Tennessee to be without key defensive starter for ‘extended period’ of time
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Tennessee coach Josh Heupel announced some unfortunate injury news on Monday morning.
Starting cornerback Rickey Gibson III will miss an “extended period” of time after he sustained an injury against Syracuse on Saturday. Heupel didn’t provide additional context into how long Gibson will be out, but it seems he could be in line to miss multiple games.
It’s a tremendous loss for the Volunteers, who are already going to be without All-American cornerback Jermod McCoy to start the season. McCoy is still recovering from offseason knee surgery and is hopeful to contribute at some point this season.
Tennessee did get a good performance out of Colton Hood on Saturday against the Orange. Hood scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery and was named an SEC Player of the Week for his efforts.
When Gibson went down, he was replaced by true freshman Tyler Redmond. With McCoy and Gibson likely to miss multiple weeks, it seems the Vols’ secondary will be reliant on Hood and Redmond to shut down opposing wide receivers for the foreseeable future.
That could become problematic sooner rather than later. Tennessee is set to host a talented Georgia team on Sept. 13 in its SEC opener.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
