COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The “next man up” mentality already permeating through Tennessee’s shorthanded defense bled over to the offense Saturday.
That next man turned in an excellent performance.
With Jalen Hurd missing with an injury, Alvin Kamara superbly stepped into the role as the featured running back for the Volunteers and finished with 288 yards rushing and receiving and three total touchdowns in Saturday’s 45-38 double-overtime loss at Texas A&M.
“I prepare the same every week and prepare like I’m the No. 1 guy,” said Kamara, who donned an ice wrap around his shoulder after an exhausting performance. “Of course we miss Jalen. We miss having Jalen, but we have a next-man-up mentality, so the next man up, I was just going to do my job. It wasn’t more stress this week than it was last week.
“We all prepare like we’re the No. 1 guy every week.”
With its No. 1 missing, Tennessee relied on Kamara and previously seldom-used sophomore John Kelly, who also shone in the first significant action of his young career.
Nearly all of Kelly’s 43 career carries came in mop-up duty at the end of blowouts last season, but he delivered for the Vols on Saturday by rushing 13 times for 89 yards and a touchdown and chipping in a 12-yard catch.
Without Hurd, the Vols hardly skipped a beat in rushing for 282 yards.
“Alvin’s a really good runner,” linebacker Colton Jumper said. “Everybody knows that that’s watched him run the ball. John Kelly, too. We know what he can do. We sit in practice. We see it all the time and we have great faith in those guys. They busted open a lot of big runs that were key for us in that game.”
After scoring the tying touchdown in the final minute of regulation, Kamara walked slowly back to the sideline. It was clear he was spent after averaging nearly 11 yards on each of his 26 offensive touches. His big-play ability was on full display.
Kamara had four receptions of 15 or more yards and five rushes for more than 10 yards.
“He had the same approach as he always does,” quarterback Josh Dobbs said. “When the ball in his hand, we expect him to make a play and he expects to make a play. He did a great job of that all night in the run game and in the throw game, catching the ball out of the backfield, good hard runs (and) explosive plays.
“We need him to continue to play at that level throughout the rest of the season.”
Kamara also handled three punt returns and one kickoff return to finish with 312 all-purpose yards, which set a single-game Tennessee record previously held by Chuck Webb, who had 294 yards against Ole Miss in 1989.
“With Jalen being out,” Kamara said, “I knew a lot of the workload was going to be on me, just doing a lot of different things and still going and doing punt returns and a lot of the split-out slot stuff.”
Tennessee coach Butch Jones called it the “grittiest performance” of Kamara’s 19-game stint with the Vols.
“We asked a lot of him and he really stepped up,” Jones said.
“John Kelly, I thought, ran exceptionally hard. We’ve just got to take care of the football. John gave us another spark. We were excited for him to have his opportunity, and I thought he did some good things with those opportunities.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.