One of the stranger aspects to the first three weeks of Tennessee football’s season has been the status of five-star freshman offensive tackle David Sanders who has yet to make his collegiate debut.
Sanders suffered the injury in practice the week of the Syracuse game and Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel noted after the game that he believed he would be back the next week against ETSU. But doctors still have not cleared Sanders to play and the non traditional aspect of the injury makes it unclear when they will.
“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 “unique” aspect of the injury means that he could return this week against UAB or it could be multiple weeks until he makes his college debut.
“He’s been day-to-day. He’s not in control of it,” Heupel said. “Our medical staff is doing everything they can. It’s a little bit of an unknown timeframe. Could wake up tomorrow ready to go. He’s had, some times, some healing and we hope that happens before we get to Saturday.”
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Sanders is listed on the depth chart as a starter at right tackle, but hasn’t been able to play a snap to this point. With Sanders sidelined, Tennessee has opted to go to the same starting offensive line without him. This has featured Jesse Perry at right tackle, Wendell Moe Jr. at right guard, Sam Pendleton at center, Shamurad Umarov at left guard and Lance Heard at left tackle.
Perry, a redshirt freshman who was poised to start at right guard, has performed very well in Sanders’ absence. The Murfreesboro native has been one of the SEC’s best offensive linemen to this point in the season and earned the best pass block grade of any Tennessee offensive lineman against Georgia.
Still, adding Sanders to the fold would be a major boost to Tennessee’s offensive line room and the injury has been tough mentally for the talented freshman.
“Mentally, I think anytime anybody in this game gets injured and isn’t clear to play, it’s a tough battle, mentally,” Heupel said. “You grow, you compete, you strain to get yourself prepared to go play. He has certainly done that. … I think as a young guy, staying the course through something that’s a bit unknown is hard. He’s done a good job through it. He has to continue to do that and hopefully our doctors clear him at some point relatively clearly.”
Sanders was the top ranked player in Tennessee football’s 2025 recruiting class, ranking as a five-star recruit and the No. 6 player in the country according to the 247sports composite rankings.
