'Competitive kid' Jalen Hurd hoping for encore with Tennessee Vols

photo Tennessee running back Jalen Hurd (1) carries the ball past Georgia Bulldogs linebacker Jordan Jenkins (59).

KNOXVILLE - Jalen Hurd gritted his teeth and tilted his head in a gesture of doubt.

The thought of throwing a pass out of the wildcat formation in which Tennessee debuted him at Georgia last week gave the freshman pause.

"I can try. I'm not terrible," Hurd said after practice on Tuesday.

"My teammates would probably say I'm terrible," he added with a laugh.

OK, so maybe sticking to running the ball is the safer bet for Hurd and the Volunteers.

In his SEC debut at Georgia last week, Hurd ran for 119 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries to become the first freshman to run for 100 yards in a game for the Vols since Bryce Brown -- like Hurd a five-star recruit out of high school -- did it against Western Kentucky in the 2009 opener.

After the 35-32 loss, Tennessee coach Butch Jones called Hurd an "angry" runner, and after the 6-foot-3, 227-pound 18-year-old powered his way through a pile into the end zone in the first quarter, carried a Georgia defender some 9 yards in the second quarter and piled up nearly half his yards after contact, it's easy to see why he was given that label.

"He's a pretty even-keeled guy," Vols running backs coach Robert Gillespie said after Wednesday's practice, "but I do think when the game and the lights come on, he gets a little bit more emotional and plays with a little bit more passion.

"I think that's anybody, but he's a very competitive kid. Angry, fired up, turned up -- whatever the term these kids use -- he just goes out and plays real hard."

Hurd is hoping that approach leads to an encore performance on Saturday afternoon when Tennessee hosts Florida in the latest installment of a series in which the team with the better ground game typically wins.

The last time the team with fewer rushing yards won this game was in 2002.

In Florida's current nine-game winning streak in the series, the Gators have outrushed Tennessee by nearly 130 yards (181.5 yards per game to 52.6), and the Vols' last 100-yard rusher against the Gators was Travis Stephens, who memorably ran for 226 yards and two touchdowns in Tennessee's win at Florida in 2001.

Hurd was a month away from his sixth birthday then.

"That's something that I was looking forward to all year when I was a kid and just growing up and being a Tennessee fan," he said of this rivalry, "and actually now playing in it, it's amazing."

Playing in the game is one thing, but Hurd figures to have a big hand in determining if Tennessee will snap the nine-year losing streak.

Against Georgia, he got 27 touches (24 carries and three receptions) while backfield mates Marlin Lane and Devrin Young combined for six. Jones said getting Hurd that involved was part of the game plan, and while the Vols would like to get freshman Derrell Scott more involved, it'd come at the cost of taking the ball out of Hurd's hands.

"I've always had a lot of confidence in Jalen, as I do with Marlin and Derrell and Devrin, the whole crew," offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian said. "He continues to progress the way we anticipated he would. From day one when he came in here, we knew that he was very talented."

As for the angry label, Hurd had no problem with it.

The clip of him gesturing at a Georgia blitzer to essentially bring it on surfaced on social media this week and Gillespie noting that Hurd is "having fun" blocking in pass protection only make it fit better.

"Being a running back, you have to fight for more yards, and that's what makes you special," Hurd said. "It's fighting for those extra yards. It's making a big play when nothing's there.

"I don't know about angry, but I just try to get all those yards I can. Run angry, you could say that. Yeah, I guess."

A clip of Hurd gesturing for a Georgia blitzer to basically bring it on surfaced across social media and

Gillespie, a former Florida tailback, said Hurd "always wanted moments like this," the opportunity to play in big SEC games in front of packed stadiums on a weekly basis.

"I hadn't had any expectations of Jalen," he said. "I think as a freshman, you don't know what to expect, but he's done a good job so far. He's got tons of room for improvement. He's really just taking what the game's giving to him, and hopefully now he can start creating some extra yards for himself and get in some one-on-one situations and break some long runs.

"Jalen every day is just getting better, every day in practice, and hopefully this week is no different. He continues to do the small things and get better at the small things that he and I talk about all the time."

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.

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