The Tennessee Vols were dealt a Royal Flush of bad news this week.

We learned on Monday that defensive lineman Tyree Weathersby, who leads Tennessee in sacks, will miss the rest of the season after tearing his ACL in the win over Kentucky last Saturday.

Then on Thursday, it was reported that starting left guard Nic Moore will miss this weekend’s game against Texas A&M due to an illness.

And on Friday, news broke that backup running back Daune Morris, who had a 66 yard rushing touchdown against Kentucky, will miss the rest of the season after suffering a broken leg in a car crash early Friday morning.

All three injuries are big losses for the Vols. Losing Moore and Weathersby, though, are probably the biggest losses (and that’s no slight toward Morris — it’s just that DeSean Bishop is the bellcow in Tennessee’s backfield).

VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs covered on Friday morning during an appearance on 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will how Tennessee will handle Moore’s absence (you can read about that here).

Hubbs also touched on how the Vols could replace Weathersby.

“The question is how much confidence and trust do they have in a guy like Hezekiah Harris, the freshman from Alabama?” said Hubbs. “He played four snaps last week. He had three tackles at the end of the game after Weathersby went out. But you’re on the road and you’ve got to play all your responsibilities — you can’t freelance. He’s not played a bunch this year. He’s super talented. I mean, he’s maybe the most talented defensive end on the roster in terms of raw talent. But do you have enough trust in him at this point to go on the road in College Station and go execute at a high level? If not, then it’s got to be Mariyon Dye (who steps up).

“And then the other one is Jordan Norman. And Norman’s done some really good things — he just hasn’t finished at the quarterback as well as you would like. He’ll tell you that he’s probably missed four sacks this year. It’s maybe more like two or three. But he’s had some opportunities to get the quarterback down, and he’s either gone a little high or his angle’s been a little off, and he’s just missed. That’s a guy that you want to step up and be really effective. He’s the one. He’s probably the most important guy this week. Can you go from 15 snaps out of Jordan Norman to 25 or 30 snaps out of Jordan Norman and have production there? Because Weathersby was playing at an NFL draft level when he got hurt.”

Norman, who is in his first season at Tennessee after transferring from Tulane, has 2.5 sacks this season (only half a sack came in SEC play).

Weathersby going down is a huge loss for the Vols. They have some talented options who can fill the void, and those options will need to step up on Saturday in College Station.