By Vince Ferrara
Running Backs at Tennessee is today’s early summer position focus as I look at the Tennessee football team.
This is the 2nd in a series of nine straight days of separate posts by position. Check my blog page daily here at SportsRadioWNML.com for the other positions.
My current projected starters are in bold. I’ve listed the average star rating entering college from the four major recruiting websites (Rivals, 247Sports, Scout and ESPN.)
Vince’s View
Running Backs
4 John Kelly JR 5’9 212 3*
– Ty Chandler FR 5’11 190 4*
27 Carlin Fils-aime SO 5’11 175 4*
24 Trey Coleman FR 5’11 215 3*
22 Tim Jordan FR 6’0 190 3*
Position summary: John Kelly takes the lead role coming off of his productive, hard-running 630 yard sophomore season. Kelly averaged 6.4 yards per carry and rushed for 5 TDs. Expect his pass catching numbers (6 receptions in 2016) to rise as well.
The question is, who else will help at running back? Carlin Fils-Aime saw mostly mop-up duty action his freshman season (14 rushes for 58 yards.) Can he handle a bigger role being as slight in build as he is? How good or ready will incoming freshman in-state RB Ty Chandler be to get in the rotation? I think Chandler steps in as the number two RB. That position is the most common for freshman to succeed at as true freshmen.
Pass protection will go a long way in determining the trust RB coach Robert Gillespie has in anyone other than John Kelly. Kelly might get the Kamara/Hurd green non-contact jersey treatment during the season unless they develop quality backfield depth.
Hope you enjoyed my review of the University of Tennessee football running backs as we sit here in June. Go to my blog page for the rest of the position breakdowns. I have much more to say on UT football than this. Listen for me on Sports Radio WNML, call in and let’s talk some football. Thanks for reading and sharing.
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