HOOVER, Ala. – Butch Jones addressed the injury status of sophomore defensive tackle Shy Tuttle on Tuesday afternoon as the Vols made the rounds at SEC Media Days.
“We’re hopeful,” Jones said when asked if Tuttle can be back at the Right now he’ll actually start running next week. He’s gone through all the strength and conditioning activities. But for him, it’s going to be how much he can handle. I see him more being available near the middle of training camp. The thing we can’t do is rush it.
Jason McVeigh, our training staff, has done a great job and Shy has done a great job of getting where he’s at, but we’ll monitor it day-by-day when training camp hits, but we just have to do a great job monitoring his activity.”
Tuttle, a former highly-touted recruit coming out of high school, appeared in six games as a true freshman in 2015, recording 10 tackles, a fumble recovery, a QB hurry and a blocked kick in his rotational work.
His season ended on Oct. 10 against Georgia when he broke his fibula against Georgia. Tuttle is expected to be a big part of a defensive tackle rotation in 2016 that includes Kahlil McKenzie, Danny O’Brien and Kendal Vickers.
“And as we know, it’s a defensive-line activated league,” Jones added. “Every great defense stems with winning the line of scrimmage battle up front, and you have to be able to do that especially at the defensive tackle position, especially having a three technique that can win a one-on-one matchup in the pass rush game.
“Shy has proven that he can do that for us. It’s getting him back to health and he’s worked very hard on that, and he’s going to be a welcome addition back because that is a position where we still have limited depth in our football program.”
Jones also confirmed that there’s been no change in the status of suspended defensive tackle Alexis Johnson.
