A consensus 3-star prospect coming out of high school, John Kelly was listed as an “athlete” by 247 Sports in a signing class in 2015 at Tennessee that included Alvin Kamara.

The Detroit, Mich. native had 11 offers when he committed and later signed with Tennessee, so he could have signed at a number of schools across the Midwest, or even the West Coast, including Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State or even UCLA. But he settled on the Vols, Kelly said, because of games like Saturday at Alabama against the No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide. Tennessee was the only offer from the SEC.

Kelly is the SEC’s second-leading rusher at 92 yards per game, and overall, he has 552 rushing yards and six touchdowns in six games.

The Vols will take on Alabama at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday on CBS.