Tennessee football listed some good and bad news on its initial availability report vs. Kentucky. The good news: freshman wide receiver Radarious Jackson has been upgraded to questionable after missing a string of games with injury. The bad news: freshman wide receiver Travis Smith Jr. remains ruled out.
The duo, who are the first two outside options off the bench, weren’t able to go against Arkansas or Alabama these past two weekends. Jackson is dealing with an upper-body injury, while Smith is nursing a lower-body blow.
While Tennessee will have its three starting receivers in Chris Brazzell, Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley, both its backups on the outside are still in jeopardy of missing this game. This puts Trey Weary in a position to get the snaps on the outside if either receiver needs to miss any snaps that the Vols are in 11 personnel for. However, in both the win over the Razorbacks and loss to the Tide, Weary didn’t get on the field on offense.
Tennessee is also possibly going to be without one of its tight ends, which will make going to 12 personnel much more difficult. Ethan Davis, who has missed four straight games, is listed as questionable. Without him, freshman Jack Van Dorselaer got some snaps against Mississippi State, Arkansas and Alabama, along with the large load for Miles Kitselman.
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This year, Smith has caught three passes for 29 yards. He is still on the hunt for the first touchdown of his career. All of his catches have come in the games vs. ETSU and UAB, making him also still looking to get on the stat sheet in a Power Four contest.
Smith has been one of the first players off the bench at wide receiver, though. The issue is that UT has opted to go almost solely with the starters and hasn’t gone much to the bench. When they have, it’s typically been Jackson first. On the year, Jackson has recorded four catches for 40 yards.
Kickoff between Tennessee and Kentucky is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. ET. The game in Lexington will air on SEC Network.
