‘I would be shocked if he doesn’t’ – Vols insider provides important injury update for Tennessee ahead of game against ETSU
One of the biggest surprises in the Tennessee Vols’ 45–26 win over Syracuse was the absence of true freshman offensive lineman David Sanders Jr. Sanders was a late scratch after getting banged up in practice last week. With Sanders sidelined, Jesse Perry moved from right guard to right tackle. Arizona transfer Wendell Moe slid from […]
One of the biggest surprises in the Tennessee Vols’ 45–26 win over Syracuse was the absence of true freshman offensive lineman David Sanders Jr.
Sanders was a late scratch after getting banged up in practice last week.
With Sanders sidelined, Jesse Perry moved from right guard to right tackle. Arizona transfer Wendell Moe slid from left guard to right guard, while Shad Umarov stepped in at left guard.
“Late in practice on Wednesday, kind of got nicked up,” said Heupel after the win against Syracuse when asked about Sanders. “Anticipated him being able to play. This morning, our medical staff just felt like it probably wasn’t the right thing to do.”
VolQuest’s Austin Price joined 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will on Tuesday and he sounded optimistic that Sanders will be on the field on Saturday when Tennessee takes on East Tennessee State in Neyland Stadium.
Price noted that if the Vols had played Syracuse on Sunday instead of Saturday, Sanders probably would’ve been able to play.
“I expect him to play this weekend,” said Price when asked about Sanders. “Obviously, they’ll continue to evaluate him. He got a little bit of a stinger last week [in] practice. I think the medical staff did not like where his strength level was on Saturday morning — because he was planning on playing Friday night.
“When Coach (Josh) Heupel talked about how it hit [Sanders] like a ton of bricks not being able to play, I think that’s very accurate. I don’t think he anticipated not playing. And again, this is your contingency plan. You shifted out Jesse Perry to right tackle. He had a really good game after preparing all offseason at right guard. Wendell Moe switches from left guard to right guard, and Sham Umarov comes in at left guard and Tennessee played really well. I expect David Sanders to play this week. I would be shocked if he doesn’t — and he needs to play, because you don’t want his first action to be a week from now against Georgia. You’d like to knock the rust off this week. I think if the game, honestly, [had been on] Sunday, he might have been able to play. I think it just happened to be that on Saturday he was a no-go.”
That’s certainly good news for the Vols. Tennessee will obviously be just fine against ETSU with or without Sanders. But as Price noted, it’ll be good for Sanders to knock the rust off against ETSU before taking on Georgia in Week Three.
Tennessee and East Tennessee State are set to kick off at 3:30 PM ET on Saturday.
Tennessee Volunteers News
‘It hurt too bad to grip the ball’ – 5-star Vols QB commit Faizon Brandon details the injury that kept him from playing this week
2026 five-star quarterback Faizon Brandon, a Tennessee Vols commit, is expected to miss several weeks due to an injury to his throwing hand. Brandon led Grimsley High to a big season-opening win against West Charlotte but was sidelined this past Friday for the Whirlies’ game against West Forsyth. The Greensboro, NC native is reportedly dealing […]
