COLUMBIA, Mo. - Jalen Hurd hit perhaps the first milestone of his young Tennessee football career Saturday night.
The sophomore running back recorded his first 100-yard game since September and surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the season as the Volunteers won 19-8 at Missouri.
Hurd had run of 22 and 31 yards in the first half and crossed the 100-yard mark for the game on a touchdown drive late in the second quarter.
He finished with a career-best 151 yards on 34 carries.
"He was huge. His stats just say it," quarterback Josh Dobbs said. "He did a great job of toting the rock and having productive runs, so it was definitely big."
The 6-foot-3, 240-pounder needed 14 carries to go over the century mark against one of the SEC's top run defenses. It was his eighth career 100-yard game and his first since he ran for 102 yards in the loss at Florida.
And after coming up short of reaching 1,000 as a freshman, Hurd entered Saturday night's game at 887 for the season, and he got the 113 yards he needed early in the third quarter.
"That's such a big accomplishment to us," left tackle Kyler Kerbyson said. "That's what we were really striving for this year. I remember two years ago when Rajion Neal got it. I didn't start then, but it was such a great thing to have a over 1,000-yard back. It's a really big accomplishment.
"I'm very happy that Jalen got that, and I'm very happy with all the offensive linemen that have played this year and helped towards that."
Tennessee running back Jalen Hurd, right, is wrapped up by Missouri's Donavin Newsom, left, during the third quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015, in Columbia, Mo. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)Hurd is Tennessee's first 1,000-yard rusher since Rajion Neal in 2013, which means the Vols have had a 1,000-yard rushers in two of three seasons under head coach Butch Jones. The Vols also had 1,000-yard rushers in 2010 (Tauren Poole), 2009 (Montario Hardesty) 2007 (Arian Foster) and 2004 (Gerald Riggs Jr.).
Hurd, who had 899 rushing yards in 2014, can move into the top 15 in the program's single-season rushing charts with strong performances against Vanderbilt and in the bowl game.
Tennessee's 2,351 rushing yards through 11 games are the most in a single season since 2004 (2,418).
Robertson returns
Jashon Robertson returned to Tennessee's starting offensive line Saturday night after missing nearly all of the past five games with an ankle injury that has bothered him since August.
The sophomore from Nashville was hurt in the first quarter against Georgia last month and missed the Alabama game. He returned at Kentucky, where he aggravated the injury on Tennessee's opening possession of the game. He sat out the South Carolina and North Texas games.
Mack Crowder took over at left guard with Robertson out, though against Georgia and Alabama the Vols flipped Dylan Wiesman to left guard and plugged freshman Jack Jones in at right guard. With Robertson back in the lineup, Crowder moved to the bench.
Robertson's return paid quick dividends for Tennessee, which ran for 143 yards in the first half against a Missouri defense ranked 14th nationally against the run, allowing just 113.7 yards per game.
Pearson steps up
Tennessee was very shorthanded at wide receiver Saturday night.
Freshman Jauan Jennings did not make the trip for unspecified reasons, and Marquez North, after playing two snaps against North Texas last week, did not make the trip as his back issue continues to plague his junior season.
Freshman Preston Williams (hamstring) made the trip, but he did not play. He'd missed the past four games. Williams suffered his injury in practice the week before the Alabama game.
Three of the wideouts on the travel roster were walk-on Logan Fetzner, a former Bradley Central High School standout; Cody Blanc, the oft-injured junior with one career catch; and graduate transfer Ralph David Abernathy IV, who was playing running back until a few weeks ago.
With the Vols really playing only four wideouts, Von Pearson stepped up with seven catches in the first half.
Medley's makes
Aaron Medley's streak of consecutive makes reached seven in the first half before the sophomore kicker pushed a 31-yarder wide right late in the second quarter.
Medley memorably missed three kicks - two of 51 yards and one from 43 - in Tennessee's 19-14 loss at Alabama last month, but he's bounced back nicely.
Medley hit a 44-yard field goal at Kentucky, made two (44 and 27 yards), including what turned out to be the game-winner, against South Carolina and nailed a 34-yarder against North Texas last week.
At Missouri, Medley hit field goals of 34, 22 and 44 yards to give the Vols a 9-0 lead in the first half before his miss, which came after the Tigers jumped offsides and Tennessee faked a fake that tried to make the Tigers jump again.
Medley hit his fourth field goal in the third quarter to make it 19-0.