Tennessee football: Assembling the all-time Phil Fulmer team

Tennessee Football All-Time Phil Fulmer Team Running Back

Jamal Lewis (1997-1999)

Jamal Lewis was a rare blend of speed and power for Tennessee football. The Volunteers benefitted from that speed and power for three years even though he suffered several injuries during his time in Knoxville.

Lewis showed the talent that allowed him to get to the NFL in his freshman season when he was still healthy, fresh, and rumbling, bumbling, and stumbling out of the gate. In that freshman season, he ran for 1,364 yards and 7 TDs. He averaged 5.8 yards per carry that season.

That performance coincided with the final season of Peyton Manning’s season with Tennessee football. Lewis started the ball rolling the following year on Phil Fulmer’s national championship season in 1998. Unfortunately, the running back played in only five games.

Of course, he ran for 497 yards in those five games and averaged 6.8 yards per game. Why Lewis makes this list because not only was he dominant when he was playing for Tennessee football, he was even more dominant once he made it to the next level.

In a nine-year career with the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns, Lewis ran for over 10,000 yards and 58 touchdowns. Those numbers include the insane 2003 season, where he ran for 2,066 yards and 14 touchdowns. He was inducted into the Ravens’ Ring of Honor in 2012, just three years after he retired from football.