Let’s say something nice about Tennessee: John Kelly is really good.

What if I told you that the most important running back Tennessee signed in the 2015 recruiting class wasn’t Alvin Kamara, the standout who’s currently in the NFL? It was in fact junior John Kelly.

At the time he was signed, Kelly was a three-star prospect, likely due in part to his 5’9 stature. He’s from Detroit and was classified as simply an athlete. His ESPN recruiting profile was a good breakdown of his skills, but it does show that because some players develop at a different rate, their talent curve may not perfectly align with the rhythm of a traditional recruiting cycle.

Kelly could really end up on either side of the ball for the next level. His athletic ability could land up as a perimeter defender. A potential [Power 5] level player.

Besides in-state Michigan and Tennessee, he wasn’t offered a scholarship by any high-profile programs.

We’ve spent a lot of time making fun of Tennessee this season. We will likely continue to do so, if it sputters through 2017. But Kelly is no laughing matter. He’s legit. Here’s why.

1. His other sport, skateboarding, influenced his running style.

Often, you picture football players dabbling in basketball or baseball or track in their offseasons. Kelly’s different.

He took up the sport when he was nine, and it even started to butt heads with his football career, when he would skip summer workouts to go down to the skate park in high school. Coaches coaxed him off the board and into some cleats, but it influences his running style.

“When you’d be at the top just looking down at 13 stairs and be like, ‘Whoa. That’s a lot of stairs,’ you just have to just forget about it all and just go for it,” Kelly said.

“That’s just how I think when I run the ball. The gap isn’t always going to be there, but when it is you can’t hesitate. You have to just go for it. It taught me how to fall. I don’t want to just face-plant every time I get hit.”

ESPN

2. He doesn’t need a stinkin’ offensive line (sometimes).

Kelly’s got six TDs through four games, averaging 5.6 yards per rush.

Perhaps Kelly’s most important achievement is doing everything he does with an opportunity rate of 37 percent, a rate that would’ve ranked No. 100 in the country in 2016. That metric by Bill Connelly judges the number of rushes in which the offensive line produces 5 yards for an RB by moving the line of scrimmage.

Want an example of him doing more with less?

Exhibit A:

Effective blocking is crucial, but when Kelly doesn’t get it, he can still make stuff happen. That’s a tackle for a loss for a lot of backs, but not for Kelly.

Exhibit B:

Folks, there’s nowhere to go here. But it’s cool. Kelly’ll just step backwards, hop out of a tackle, and outrun a defender.

A stat that accompanies opportunity rate is highlight yards. Those are the yards a back adds to each 5-yard gain. Kelly’s well-above-average 6.9 highlight yards per opportunity mean every time the offensive line has gotten him comfortably past the line of scrimmage, he’s averaged a first down.

Check him out when the line does its job and lets him waltz to the second level. He attacks downhill hard.

3. You probably shouldn’t get in his way.

Kelly is really hard to bring down. At 205 pounds, he’s a step quicker than your typical bowling-ball running back. Have a good time trying to get a pad level lower than his. Even when you do, stuff like this can still happen:

He just levels Florida defensive back Chauncey Gardner and still keeps his feet enough to fall forward for a few extra yards. Remember when Kelly talked about not just falling flat on his face? He credits his balance to his skateboarding roots, and it shows. Here, you can have that play again in slow motion.

4. He’s got the quickness too.

I found myself cackling at this play.

Did he just —- did he stop running full-speed mid-play?

Yes. He alters his gait to size up Gardner, again the victim, and makes him look silly.

From the end zone camera angle you can see the stutter, but you can also see how he maintains acceleration through choppy lateral steps and revs it back up in short order.

5. He wears old-school gear.

John Kelly wears the pacifier style of mouthpiece. In my humble opinion, pacifier mouthpieces should be required.

This is an opinion honed from growing weaned on the Madden NFL video game series. The first one I remember playing was 2001’s with Eddie George on the cover.

Amazon.com

See that pacifier in Eddie’s mouth? Well Kelly has the fanged variety, which are en vogue with the kids these days. It looks badass.

Crystal LoGiudice-USA TODAY Sports

Kelly’s a lot of fun to watch. Who knows what Tennessee will be this season? But with Kelly, at least they’ve still got someone worth watching in the backfield.