The senior tight end for the Tennessee football Volunteers shared the news on Twitter.
In what could be a setback for Tennessee football heading into 2020, rising fifth-year senior tight end Austin Pope revealed that he underwent surgery Thursday morning. He gave no timetable for a return to action.
Pope, who stands at 6’4″ 235 pounds, said he herniated another disc in his back. He had undergone back surgery during last year’s offseason as well and battled numerous minor injuries throughout the 2019 season, including a partially torn hamstring.
Despite playing the year through those injuries, Pope managed to start as the No. 2 tight end through 11 games. As a result, this could be a huge setback for him and Tennessee football. He announced the news with a post on Twitter.
Tough times don’t last, tough people do. pic.twitter.com/2ixcqeJYYo
— Austin Pope (@Austin_Pope31) July 16, 2020
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Coming out of Christian Academy in Knoxville, Pope redshirted as a freshman in 2016 and then saw limited action over the past three years. Heading into this year, he was in line to be the No. 1 starting tight end this year after the departure of Dominick Wood-Anderson.
Over the past two years, Pope served primarily as a blocking tight end in Jeremy Pruitt’s system and just had four receptions for 21 yards last year. However, he was always an elite run blocker and was even able to line up in the fullback position at times.
Taking that into account along with the fact that he is by far the most experienced tight end on the roster, this injury raises concerns for Rocky Top. Rising redshirt junior Princeton Fant, has the most experience outside of Pope at 6’2″ 234 pounds.
Fant, however, is a player who converted to tight end two years ago. The same is true for rising senior Jordan Allen, who missed all of last year due to a nagging injury and then converted to tight end in the offseason. Allen stands at 6’4″ 241 pounds.
Behind Allen and Fant, Tennessee football has redshirt sophomore Jacob Warren and redshirt freshmen Sean Brown and Jackson Lowe. All of them were recruited with lots of hype but have proven very little. If Pope is a no-go, however, they may be thrust into a major role. We’ll have to wait and see on the details of everything.