When Tennessee football met Syracuse for the season-opener on Saturday, it had a surprise late scratch on the offensive line. Starting right tackle David Sanders Jr., a former five-star, missed what would’ve been his college debut due to injury. Instead, Jesse Perry slid out from guard to tackle, and Sham Umarov filled in the gap Perry’s change created.
After the game, Vols head coach Josh Heupel said that Sanders was injured late in practice on Wednesday. The anticipation was that Sanders would be fine to play on Saturday, but the morning of, he was ruled out by the team’s medical staff. He was still in attendance, but was not dressed out to play.
As a response, Perry made the move from guard to right tackle to oppose left tackle Lance Heard. With the pair doing a good job, Sanders seemingly played a part. He went into a bit of a coaching role while inactive on game day.
“I think he handled it pretty well,” Perry said. “Of course, it’s disappointing he didn’t get to play on his first game. On the sideline, he was still out there having some leadership to him, even as a young guy. You don’t see that very often, out there hyping us up. Just trying to give us some coaching points to me and Lance (Heard). When we were out there and came back to the sideline, like, ‘Hey, I’m seeing this.’ Just trying to help communicate some stuff that (Glen) Elarbee was giving us.”
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With ETSU in town for the home opener this week, it creates an interesting decision for Heupel and his staff. On one hand, you could use the game as an opportunity for Sanders to get his feet wet in a game format within the offense. With little pressure, he could gain some confidence with Georgia coming to town the following week.
On the other hand, Sanders could sit out a second straight week in an effort to get fully healthy for the massive SEC test of the Bulldogs coming to Knoxville.
If Sanders doesn’t play, it’s safe to assume Tennessee runs it back with the same five on the offensive line to get the game started. UT rushed for 246 yards on 40 carries, totaling three rushes over 20 yards, including a 47-yard DeSean Bishop run against the Orange. Just as importantly, Tennessee protected quarterback Joey Aguilar well.
Syracuse didn’t record a single sack and rarely pressured Aguilar as the Tennessee quarterback completed 16-of-28 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns.
