Alvin Kamara finally says the quiet part out loud about his time at Tennessee, and Vols fans are going to agree with him
Alvin Kamara spent two seasons with the Tennessee Vols after starting his career with the Alabama Crimson Tide. The former Vol has spent the first nine seasons of his NFL career with the New Orleans Saints.
Former Tennessee Vols running back Alvin Kamara briefly commented this week on a topic that UT football fans have debated for nearly a decade.
Kamara, a five-time NFL Pro-Bowler, spent two seasons at Tennessee. But despite being a future NFL star, he wasn’t utilized by head coach Butch Jones as effectively as he probably should’ve been. Vols fans have long suggested that Jones botched the usage of Kamara.
The reason Kamara was underutilized is because the Vols also had running back Jalen Hurd on the roster.
Hurd received 431 total touches while playing alongside Kamara in 2015 and 2016. He totaled 2,010 yards and 19 touchdowns on those 431 touches (Hurd quit the team in the middle of the 2016 season and missed the final six games).
Kamara, meanwhile, totaled 1,977 yards and 23 touchdowns on 284 total touches in 2015 and 2016. He was more productive than Hurd on a per touch basis.
During an appearance on The Mike Keith Show this week, Kamara admitted that he didn’t feel like he was able to completely showcase his skill set at Tennessee.
“I feel like I could have been more productive,” said Kamara. “But, you know what happened, happened. I was blessed to be put in a situation in New Orleans that I was able to showcase what I didn’t feel like I was able to showcase in college. So everything has a funny way of working out.”
Kamara didn’t say anything about playing for Butch, but he’s poked fun at his former coach in the past by having some fun with Jones’ infamous “champions of life” quote.
Things ended up working out just fine for Kamara. And as far as his usage at Tennessee, I’m not sure it would’ve mattered — those teams were doomed with Butch at the helm.
What former Vols QB Josh Dobbs said about Alvin Kamara’s usage at Tennessee
Former Vols quarterback Josh Dobbs, who played with Kamara at Tennessee for two seasons, commented in 2023 on the running back’s usage under Jones.
“Well, we had Jalen Hurd, too,” said Dobbs. “Jalen Hurd was a 1,000-yard rusher as a freshman and sophomore. And then Alvin got there, too. And then once Jalen got hurt, Alvin obviously started going off — he was already going off. It’s just, we would give the ball to Jalen a little bit more than we gave it to Alvin.”
“Obviously in hindsight, you’re like ‘man this dude is amazing, he’s one of the best running backs in the league, wish we could’ve used him a little more in college’. At the time, we thought we were utilizing people the best we could.”
Hurd, who finished his college career at Baylor, battled injuries after reaching the NFL and never took a regular season snap.