“For us to have success offensively, you have to run the football.”

Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh was pointed in his comments this week when meeting with the media to discuss his offense coming off a bye week.

Golesh’s offense has indeed had success running the football this season. Most impressively, they’ve done so under unfortunate circumstances. The Vols have been plagued by injuries on an offense that already lacked depth entering the year.

Still, the Vols are rushing for 226.1 yards per game through eight games, good enough for fourth-best in the SEC. It’s also good for 13th nationally after finishing last season ranked 84th at 141.5 rushing yards per game.

“If you talk about what our biggest hurdle has been, it’s been (the injuries),” Golesh said. “The last three, four, five weeks, we’ve really had to piece it together. I think (offensive line) Coach (Glen) Elarbee has done a really good job of figuring out who the best five are, going with the combination and guys like Jerome Carvin being able to play center has been really monumental to our success.

“The running back spot has been really, really frustrating with, at times, being so limited with who you have back there. It’s been tough in a lot of ways, specifically to run the football. We’ve put a lot on Hendon (Hooker) in a lot of those situations for him to run the football and have had to be creative, more creative than honestly I’ve ever been.”

The duo of Tiyon Evans and Jabari Small at running back have helped spearhead Tennessee’s rushing attack. Evans owns three 100-yard rushing performances this year despite battling an ankle injury, while Small has averaged 4.6 yards per carry in the midst of a shoulder injury that has hampered him all year.

Evans’ 86.0 yards per game ranks fifth in the SEC as he has rushed for 516 yards and six touchdowns on 80 carries this season. Small has added 332 yards and three touchdowns on 72 carries.

Hendon Hooker has become the head of the spear since taking over at quarterback midway through the Vols’ loss to Pittsburgh in Week 2. His 417 rushing yards are the third-most by an SEC quarterback, while he’s added four rushing touchdowns and is averaging 4.09 yards per carry.

Even Hooker has been banged up this year, joining Small, Evans and several offensive linemen in the training room. Monitoring the stress put on Hooker is at the top of Golesh’s priority list.

“The quarterback-run part is part of what Hendon is and part of his game,” Golesh said. “We are trying to be really smart with how we run him, where the hits aren’t necessarily coming from the side and where he can see where it’s coming from, so there’s a little bit of creativity there in what goes into it.

“I want the ball in his hands at the end of the game. I think it gives us the best chance to win, so you’re going to get it to the guys you feel like can give you the best chance to win, both on the perimeter and then him carrying the football.”

Tennessee’s bye week couldn’t have come at a better time. It provided a much-needed rest to a wounded football team and now puts them in a favorable spot heading into Saturday’s contest against No. 18 Kentucky.

“For us to win games in the SEC, you have to run the football, so we’ve got to do a better job of coming up with ways to do it,” Golesh said. “Injuries, not injuries, those are, in a lot of ways, excuses and we don’t let our guys make excuses. I can’t make excuses. We’ve got to find ways, with who we have, to run the football.

“I feel like coming back off this bye week, we’ve got a full stable, back to healthy at running back. We’re back to healthy on the O-line. Feel like we’re going to have our best chance now down the stretch to run the football as long as we can obviously stay healthy.”

The Vols and Cats will kick off in Lexington at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.