UDPATE: Official word from Tennessee: Jalen Hurd did not make the trip and won't play against Texas A&M tomorrow due to "undisclosed injury."
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Original story:
KNOXVILLE - The injury bug already claimed three of Tennessee's best defensive players, and it may bite the Volunteers on offense for Saturday's top-10 showdown at Texas A&M.
Running back Jalen Hurd will be a game-time decision for the ninth-ranked Vols' game against the eighth-ranked Aggies, Tennessee coach Butch Jones told Nashville radio station WGFX-FM on Thursday afternoon.
"It's going to be a game-time decision," Jones said. "It'll occur later today and into tomorrow as well. He has been at practice, but he did have an injury. He's been working his way through it, doing his due diligence, but we have to make sure he's ready to go. We'll know a little but more later today and then tomorrow. We'll practice before we leave for Texas A&M."
It's appearing increasingly likely Tennessee will be without its workhorse running back against Texas A&M.
Hurd missed most of the second half of last week's win at Georgia with what Jones termed a "lower extremity injury" after the game, and two days after declaring Hurd would practice Monday, the coach on Wednesday said Hurd was "day to day" and declined to go into specifics on the injury.
The situation surrounding Hurd this week has been convoluted.
Hurd didn't play against the Bulldogs after the first series of the second half, on which he caught a touchdown pass from Josh Dobbs, yet he was in the game for the final kickoff return. During the CBS broadcast of the game, sideline reporter Allie LaForce suggested Hurd's absence was not due to an injury, but rather a coach's decision. That is not the case.
The injury has forced Hurd to miss practice time this week.
If Hurd is unable to go, Alvin Kamara will take on a bigger load for Tennessee's offense, and sophomore John Kelly would be in line for the biggest opportunity of his career. Kamara matched a career high against Georgia with 16 carries for 62 yards, and the Vols view Kamara as an every-down back capable of handling many of the same plays they call for Hurd.
Though often employed as the changeup to Hurd, Kamara has shown he can produce with a heavier workload, though Hurd was accompanying him in those situations.
In six career games when Kamara received double-digit carries, he averaged 92 yards per game. On 15 carries against Bowling Green and North Texas he ran for 144 and 127 yards, and he turned 16 totes into 99 yards against Vanderbilt. He had 67 yards on 11 carries against Ohio three weeks ago.
"(He has) a lot of value," offensive coordinator Mike DeBord said Wednesday. "I was really happy to see him get those opportunities and have more opportunities. He's a great player. There's times, I'm sure, in games we tried to get him the ball sometimes, but maybe the defense was doing something different (and) we couldn't. He never said a word.
"He's been a great teammate. I'll tell you a great clip, and I showed the team, is when we actually were trying to put the ball down the field to (Jason) Croom on kind of a wheel route into the boundary and Josh underthrew it. Nobody was more disturbed than Josh Dobbs. He knew Jason had him beat, but he underthrew the ball and it was an interception.
"If you watch Alvin, Alvin's on the far sideline down the field, and he could have run straight across the field to get to the sideline. He runs right to Josh Dobbs, and I don't know what he said to him, but that was being a great teammate. That's how I see him: He gives us a lot, just not on the field, but other things off the field like that."
Kelly carried the ball 40 times in mop-up duty at the end of five games as a freshman, and he enters the Texas A&M with only three carries this season.
The coaching staff expressed confidence in Kelly throughout the offseason, and he's gotten into games in key moments so far this season.
"We think the world of John Kelly," DeBord said. "What I like about him is (he's) another guy who doesn't say a word about Jalen and Alvin being in there. He keeps plugging in practice. There's going to be games where he's going to get his opportunities. He'll be prepared for that. That's what I really admire about him."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.