This may be hard to believe, but the Tennessee Volunteers will present one of the most feared rushing attacks in the SEC this season.

Yes, the same Tennessee that ranked second from the bottom of the SEC in rushing a year ago.

Yes, the same Tennessee that was out-rushed by just two players on the 7-6 Arkansas Razorbacks.

Last year’s ground-game futility was fueled by the combination of a true freshman tailback (Jalen Hurd) and one of the SEC’s worst offensive lines (Tennessee also allowed the most sacks and tackles for loss of anyone in the conference in 2014). If the Vols’ offense is to be considered one of the conference’s best rushing attacks mere months later, it has to improve in both those areas.

It has.

Hurd is now a sophomore who will enter this season riding the momentum of a 120-yard, two-score performance in last year’s bowl win over Iowa. He actually posted three of his four 100-yard games in the last five weeks of Tennessee’s season (which happen to be the five weeks Joshua Dobbs started at quarterback), and all of his 100-yard games came against power conference foes, indicating Hurd is capable of rising to the challenge presented by a daunting opponent.

The rising sophomore will also enjoy a complementary back unlike any he shared touches with last year in junior college transfer Alvin Kamara. The four-star transfer originally began his career with the Alabama Crimson Tide, and getting recruited to play tailback for Nick Saban’s dynasty should validate Kamara’s natural abilities.

During his time in junior college he matured, distanced himself from past off-field troubles, improved as a student and picked up the nuances of college football. Furthermore, Kamara was Tennessee’s only healthy scholarship back for much of the spring while Hurd and others nursed injuries, allowing him to develop a rapport with the first-team offense, namely Dobbs and the first-team offensive line.

He knows where holes may open on certain plays, where his cutbacks may present themselves and how the offense might flow this fall. In fact, considering Tennessee’s shift from former offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian to new OC Mike DeBord, he should have just as good of a grasp of the offense as Hurd.

And while we’re on the subject, let’s talk more about DeBord. He has more than two decades of coaching experience at the FBS and NFL levels, much of which was spent coaching the offensive line and coordinating various rushing attacks. Needless to say, an experienced OC with play-calling experience who values a commitment to the run will benefit both tailbacks.

That commitment to the run and legacy coaching linemen will also help Tennessee’s young, rebuilding offensive line this fall. The Vols knew the line was an area it had to address in recruiting, and it did so by signing six linemen, three of which were rated as four-star prospects and three of which (including two of the four-star guys) enrolled in school in January to participate in spring practice.

There will be growing pains along the line early in the year. Tennessee did exactly what it had to do to treat the problem, but it’s not going to be fixed overnight. If only resolving flaws on the roster were that easy, right?

But the players, the coaching staff, as well as the right philosophy, are in place to lead the offensive line toward a more prosperous 2015 and beyond. Combine that with Hurd and Kamara, and suddenly you have the workings of a pretty stout run game.

But the glue that may ultimately hold it all together is Dobbs, the quarterback who led Tennessee to a 4-1 close to last season, taking over when the Vols sat at 3-5 and carrying UT to its first bowl win in nearly a decade. Dobbs is not a run-first quarterback, but he’s among the most mobile quarterbacks in the SEC entering 2015. He can use his legs and escapability to extend plays behind the line of scrimmage, a la Ben Roethlisberger, hoping to take advantage of a discombobulated defense in the midst of a broken play.

But he’s also someone who can thrive with a few designed runs per game, just to keep defenses honest. That added rushing threat will open up passing lanes, and should open up running lanes for Hurd and Kamara to attack in playing off Dobbs the way Josh Robinson played off Dak Prescott at Mississippi State a year ago (Prescott was the first-team All-SEC quarterback, Robinson ran for 1,000 yards and MSU won 10 games).

Dobbs’ do-everything skill set at the helm of the Tennessee offense will benefit every member of the unit, but especially the tailbacks who stand to face less-crowded boxes if Dobbs is on-point this season.

Will Tennessee make a leap from 13th in the SEC in rushing to first in the span of a year? No, let’s squash that pipe dream right now. But can Tennessee work its way toward the top of the SEC’s rushing rankings? It’s very possible, and if it doesn’t it’s only because Heisman contenders like Nick Chubb, Leonard Fournette and Derrick Henry, as well as Arkansas’ dual-1,000-yard rushers, may keep them out of the top of the standings.

Tennessee’s offense is going to run the ball effectively this year, no matter where it ranks in the conference. And that added dimension on offense, paired with Dobbs’ potent passing attack, could elevate Tennessee to a what was once a familiar place: Atlanta, as the SEC East champion.