Vol fans were excited to see what junior wide receiver Jauan Jennings would do as Tennessee’s No. 1 receiver heading into the 2017 season. But unfortunately for both Vol fans and Jennings, that never really happened.
Jennings injured his wrist in the first half of the Vols’ season opener against Georgia Tech this year, and that injury ended up sidelining Jennings for the entire 2017 season. He finished this year with just three catches for 17 yards.
But according to Louis Fernandez of WBIR Sports in Knoxville, Jennings will be returning to the Vols in 2018. And he made quite the strong statement during his announcement as well.
Fernandez claims that Jennings made an announcement during a live Instagram video that he will be returning for the Vols’ 2018 season next year. Fernandez also claims that Jennings said the Vols would go undefeated next year upon his return. We say “claims” on all this because the video hasn’t been saved on Instagram and there appears to be no copy of the video anywhere for now. We will keep you updated if the video can be found.
Jauan Jennings on his Instagram live video just now, says he’s coming back next year and Tennessee is going undefeated.
— Louis Fernandez Jr (@LouisWBIR) November 15, 2017
Jennings entered this season coming off a breakout sophomore campaign in 2016. Jennings hauled in 40 passes for 580 yards and seven touchdowns in 2016, trailing only Josh Malone in all three categories on the team. Jennings had two of the biggest catches of Tennessee’s 2016 season as well. He famously burned Florida cornerback Jalen “Teez” Tabor for a touchdown during the Vols’ 38-28 victory over the Gators, and he caught the Hail Mary pass that propelled the Vols over Georgia in Athens.
If Jennings does, in fact, return in 2018, he will be the lone senior in the receiving corps. That’s also assuming he isn’t taking a medical redshirt this season. If he does, he’ll still be the only fourth year player among the Vols’ scholarship wideouts next season.
