Tennessee football secondary will be at full strength against NC State

Tennessee football's defensive secondary has been the Achilles heel of past teams under Josh Heupel. The Vols' past teams included a powerful offense but struggled to put some games away because of its defense. 

The Vols have focused on bringing in better players through the transfer portal and traditional recruiting the past couple of seasons to improve the defensive secondary, and this could result in the Vols having the best secondary groups since Heupel came to Knoxville. 

Sophomore cornerback Rickey Gibson III was signed to improve the Vols' secondary. He was a three-star recruit in the 2022 recruiting class and is expected to be an impact player in 2024. 

Tennessee will have Gibson for the NC State game after coaches decided to sit him out of the season opener against Chattanooga. He went through pregame warmups but was a healthy scratch and did not play in the game. 

"It was just felt like for our football team and the longevity, all of it, there were a couple guys that we held out that could have played in that one but will hold for this week," Heupel said when discussing why Gibson did not play against Chattanooga.

Gibson and the Vols secondary will face a far tougher challenge this week with NC State and quarterback Grayson McCall, who transferred after playing five seasons at Coastal Carolina. 

The largely young secondary group could look to make a statement this week against the Wolfpack as they look to shut down their opponent through the air for the second straight week. 

Tennessee and NC State are scheduled to play in primetime on ABC with a 7:30 PM ET kickoff time. They will meet at a neutral site venue in Charlotte, North Carolina, as the Vols look to enter the Tar Heel state and get their first statement win of the season.