him the football and see what he can do.
Since arriving from Hutchinson Community College in Kansas in January, Alvin Kamara, the former Alabama freshman, has turned the heads of some folks in the program during offseason workouts with his ability.
The Volunteers soon will get a better glimpse of what Kamara do with the first of 15 spring practices set for tomorrow afternoon.
"We've been very limited just because we haven't had a football present at skill development, but I see an individual that's very elusive, very light-footed, very quick and explosive," Jones said during his pre-spring news conference on Monday.
"I'm really excited to see what he can do when we get the pads on him and put the ball in his hands. I've been very impressed, not only with his work ethic and his mentality, but also the way he's come into our football program. He's been very quiet and just gone about his business.
"Right now he's actually developing into a leadership role in our football team."
The 5-foot-11, 195-pound Kamara was a five-star recruit according to Rivals.com and Scout.com after running for 1,211 yards and 18 touchdowns and adding 18 catches for 219 yards and three more scores in nine games at Hutchinson last fall.
Coming out of Norcross High School in the Atlanta area, Kamara was the nation's No. 2 all-purpose back per Rivals behind only Taquan Mizzell, who went to Virginia.
After losing seniors Marlin Lane and Devrin Young and Derrell Scott to transfer, the Vols returned just one scholarship running back in Jalen Hurd, who was the team's leading rusher as a freshman in 2014.
Hurd will be non-contact this spring after offseason surgery, though, leaving Kamara and walk-ons Jayson Sparks and Chris Beck as Tennessee's running backs.
Sparks is a 5-foot-8, 175-pound out of Loganville (Ga.) Grayson High School, and the 6-foot, 200-pound Beck ran for 485 yards and seven touchdowns in two seasons at Dean College, a junior college program in Massachusetts, after playing football and running track at South Cobb High School in Georgia.
Jones said there were "no new developments" on the Treyvon Paulk front. The freshman was dismissed from the program in September after allegedly punching his ex-girlfriend in the mouth, but he remains enrolled at Tennessee. Paulk was never charged.
Plenty of eyes will be on Kamara this spring, however, as he could be an immediate difference-maker and an excellent complement to Hurd next season for the Vols.
"We could have," Jones said, "two very dynamic running backs."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.