Tennessee DB Jourdan Thomas to miss entire 2024 season after Saturday knee injury

Tennessee defensive back Jourdan Thomas is expected to miss the entire 2024 season with a knee injury, VolQuest reports. The injury will require surgery.

Thomas played 12 games including one start for the Vols in 2023. He recorded 18 tackles and a blocked punt across 219 total snaps. He played 74 of those snaps against Missouri, where he logged a career-high seven tackles during the game.

As a freshman in 2022, he appeared in all 13 games for Tennessee. He spent most of his time on special teams, but would see action on defense in blowouts and even had a season-high four tackles against a ranked Kentucky squad later in the year.

Thomas, who was expected to compete for major playing time at safety this season, will now be sidelined as he nurses he knee back to 100 percent. It does open the door for someone like true freshman Boo Carter to step up and take on a larger role than expected during his first season on Rocky Top. However, head coach Josh Heupel moves around his secondary remains to be seen.

Carter was the No. 111 overall player in the 2024 class and No. 3 ATH, but the Chattanooga native will play safety for Huepel and the Vols during his freshman year. It’s unclear what role he’ll have now that Thomas is out, but he’s a name to watch out for in the Vols’ secondary.

For Thomas, he was a three-star recruit in the 2023 class, per the On3 Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. While his ranking is much lower than Carter’s, Thomas has two full years of experience under head coach Josh Heupel. Given his performance last season as well, it appeared that Thomas was in for a bit of a breakout season as a starter in Knoxville.

While that will have to wait until next season, the Vols must move forward in their preparation for the 2024 regular season, which begins against Chattanooga on Saturday. Aug. 31 at home. The game will air live on the SEC Network.

After that, they’ll take on NC State in the Duke Mayo’s Classic in Week 2. Their conference schedule also features matchups against Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia — which means the Vols will have their work cut out for them during Nico Iamaleava‘s first season as Tennessee’s full-time starting quarterback.