There was a two-week stretch in January when Tennessee running backs Ty Chandler and Eric Gray entered the NCAA transfer portal.
Which opened a gargantuan opportunity for Jabari Small.
“It’s the next man up,” Small said Wednesday night on a Zoom call. “Even with the last staff and with football in general, it’s the next-man-up mentality. I wish those guys the best.
“They were great leaders for me, and they taught me a lot, but I’ve taken it as a challenge, and you don’t want to run away from a challenge.”
The 5-foot-11, 206-pounder out of Briarcrest Christian in Memphis was Tennessee’s third-leading rusher last season as a freshman, but it was a distant third. Small amassed 117 yards on 26 carries, with his six carries for 48 yards in the 42-17 dismantling of a depleted Vanderbilt comprising a sizable chunk of his season total.