Report: Tennessee OL Andrej Karic denied medical waiver by NCAA

Tennessee offensive lineman Andrej Karic has been denied a medical waiver by the NCAA to play an extra year of eligibility in 2025, according to Adam Sparks of the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Karic started all 13 games for Tennessee at left guard this season. A product of the 2020 recruiting class, he spent five seasons at the collegiate level, transferring to Tennessee after spending his first three collegiate years as part of the Texas Longhorns program.

He has since signed with Capital Sports Advisors and is preparing for the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft.

Karic was denied his waiver despite suffering a season-ending injury during his first season with the Vols in 2023. He started four games for Tennessee that season, and in the fifth game of the season, went down with the ailment after taking just five snaps.

Those extra five snaps forfeited his medical redshirt that season and had to bite the bullet of losing that season of eligibility. In the end, the circumstances of his 2023 season were not deemed to be enough to allow Karic a sixth season of eligibility.

Now that Karic has been denied his waiver, the Volunteers will lose four of their five starters from last season with Karic, Cooper Mays, Javontez Spraggins and John Campbell. Mays and Spraggins were All-SEC caliber offensive linemen.

Before transferring to Tennessee, Karic began his career at Texas. In his final season with the Longhorns in 2022, he appeared in all 12 games for Texas this season but was the second choice at right tackle behind freshman eventual superstar Kelvin Banks. With Banks locking down the spot, the talented OL decided to take his talents elsewhere.

Urban Meyer tabs Tennessee as his national championship dark horse in 2025

During a recent lookahead discussion about the 2025 college football season, Urban Meyer was asked for his top “dark horse” candidate to potentially win the College Football Playoff National Championship.

But rather than pick a team, the former Florida and Ohio State head coach’s mind first went to the quarterback he expected could lead that “dark horse” charge.

“Nico (Iamaleava), the quarterback at Tennessee,” Meyer said on Wednesday’s episode of The Triple Option podcast with Rob Stone and Mark Ingram. “I remember when I first started studying them last year and I called Brady Quinn and Matt Leinart and said, ‘What am I missing here? This guy looks like a bonafide … he looks like Aaron Rodgers.’ The ball comes out of his hand like a tennis ball.”

On3’s Alex Byington contributed to this report.