I've never met him, but he's consistently shorter than teammates who are listed with similar heights, which strongly suggests, as others have noted that's he's not really 5'11 (more like 5'9ish). Ultimately, production matters more than anything, but having less height and shorter arms could explain why he can't see or block pass rushers better. If you're a 5'8 bowling ball with wheels, height is moot, but Small isn't exactly MJD.
As for your stats argument, that'd be fairly clever if they existed in a vacuum. Since I own a computer, I can look up other stats and see Tiyon Evans averaged 6.5 YPC in the same offense, and he didn't benefit from playing in the Kroger Bowl (which would've lifted him over the 7.0 mark). Hell, if Tiyon had Jabari's work ethic, he might've averaged 8.0 YPC in this offense. But his season is also hard to really break down (injuries, work ethic, inconsistent performances) --Anyway, looking at Small's entire season, there's only 2 carries over 30 yards in the entire season (140 total carries). That's a big red flag, shoulder injury or not. If 30 yards is considered an explosive splash play, that's 1.42% of the time. That means there's a 98.58% chance that Small's not going to give you an explosive chunk play.
I wanted to see how the '21 Vols compared with the '19 Knights (pre-Covid, pre-player opt-outs). Here's Heup's 2019 offense from that season. These backs also split carries, but their averages well-surpass Small's numbers. You could try to pivot and say, "Blah, blah, weaker conference," but explosive offenses will often continue to produce video game numbers, even after jumping conferences (better talent, unfamiliarity for the defense, evolution of the playbook).
Small's 5.7 average is greatly inflated by 4-5 games against Swiss cheese defenses (Kentucky, Vandy, Purdue, et cetera). That's not a criticism, it's just a fact, which makes it difficult to project what he can do in a full season against better competition. I looked at all the individual game lines, and maybe the Ole Miss game is the truest indicator. *shrug* (21-for-92 yards, long of 26 for a 4.4 YPC average & 1 TD) Like people have been saying---those numbers are solid/serviceable, but not going to
wow you. His numbers against UGA/Bama were bad, but so was everyone else's. I'm not going to hold that against him. Overall, he's got an incomplete career with a lot of question marks. Unless he makes a big leap, he'll continue to be serviceable/good, but not elite in any one area.
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