Tennessee football is a quarter of the way through the 2025 season, and freshman offensive lineman David Sanders Jr. has yet to make his college debut. The former five-star was a late scratch in the opener against Syracuse and missed the following game against ETSU. When Georgia came to town last Saturday, he was questionable until game day, when he was ruled out.
Sanders still doesn’t have a timetable for his return, either. On Wednesday, Vols head coach Josh Heupel updated his status during the SEC Coaches Teleconference.
“I don’t know. We’ll see. I talked about that on Monday. It’s something where he’s not necessarily in control of it,” Heupel said. “And when I say that, it’s a unique situation. He’s chomping at the bit. He’s been a great teammate through the adversity. It’s another thing that, in particular, our young guys have to learn or navigate. At some point in this game, everyone gets nicked up. He’s done a great job of mentally staying engaged. As soon as our medical staff clears him, he’ll be ready to go play.”
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This comes a few days after Heupel went into detail about the strange circumstances around his injury. He said he was ‘day-to-day’ and that the injury was ‘unique’.
“A unique injury that doctors are uncertain (on),” Heupel said. “That’s kind of why he’s been day-to-day for a while here. Uncertain, it’s not like a sprained ankle. And I say that meaning there’s not a definitive timeline, so he’s been having to fight through that. Guy wants to be out there. It hurts him badly. Our football team, guys in his position room can see that but he’s been a good teammate too.”
The next chance for Sanders to play is a low-stakes game this Saturday. Tennessee hosts UAB at 12:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network. If he can play, it’d be a nice game to get his feet wet before the bulk of SEC play.
If Sanders is cleared to go soon, it’s unclear what his role would even be, though. On the depth chart, he’s listed as the starting right tackle. However, in his absence, guard Jesse Perry has slid out and done a good job of holding it down. Sham Umarov is on the interior in Perry’s place.
