KNOXVILLE - Three of the four team captains Tennessee's football team picked for the 2016 season have been with the Volunteers nearly as long as fourth-year head coach Butch Jones.
The fourth, however, hasn't even been with the program half that long.
Alvin Kamara needed only one season and a little more than a year on campus to ascend to an important leadership role alongside quarterback Josh Dobbs, linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin and cornerback Cameron Sutton, three members of Tennessee's 2013 signing class.
"It means a lot," Kamara said after Saturday's Orange & White Game. "Being here the shortest amount of time and being voted by my teammates - because that's what it was, a team vote - to be a captain, it means a lot. It just means that I earned the respect of my teammates and my coaches, and it speaks volumes to the program.
"I'm ready to take it head on."
On the field last season Kamara lived up to his billing as an immediate-impact addition by totaling 989 yards of offense, averaging 7.3 yards per touch and scoring 11 total touchdowns.
The junior college transfer got to where he is now by what he's done off the field.
"He's earned it," Coach Jones said. "Alvin from day one coming in here just worked, and he earned the respect immediately of his peers by his work ethic. He's bought into the program.
"I don't like to use the term 'bought in' - he's invested in the program. He's invested in everything. From a recruiting standpoint, he always wants to host recruits. He wants to be involved. He understands playing at Tennessee. He also understands what we have here is pretty significant and pretty special."
Kamara always has been a special talent as a player, but he's openly admitted since arriving in Knoxville last January that he needed to mature after flaming out at Alabama in 2013, when he suffered an injury and twice was suspended.
After one year at a Kansas junior college, Kamara came to Tennessee with a fresh start and a more mature attitude.
"Man, freshman at Alabama Alvin to now," Kamara said as he paused to consider the transition he's made, "I'm already a character right now, but then it was more immature, I would think. I was immature. I wasn't really focused on details. I wasn't really focused on what it takes to be great.
"Now I'm focused on the small things, focused on the details, wanting to be better and outwardly focused."
The path he took to Tennessee, Jones believes, is a reason Kamara was able to win over his teammates.
"He's been great for the locker room because he's been at a couple programs," the coach explained. "He can kind of give guidance. These players just think one way because they've only been in one program. A lot of times he's kind of the voice that says, 'Hey, you guys have it pretty special here. You better understand that.' Our players, they respect him.
"When you look at the voting, his votes were very, very high."
His on-field talent, affable demeanor and flashy personality, complete with the nose ring and golden grill he wears on his teeth for games, have combined to make him a favorite among Tennessee's fans and his teammates and help him become one of the faces of the program.
It's a role Kamara understands and remains eager to fulfill for the Vols.
"I'm focused on my teammates and making people around me better," he said. "That's what it really takes to be great. You've got to make the people around you better.
"These three guys will tell you it's really about radiating, like Jalen was talking about with Quart'e (Sapp). I know Dobbs, he can talk about it with Quinten Dormady. The same thing with Cam and some of those younger guys like Marquill Osborne and Micah Abernathy.
"Just radiating what you've got and putting it onto another guy. That's really what makes a team, just passing down knowledge. Maturity, that's the difference."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.