All for Tennessee
Fansided

Vols Football: Potential Rashaan Gaulden Replacements at Nickel

By Caleb Calhoun

facebooktwitterreddit

The Tennessee Vols football team now has to fill an unexpected void at nickel after Rashaan Gaulden’s season-ending injury. Here are potential replacements.

The middle linebacker position may be close to being solved, but due to Rashaan Gaulden’s injury, the nickel position is wide open now.

And there are up to four guys who could take the spot.

More from Tennessee Volunteers

With Cameron Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley the expected starters at cornerback, the nickel position realistically has two guys who are in the fight for it right now. Junior college transfer Justin Martin is the third and probably the best option by far due to his speed, but he has been sidelined with a sprained knee the past two weeks.

Sutton is another candidate, but remember he is the primary cornerback.

That has left the door open for junior Malik Foreman and freshman Micah Abernathy to fight for the starting spot, according to a report on 247 Sports. Here are quotes from defensive coordinator John Jancek in the article:

"“Malik Foreman has been in there right now, and then obviously Micah, and Cam is getting some work in there — pretty limited at this point,” Jancek said following UT’s practice Wednesday afternoon at Haslam Field.“We’re leaving (Sutton) on the outside, because I think that’s where he best helps us right now. That was a big blow. That was a big blow. But nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. We’re going to move on. The guys have done a great job picking up the slack, and that’s really all you can say.”"

With so many teams adopting more of a spread offense in today’s game, it cannot be underestimated how important the nickel position is in the SEC.

Butch Jones knows that as well as anybody, and injuries to Gaulden and now Martin have made this very difficult. Martin will probably take the job for good when he gets fully healthy, but somebody needs to fill that void the first couple of weeks.

That means Abernathy or Foreman needs to step up.

Next: Middle LB Battle Down to a Freshman and a Walk-On

More from All for Tennessee

Home/Tennessee Volunteers