Tennessee freshman offensive tackle David Sanders is sitting on the Volunteer bench with a jersey over street clothes and is not going through pregame warmups ahead of the Vols’ season-opener against Syracuse.
A five-star freshman and top 10 recruit, Sanders is Tennessee football’s starting right tackle entering the season. His apparent unavailability is a surprise with Sanders being healthy throughout camp. According to Volquest’s Austin Price, Sanders suffered an injury this week in practice and is not expected to miss much time this season.
It’s not completely certain who will start in Sanders’ place at right tackle. Tennessee lists Brian Grant as Sanders’ backup on its official depth chart.
But expect right guard Jesse Perry to slide out to right tackle in Sanders’ absence. Wendell Moe Jr will move from left guard to right guard while Sham Umarov starts at left guard. Sam Pendleton will still start at center.
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Sanders was the crown jewel of Tennessee’s 2025 recruiting class as the Vols outlasted Ohio State to land the blue-chip offensive tackle. Starting at offensive tackle as a true freshman is an incredibly tough task but Sanders had set himself up for success, adding 40 pounds to his thin frame over the offseason.
Perry is a redshirt freshman who created strong buzz in preseason for “always doing the right thing.” Moe transferred in from Arizona earlier this offseason after two years starting for the Wildcats. Umarov is a redshirt sophomore guard who has played sparingly to this point in his career.
Tennessee is relatively healthy ahead of its season opener. The only other expected absences are cornerback Jermod McCoy and defensive tackle Daevin Hobbs. McCoy is a Preseason All-American cornerback who is still recovering from a torn ACL injury he suffered back in January. Hobbs is Tennessee’s third defensive tackle and suffered a foot injury in fall camp that will sideline him for the first few weeks of the season.
The Vols are healthy favorites against Syracuse in the Aflac Kickoff Classic. DraftKings set the line at Tennessee -13.5 Syracuse with the over under set at 51.5.
Kickoff between Tennessee and Syracuse is at noon ET. Bob Wischusen, Louis Riddick and Kris Budden are on the call for ABC.
