Every week, Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel is asked to update the injury status of a player. Every week, his response is to tell reporters to take a look at the injury report that is released on the following Wednesday. This was no different when he was asked about the status of defensive tackle Jaxson Moi heading into the Vols’ game at Mississippi State.
“Jaxson continues to get better,” Heupel said. “Wednesday will be the official, first injury report of the week. And then you can stay tuned from there.”
Moi has played in just one game this season before suffering an injury. Against Syracuse, he exited after just three snaps and did not return to the game. Heupel ruled him out early in the week before hosting ETSU, but listed him as questionable for the contest against Georgia. Ultimately, he was downgraded to doubtful before being ruled out. He also did not play against UAB this past Saturday.
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Moi was a starter at defensive tackle in the opener alongside Bryson Eason. Without Moi, Tennessee has slid in defensive end Dominic Bailey to start on the interior, instead. In relief, Nathan Robinson, Ethan Utley and Jamal Wallace have gotten the majority of snaps.
This has raised the importance of positive play from the other defensive ends to replace Bailey. Tyre West, Tyree Weathersby and Mariyon Dye have been the ones to get snaps there, although West did miss the game against UAB this past week.
Another defensive lineman who could be returning sooner rather than later from injury is Daevin Hobbs. He suffered a preseason blow that has held him out for the entire year so far. Heupel did give a somewhat positive update on Moi and Hobbs on The Mike Keith Show last week.
“Moi, day to day. Hobbs continues to do a really good job in his rehab,” Heupel said. “So, how fast that progresses here, I can’t give you an answer today. But he’s done a really good job. Hopefully, we’ll have him back soon, too.”
Kickoff in Starkville is set for 4:15 p.m. ET and will air on SEC Network. The first injury report will be released at 8:10 p.m. ET, and we’ll have all the injury news at RockyTopInsider.com.
