The Tennessee Vols are gearing up for their annual rivalry clash with the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, and as it’s Wednesday night, that means the initial availability report is out for the game.
It was a bit of good news and expected bad news for Tennessee.
Jermod McCoy is indeed out, which isn’t a huge surprise. It doesn’t really seem like he’s super close to being back, and as he’s just 9 months removed from an ACL tear, that’s understandable. Josh Heupel’s comments during Arkansas week about
some not understanding the nature of his situation and the physical demands of his particular position kind of gave credence to that notion.
Travis Smith, Jr. is out, so the wide receiver depth takes a bit of a hit. However, Braylon Staley is apparently cleared after getting dinged up a bit against Arkansas, so that’s a sigh of relief.
RB DeSean Bishop is listed as probable, which goes with Heupel’s previous optimistic comments about his availability for Saturday. Bishop was subject to a hip-drop tackle in the second half against Arkansas, and he left and did not return. It’s a dangerous tackle, one that’s illegal in the NFL, so Tennessee is fortunate that he did not suffer a worse injury than he did. He has become a crucial part of the offense, so getting him back would be a big boost going into Saturday.
We’ll see if there are any changes going into the weekend, but as of now, that’s about as good as you could reasonably expect on the injury front, particularly after a physical game against Arkansas that saw a handful of players get nicked up a bit.
