Josh Heupel shares multiple Tennessee injury updates

Tennessee is getting healthier heading into its final game of the regular season.

Vols coach Josh Heupel updated the availability of multiple players ahead of Saturday’s rivalry game against Vanderbilt.

Heupel was asked specifically about defensive back Jourdan Thomas, defensive back Tamarion McDonald and defensive back Wesley Walker.

McDonald and Walker missed Saturday’s game against Georgia, while Thomas was injured during the first quarter. Heupel shared their status for this weekend’s game during his press conference on Monday.

“We were hoping that T Mac would be ready to go. As we went through warm-ups he just wasn’t in a position to play. Hope to have those guys ready to go in this one,” Heupel said. “Wesley’s probably more questionable than the other guys.”

So far this season, McDonald has 40 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and an interception. Thomas, who replaced McDonald in the starting lineup this past weekend against Georgia, has 15 tackles and one tackle for loss. Walker is third on the team with 53 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss.

Josh Heupel shares why Nico Iamaleava didn’t play against Georgia

Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava could still redshirt his freshman season with only three appearances in 2023. However, that thought isn’t the only reason he didn’t see the field against Georgia this past weekend, according to Josh Heupel.

During his postgame press conference, Heupel noted that that plan may have played into why the five-star freshman didn’t take any snaps against the Bulldogs on Saturday. With that said, with the Volunteers down as much as 28, he said they also wanted to be careful about what circumstances that they just dropped him into against the No. 1 team in the nation.

“Well, at this point, just because there’s only one regular season (game left)?” said Heupel. “There’s a lot of variables that are taking place outside on that field today and what type of situation we want to put him in.”

Iamaleava made his trio of appearances against Virginia in the season opener, versus UTSA in their fourth game, and against UConn in the first game of November. In that time, he has completed seven passes on 14 attempts for 97 yards and a touchdown. Essentially all of that production came in the 56-point blowout of the Huskies as he went 5-9 for 89 yards and the score.

With one game to go and a bowl matchup as well, Iamaleava may find himself out there at least one more time before the end of the season. Still, with him as the program’s future at quarterback, there’s plenty of reasons that Heupel and the Vols have to consider when it comes to when or how they may employ him.