Tennessee defensive end Tyree Weathersby is off the injury report and is going to give it a go in the Vols’ SEC opener against Georgia Saturday afternoon. Weathersby missed Tennessee’s matchup against ETSU last week and the Vols listed him as “questionable” on the previous three availability reports this week.
Weathersby is a redshirt sophomore defensive end who played sparingly a season ago after an injury cost him the entirety of his freshman season. He was Tennessee’s backup strongside defensive end against Syracuse where he played a career-high 45 snaps and earned a strong PFF grade.
Head coach Josh Heupel rarely goes into much detail when discussing injuries but had expressed optimism earlier in the week that Weathersby would be able to go including Thursday afternoon on the Mike Keith Show.
“Yeah, we anticipate most of those guys will be ready to go,” Heupel said of Weathersby and Jaxson Moi the Mike Keith Show Thursday. “We get to kick off and whoever is in the ball game has got to do a great job of winning their one-on-ones. And when you’re getting doubled, holding the point, not allowing them to scrape off and get off on their second level fitters or linebackers or safety for a single high too. But nobody different than what you’ve already seen. Anticipate those guys being ready to go.”
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Despite the optimism, Moi is out for the rivalry showdown against Georgia after suffering an injury the third play of Tennessee’s win over Syracuse.
While Weathersby did not suffer an obvious injury against Syracuse, he did not play a week ago against ETSU. The Georgia native’s status is all the more important because starting defensive tackle Jaxson Moi is out for the second straight game.
With Moi sidelined the last two weeks, Tennessee strongside defensive end Dominic Bailey has played more defensive tackle. Weathersby being ready to go allows Tennessee to slide Bailey inside and for Weathersby and Tyre West to play the bulk of the snaps at defensive end.
Tennessee is down a number of key players against Georgia including Moi, defensive tackle Daevin Hobbs, right tackle David Sanders as well as cornerbacks Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson. Georgia is down one key starter in freshman right guard Juan Gaston.
Kickoff between Tennessee and Georgia is at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe are on the call for ABC.
