Tennessee football: Juwan Mitchell season-ending injury to test Vols’ surprising depth
At the beginning of the year, Juwan Mitchell was expected to be one of the top Tennessee football linebackers. That was an area in which the Vols were expected to be extremely thin, especially given the transfers of Henry To’o To’o, Quavaris Crouch and J.J. Peterson, and Mitchell was seen as a guy who could offset that.
Well, sadly, he won’t be able to fill that void the rest of the year. Josh Heupel confirmed in his weekly press conference Monday that Mitchell, who hasn’t played since UT faced the Florida Gators, is now out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Against the Missouri Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks, Tennessee football was fine without Mitchell. Jeremy Banks has stepped up in a huge way the past two weeks, and Solon Page III Aaron Beasley have also made critical plays.
However, the test of the Vols’ depth will be much more on display going forward. We saw what happened with Mitchell limited against Florida. UT could not stop their rushing attack in the second half, and that’s how the Gators pulled away.
The Vols are now about to face the Ole Miss Rebels and Alabama Crimson Tide, two teams with much better offenses than Mizzou or South Carolina. Heck, even after their bye, they’ll face a Kentucky Wildcats team with a more complex offense than Mizzou or South Carolina.
As a result, the Vols’ depth is about to seriously be tested. So far, though, the program has been surprisingly deep, and players across the board have stepped up in a way nobody expected them to at the beginning of the year.
Having depth at linebacker in general has been a shock. Page’s, Beasley’s reliability and Banks’ playmaking as a breakout star were all somewhat unexpected. Aaron Willis is still a four-star linebacker who could step up and fill that void as well.
You can look elsewhere to see where different Vols have stepped up this year, though. Let’s just start with quarterback. Joe Milton III was initially the starter, but he got hurt against the Pittsburgh Panthers. Hendon Hooker came in and has been the starter ever since.
Staying in the backfield, Jabari Small was the starter to open the season, but Evans took over against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. He’s not become the feature back for UT, gaining over 100 yards from scrimmage in each of their past three games.
On the line, Tennessee football struggled severely at first after Cooper Mays got hurt at center. Mays has been banged up all year, but Josh Heupel mixed around some guys, including running Ollie Lane and Jerome Carvin at center, and the unit has been good enough the past two weeks, even if it hasn’t been great.
Look at this past weekend. Theo Jackson has been the Vols’ best defensive player all year, but he was out due to injury. Brandon Turnage came in and filled his spot at nickel, and all he did was win SEC Defensive Player of the Week.
Nobody would have seen the Vols being able to replace guys like this at the beginning of the year. The amount of attrition combined with the coaching change should have limited the number of options Heupel had everywhere. Instead, the Vols are 4-2 with players constantly stepping up.
Next. Grading the Vols in their 45-20 win vs. South Carolina. dark
Obviously, Mitchell’s injury should garner a lot of sympathy. He transferred to Tennessee football and figured to be the star linebacker this year, and fully healthy, he’s still probably the best in the unit. However, this calls for other Vols at that position to continue to step up as the schedule gets tougher. They’ve proven already, in a surprising way, that they can withstand such losses.