Tennessee is a mostly healthy football team as they begin fall camp for Josh Heupel’s fourth season as head coach on Wednesday afternoon. But one injury of note to watch is sophomore running back Cam Seldon.
Seldon underwent shoulder surgery in late March that sidelined him for the remainder of spring practice and will limit him throughout fall camp. Meeting with the media to kick off fall practice on Tuesday, Heupel addressed Seldon’s status and his expectation for the sophomore running back this fall.
“Cam’s done a great job during the rehab process,” Heupel said. “He works extremely hard. He’s on pace right now. As we go throughout training camp, his ability to be a part of everything that we’re doing will increase from the beginning to the end of training camp and hope to have him healthy early in the season.”
Seldon enters his sophomore season with a major opportunity in front of him. Junior Dylan Sampson is back and is stepping into the starting running back spot, but both Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small are off to professional football after combining for 232 carries, 1,488 yards and six touchdowns a season ago.
The rising sophomore Seldon is the obvious candidate to step into the larger role this season. He was Tennessee’s fourth running back as a freshman where he totaled 106 yards on 25 carries. A bulk of that work load came in the Citrus Bowl where he totaled 55 yards on 13 carries.
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“The opportunity for Cam, all of our young guys to play more meaningful snaps (in the bowl game) on offense or defense versus some of the roles that they had on special teams throughout the course of it, was really important for them to understand what the game looks and feels like,” Heupel said.
Who steps up as Tennessee’s running back is already one of the bigger questions entering fall practice and Seldon’s uncertain status for the start of the season only makes the battle more important.
Behind Sampson and Seldon are a number of young running backs freshman Peyton Lewis, redshirt freshman DeSean Bishop and sophomore Khalifa Keith. Lewis missed almost the entirety of spring practice with an injury while Bishop missed the entire 2023 season with an injury. Combining health and consistency will be key for that trio as they fight for a consistent role in Tennessee’s offense.
“There’s a couple guys there that missed spring ball,” Heupel said. “Their growth here during training camp will be really important for that position to be as strong as it needs to inside that room.”
Tennessee football opens fall practice on Wednesday morning in helmets only. Stay tuned to RockyTopInsider.com for practice observations and complete coverage of the Vols’ fall camp.
