Tennessee football: OC Alex Golesh talks depth of the Vols running backs

Tennessee football has a lot of depth in its running backs room if you ask Alex Golesh. The Volunteers offensive coordinator touched on many topics during Wednesday’s media availability. Eventually things got to the backfield.

“(They’ve) done a really good job of figuring out the scheme,” Golesh said. “I think Jerry Mack (and) Matt Merritt, those guys have done an incredible job teaching those guys. That’s one position that I’m uber excited about going into gameday.”

The Volunteers lost leading rusher Eric Gray, who transferred to Oklahoma. They will attempt to replace him with Tiyon Evans, the No. 1 JUCO running back according to 247Sports.

They are also hopeful Jabari Small will make a big jump in his sophomore season. But hearing Golesh talk about both, it’s clear he has a favorite.

“Jabari has had the camp we all hoped he would,” Golesh said. “Tiyon, honestly in a lot of ways has surpassed my expectations. He’s started to figure out what it is to be a Division I college football player.

“He was here in the spring – I’ve recruited junior college my whole career – you come in from a junior college and it just hits you in the face, and it took him a while to figure it out. It really did. From how to take care of my body, how do I sleep, when do I go to tutoring? All of that, just how do I figure that out? It took him a minute (and) he was resistant a little bit at times to figuring it out. There was some nudging there. But I think time has put it all together. He’s a different back than those other guys in the room. He’s a bigger back, been really pleasantly surprised with him.”

Tennessee also signed class of 2021 running back Jaylen Wright, the No. 281 overall prospect on On3’s rankings for that year. Golesh thinks he has a chance to be special, and he could see limited carries this year.

“Jaylen Wright, man oh man, really excited about Jaylen,” Golesh said. “He is everything we had hoped he would be. Still a freshman, same sentiment as (tight end) Miles Campbell. Now we just threw class on him, we threw the distractions around campus at him. He’s got to learn and grow, but I think he’s got a really, really bright future.”

The Volunteers open the season on a Thursday night, Sept. 2 against Bowling Green. Then we’ll get to see the progress Small made and the hype surrounding Evans and Wright and the other running backs for Tennessee football.