Tennessee defensive lineman Emmanuel Okoye will miss the remainder of the 2024 season with a knee injury, according to a report.

That news was broken by VolQuest’s Austin Price on Monday. The report says Okoye, who has yet to play in a game for the Vols in his career, suffered a torn ACL toward the end of fall camp.

Okoye was expected to be a reserve defensive lineman for Tennessee this season, but he was not necessarily going to play a significant role on defense in 2024. Okoye moved positions from tight end to defensive line.

Okoye is a longterm development project for Tennessee. He arrived in Knoxville as a 4-star prospect from the NFL Academy in London. He was originally discovered by scouts at a football identification camp in Abuja, Nigeria, back in 2022.

Okoye was the No. 443 overall player in the country for the class of 2023, per 247Sports Composite rankings.

Even with this injury setback, Okoye still has plenty of longterm potential as a college football player. He’s listed at 6-foot-5, 243 pounds. Okoye will presumably be able to take a medical redshirt for this season and still have 4 years of eligibility remaining at the collegiate level.

Josh Heupel and the Vols will face NC State in Charlotte in Week 2.