Tennessee Football: Could the Vols Have Two 1,000-Yard Rushers in 2016?
Tennessee football is entering 2016 with one of the best backfields in the country. Could the Volunteers players rush for over 1,000 yards?
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Going into last year, the five-star duo of Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara was expected to be a deadly backfield combination, especially with a mobile quarterback in Joshua Dobbs running the show.
With all three of them back this year and four of the five offensive linemen back, the expectations for the running game are even greater this year.
And it begs the question: could two Tennessee football players go over 1,000 yards rushing?
This has only happened once in school history: in 2004 when Gerald Riggs Jr. and Cedric Houston both crossed the 1,000-yard mark.
In 2015, Hurd went well over the mark with 1,288 yards. But Kamara was well short with only 698 yards. Still, together they almost reached 2,000 yards.
And Dobbs himself added 671 yards.
But Dobbs and his receivers is another sticking point. When the Vols last had two 1,000-yard rushers, they spent most of the year rotating two freshman quarterbacks, and both later went down due to injury, so Phillip Fulmer had to rely on Rick Clausen, who had the worst arm in SEC history.
Simply put, they needed the running game to succeed that year.
Meanwhile, this year, Butch Jones and Mike DeBord are working with a senior quarterback who has an arsenal of elite receivers and two great tight ends to throw to. The offense is expected to be much more balanced, and even when there are running plays, Dobbs is likely to be used even more than Kamara.
Of course, when you factor in all-purpose yards, Kamara went well over the 1,000-yard mark as well. And he’s likely to repeat that same feat again if he stays healthy.
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But going over 1,000 yards along with Hurd? That’s a tougher feat.
It is possible, though.