Jennings ready to step in as starter — again

Jeff Jennings is finally returning to the starting running back spot for Vandy. File

Jeff Jennings says his approach to practice this week will be no different than it ever has been.

Come Saturday, though, the senior running back finally will have the opportunity to show he is the same caliber player he was three years ago before he sustained a devastating knee injury, which cost him one full season and slowed him for at least one other.

“It was certainly a long, hard row he had to hoe to get back,” coach Bobby Johnson said. “He’s close to being where he was, but it wasn’t immediate.”

In 2005, Jennings – then a sophomore – was the Commodores’ starting tailback, a position he assumed halfway through his freshman season when he scored five touchdowns and rushed for 135 yards on 46 attempts.

In the third game of his sophomore season he rushed for 103 yards and three touchdowns in a victory over Ole Miss. He started the campaign with two touchdowns in a victory over Wake Forest.

Things came to a halt when he sustained the knee injury against Kentucky, in the next-to-last contest of that season. It was severe enough that he was redshirted for 2006 and finally returned last season, when he started twice and finished as the team’s second-leading rusher (346 yards).

“I’m not saying he’s not as good,” Johnson said. “I’m saying it wasn’t an immediate recovery. He’s put in an awful lot of hard work.”

Through 11 games this season he has carried just 31 times for 78 yards and one touchdown – the lowest single-season totals of his career.

An ankle injury sustained in last Saturday’s loss to Tennessee will keep this year’s starter Jared Hawkins out of this week’s game at Wake Forest, and – consequently – will make Jennings the starter.

“It doesn’t change my approach,” Jennings said. “Our running backs coach does a good job of getting everybody ready each week. I feel like I can go out there and do the same things and preparing the same way I have been all season.”

Jennings had season-highs of seven carries and three receptions against UT after Hawkins got hurt. His 16-yard run early in the third quarter was his longest in more than a year.

This time, he’s going to be on the field right from the first snap.

“I’m just going to go out there and just play within the system we have,” he said. “Hopefully, when the coaches put me in position, I’ll be able to do something with it.

“I just want to go out there and finish strong."