One of the newest additions to Run CMG is true freshman Ty Chandler.

The U.S. Army All-American ran for 2,252 yards and totaled 39 touchdowns as a senior at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville.

The 5-11, 195-pound Chandler was ranked the 67th best player in the 247Sports national composite rankings in 2017 and fifth nationally at running back.

The in-state product comes to Rocky Top at a time when the Tennessee backfield needs newcomers to step in immediately following the early departures of Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara — key members of the “Chain Moving Gang” at the start of the 2016 season.

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“Ty, he’s going to be good,” running back John Kelly said during camp. “That’s what I can say right now. He’s going to be good. He’s a work in progress, definitely.

“He’s just learning the offense and he’s learning how everything’s supposed to be done the Tennessee way, for the most part, and I’m doing my best job to set a good example for him and the rest of the younger guys. He’s going to be a good one.”

Chandler brings excellent athleticism to the backfield mix.

“He has the ability to make you miss,” Butch Jones said after the Vols’ first practice in pads. “He has great burst and explosion, center of gravity.”

Jones also has talked highly of Chandler doing a “great job in blitz pickup.”

Jones added that Chandler “has been able to handle the workload in terms of the playbook” with “great retention.”

Other members of Team 121 have spoken highly of Chandler and fellow true freshman backs Trey Coleman and Tim Jordan.

“Probably the most talented group of freshmen running backs I have seen,” lineman Marcus Tatum said. “Ty Chandler, Trey Coleman and Tim (Jordan). Just powerful, elusive and a lot of vision. It’s a very talented running back corps and I’m very happy to be blocking for them.”

Fellow offensive lineman Drew Richmond agreed: “It’s up to us to lead this team. I want JK (John Kelly) to run for 2,000 (yards), that’s my goal for him. We have to try and lead the squad. JK is more than capable of handling the role; Ty Chandler is going to be good, real good. I feel like like we have a core group.”

Jones has mentioned during fall training camp that “all three are going to have to play, and they’re going to be important to the success of our season.”

Running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Robert Gillespie says all three freshman backs got to work even before arriving in Knoxville.

“Even when we were going through the spring, they were calling after practice every day,” Gillespie said. “They wanted to know what we did and how it worked. I wanted them to enjoy their senior year (of high school), but they still wanted to learn the offense and know what was going on.

“They did a good job of watching film from afar. They would call and want to Skype. When they came here, I was surprised and pleased by the baseline of knowledge they already had before getting on campus.”

First-year offensive coordinator Larry Scott thinks “the guys have had a great approach, a great mental approach towards everything.

“They’ve kind of exceeded some expectations a little bit as far as their ability to retain the amount of information that’s been thrown at them,” Scott continued.

“A big part about being a running back in our system is you’re on special teams. You play a host of special teams as well, so being able to retain the special teams information, the protections, the run reads and all those things, I think those young kids have done a real good job.

“I’m very excited about those three young backs, and they’re going to all have a role and they’re going to all find themselves playing for us at some point.”