KNOXVILLE – With do-it-all junior running back John Kelly catching or carrying the football an average of 22 times per game this season for Tennessee, opportunities for freshman Ty Chandler were not guaranteed in the Volunteers’ first seven games.
Chandler returned the opening kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown against Indiana State in the second game, and he had nine touches for 61 yards against Florida the next week. Five weeks later at Alabama, his workload bottomed out at four carries for 2 yards.
But there was no frustration shown by Chandler, who ran for more than 7,000 yards in his prep career at Nashville’s Montgomery Bell Academy.
Tennessee running back Ty Chandler runs during the first half against Kentucky Saturday in Lexington, Ky. Chandler scored the Vols’ only two touchdowns in their 29-26 loss to the Wildcats.
Tennessee’s Ty Chandler (3) runs around left end. The University of Massachusetts Minutemen visited the University of Tennessee Volunteers in NCAA football action in Knoxville on September 23, 2017. “I just knew my time would come,” he said.
It arrived even sooner than expected when coach Butch Jones announced last week that Kelly would be suspended for Tennessee’s game against Kentucky.