Tennessee football: Alvin Kamara joins list of Vols RBs to make NFL history

The New Orleans Saints star isn’t the first Tennessee football Volunteers running back to make history in the pros.

Alvin Kamara had an NFL record with six rushing touchdowns on Christmas. He carried the ball 22 times for 155 yards and added 17 receiving yards, helping the New Orleans Saints defeat the Minnesota Vikings 52-33 and further reminding everybody how grossly underused he was when playing for Tennessee football under head coach Butch Jones.

However, if Vol fans can look past what could have been during his two years on Rocky Top in 2015 and 2016, they could appreciate the fact that Kamara’s accomplishments are becoming par for the course for former Vols. Even during their down period, this tradition is remaining.

Despite being known as Punter U and maybe even Special Teams U, and despite its history of being Wide Receiver U, Tennessee football is now making a case for Running Back U this century as well. Kamara’s performance further solidified that.

Since 2003, the Vols have had a former player break the NFL record for rushing yards in a game, tie the NFL record for rushing touchdowns in a game and set the NFL record for most rushing yards in a single season by an undrafted player. One of those players was also a 2,000-yard rusher and two have led the league in rushing yards at least once.

These three running backs are Kamara, Jamal Lewis and Arian Foster. In 2003, his fourth year in the pros, Lewis carried the ball 387 times for 2,066 yard, averaging 5.3 yards a carry, and 14 touchdowns with the Baltimore Ravens. He had 30 carries for 295 yards and two touchdowns in Baltimore’s Week Two 33-13 victory over the Cleveland Browns.

At the time, that was a record for rushing yards in a game. Adrian Peterson broke that record by one yard in 2007, as he led the Minnesota Vikings to a 35-17 win over the San Diego Chargers that day. Peterson would also become a 2,000-yard rusher in 2012. Despite his record being broken, Lewis holding it at one point and crossing that 2,000-yard mark is history on its own.

Foster, meanwhile, was an undrafted free agent who signed with the Houston Texans in 2009 after an up and down career with Tennessee football. One year later, he rushed for a league-leading 1,616 yards and 16 touchdowns while leading the league with 2,220 yards and 18 touchdowns from scrimmage.

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Two years later, Foster led the league in rushing touchdowns once again with 15 and total touchdowns from scrimmage with 17. However, his 1,616 rushing yards in 2010 is an NFL record that still stands for an undrafted free agent.

Kamara joined that list with his record six rushing touchdowns. That also ties the record for the most total touchdowns from scrimmage in a game and put him in the lead for most touchdowns from scrimmage on the season with 21. He also had a chance to set it himself late in the game. Sean Payton didn’t give him a chance.

If Kamara had scored again, he would’ve joined Nick Foles, current teammate Drew Brees and fellow former Vol Peyton Manning as the only players this century to hit seven touchdowns. Either way, though, he still made history and joined a list of former Tennessee football running backs doing so.

What really stands out about Kamara, Foster and Lewis, though, is the fact that only one of them, Lewis, was a highly touted prospect coming out of college. We mentioned that Foster went undrafted because of his inconsistencies and his injuries. Well, Kamara fell to the third round because he was underused by Jones.

If you want proof of Tennessee football’s case to be Running Back U, none of these players are the school’s all-time leader in rushing yards. That would be Travis Henry, who was another Pro Bowler in the 2000s. Simply put, UT is becoming the place to produce elite running backs, and Kamara further proved that on Friday.