Tennessee received some unfortunate news on Thursday ahead of their important road matchup against Texas A&M.

The Vols need to win their final three games of the regular season to reach the College Football Playoff.

First up for Tennessee are the Aggies, a talented team that is 4-5 due to some uneven performances.

Unfortunately for the Vols, left guard Nic Moore will miss the Texas A&M game due to an illness. Moore was listed as out on the SEC availability report on Thursday evening.

With Moore set to miss the game this weekend, the Vols will turn to Sham Umarov at left guard.

Moore’s absence means that Tennessee also has a big question mark at the backup center position.

“He’s not going to play this weekend,” said VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs of Moore on Friday on 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will. “I don’t know about moving forward, but certainly this is not the news that you’re looking for on a Thursday afternoon. He was fine on Wednesday night. He was fine on Thursday morning, but obviously he is dealing with a significant illness of some kind starting yesterday afternoon. So we’ll see when he returns, and what that looks like down the road.

“But for now, it means Sham Umarov will start at left guard. Jesse Perry would be your third guard, in my opinion. If somebody else got banged up or got hurt, then you would slide Ory Williams out to right tackle, and you would just have to do it. They’ve not been willing to play [Williams] out at right tackle. They haven’t had enough trust in him, but you would be forced at that point to play him. And then the question becomes who do you play as a backup center if something were to happen to Sam Pendleton? is that Antoni Ogumoro? Or is that sliding Jesse Perry in to potentially play center? I don’t know. I’m sure he will get some reps at center on the practice field this morning, and they’ll get Antoni some reps and try to get him ready. He’s gotten more reps as a backup center over the course of the last few weeks with Nic Moore playing guard. But on the road in the SEC, you don’t have anyone with experience as a backup center with anybody you’re taking (to Texas A&M) on your roster.”

It’s a tough spot for the Vols, but it seems like every team in the SEC is dealing with some injuries as we enter the final stretch of the regular season.

To make matters worse for Tennessee, the Vols will also be without running back Daune Morris on Saturday against the Aggies. According to a report from VolQuest, Morris suffered a leg injury in a car crash Thursday night.