Tennessee's Jalen Hurd carries the ball in the game against Arkansas State.ATHENS, Ga. - Tennessee senior quarterback Justin Worley got it right when he said freshman running back Jalen Hurd played "lights out" in Saturday's 35-32 loss at Georgia.
After all, the Hendersonville, Tenn., resident ran for 119 yards, scored a touchdown, caught three passes for another 19 yards and generally looked like the kind of bruising, breakaway back who winds up making a pretty fair living on NFL Sundays.
Unfortunately, his fumble in the Volunteers' end zone with 4:27 to go became a Bulldogs touchdown that all but guaranteed UT's loss and momentarily subdued Hurd's heroics.
"It was a bad exchange," he said. "I take full responsibility, and that's something that won't happen again."
Tennessee coach Butch Jones was equally blunt.
"To win games on the road, you can't have those catastrophic turnovers," the second-year coach said after his second straight loss to Georgia by three points. "And that's what [Hurd's fumble] was - a catastrophic turnover."
Jones also was quick to add, "But Jalen played great."
This is what Tennessee needs if it is to return to the top of the Southeastern Conference - an elite running back, one capable of forcing opposing defenses to build their game plans around him, thus opening opportunities for teammates.
Or, in the case of Georgia running back Todd Gurley, just crush whatever defense comes your way. Despite the Vols' best efforts to stop him, Gurley gashed UT for 208 rushing yards and 285 total yards. It was a performance that led Bulldogs coach Mark Richt to call him "the best player in America."
But Hurd has the look of a guy who could one day be in that conversation, his long (6-foot-3), strong (227 pounds) frame able to both absorb and initiate contact.
"Jalen runs angry," Jones said. "Jalen breaks tackles, but you just can't have one running back. We need more depth there."
The statistics certainly hinted at that. UT officially ran the ball 31 times for 161 yards. Twenty-four of those belonged to Hurd. So completely did he dominate the Vols' rushing stats that his net (119) wound up surpassing the team's rushing total (117) after losses were figured in.
"I'm glad they gave me the ball that many times," Hurd said. "The offensive line did a great job of opening up holes for me. I'm just trying to do the best I can every game."
His best is getting better by the week. After running for 29 yards in the season opener against Utah State, he gained 83 against Arkansas State, 97 at Oklahoma and now 117.
On top of that, according to UT's sports information staff, Hurd is the first true freshman for the Vols to rush for 100 yards against any opponent since Bryce Brown did it against Western Kentucky in 2009, and the first to do it against an SEC opponent since Jamal Lewis did it in the 1997 SEC championship game against Auburn.
Perhaps that's why UT true freshman wideout Josh Malone said of his fellow rookie, "[Jalen] running the ball like that will help our offense explode."
Especially when his fumbles don't help it implode.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.