It’s been a tough offseason for Tennessee senior linebacker Arion Carter.

Carter had offseason surgery on a fully ruptured MTP joint and plantar plate, and then he was suspended for the first game of the season (initially three games before getting reduced to two games and then one game) by the NCAA for a $427 flight (which he repaid) that he took before he withdrew from the 2026 NFL Draft in January.

The Tennessee native said on Monday that head coach Josh Heupel having his back helped him get through the tumultuous offseason.

“Playing for a coach like that, I wouldn’t trade anybody in the world for him,” said Carter of Heupel. “Over the course of these last eight months, I’ve been through a lot, and he’s had my back from the start all the way up to now. And without him and guys like him — the support staff and the coaches that we have here — I don’t know if I would be able to get through it.

“But having guys like that and having a coach like that who’s in your corner, that’s able to stick with you through thick and thin and understand from being a player himself the type of pressure that you have on you every single day to go out there and perform, and to know that he’s backing you throughout the whole way…man, I’m just so grateful to have a coach like that. I appreciate Coach Heupel.”

Heupel called Carter Tennessee’s “strongest leader” on Monday.

“He’s the strongest leader in our locker room,” said Heupel. “He represents Tennessee in the exact way that I and our administration, our staff would want somebody to represent Tennessee.”

Carter is turning the suspension into a positive by donating $427 to cancer treatment for every tackle he makes this season.

Pretty incredible stuff from a pretty incredible human.