Former Vol throws punch at Senior Bowl after taking a cheap shot from one of his own teammates
A former Tennessee standout was caught in a scuffle with one of his own teammates in Mobile.
The 2026 Senior Bowl took place on Saturday, January 31 in Mobile, Alabama, serving as the premier college football All-Star game ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Naturally, the event has some of the most talented and competitive players in the country looking to make an impression for the scores of NFL scouts and executives in attendance. As such, guys’ engines can get revved up a little high. Sometimes too high.
That was the case on Saturday before the Senior Bowl between Oregon LB Bryce Boettcher and Tennessee RB Star Thomas. Boettcher put his shoulder into Thomas and laid him out.
The problem is this happened during warmups. Oh, yeah, and the two players are on the same team, the National team.
Tennessee RB Star Thomas took a swing at Oregon LB Bryce Boettcher after getting knocked down during warmups
The players were clearly going through warmups as you see before any college football game. The players weren’t engaging in blocks, nor should the defenders have been attempting to tackle the ballcarriers. It’s effectively just walking through designed plays.
However, Boettcher laid out Thomas with what was clearly an unwarranted cheap shot, and even though he tried to help Thomas up, that bell had been rung. Thomas was understandably irate and let a fist fly. Probably not the wisest thing to swing a fist at a helmeted head, but in the heat of the moment, players run hot.
It’s an incident that’s regrettable, but Thomas was undoubtedly the recipient of a cheap shot, and some guys won’t let that level of disrespect go. You never want to be in a situation where you’re punching anyone, much less a teammate, but also tough to let yourself get blatantly disrespected either.
The National team ended up losing to the American team 17-9. Thomas had 2 catches for 12 yards and one rush for -1 yards. Boettcher led all players with 10 total tackles.