Tennessee football entered fall practice with a pair of running backs limited by injuries. Both sophomore Cameron Seldon and freshman Peyton Lewis entered fall camp unable to go through contact after undergoing surgeries earlier this year.
Lewis went through Tennessee’s first fall scrimmage and took contact there but Seldon has remained in a red non contact jersey at practice as he worked his way back from spring shoulder surgery.
Meeting with the media less than two weeks before Tennessee opens up its 2024 season against Chattanooga, Heupel provided a positive update on both running backs.
“Peyton (Lewis) and Cam (Seldon) (are) different because of the timing of their surgeries, but both of them have been exposed to more things throughout the course of training camp,” Heupel said. “Both of those guys are full-go right now. (Dylan Sampson) is in a great spot and Khalifa (Keith). So really excited about that group.”
A reporter asked whether that meant that Seldon had been cleared.
“Yeah, he’s been practicing with us,” Heupel said.
Seldon had been going through large portions of practice all fall camp including essentially the entirety of the portions of the practice open to the media. The big question was whether that he was going through contact during practice which a media member asked Heupel directly.
“The direct questions come from (Knoxville News Sentinel beat writer) Adam (Sparks), not from you (Volquest’s Brent Hubbs),” Heupel joked.
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Hubbs asked Sparks to ask the same question and Heupel responded “yeah. Yes sir” while looking at Hubbs as he exited the press conference. For the record, a moderator already deemed it the final question of the press conference so this was not Heupel storming off.
Watch the full exchange and interpret it for yourself here. But my interpretation is that Heupel was saying that the medical team has cleared Seldon for contact and he was going through full contact portions of practice. How coy Huepel was about the entire sequence gives me some pause on whether that is what he meant as well as the validity of the statement. But I do believe Heupel said Seldon is going through contact at practice.
Getting Seldon fully healthy before the start of the season would be a big win for Tennessee. The depth of its running back room is a question because of the lack of proven running backs behind Dylan Sampson and it seemed up in the air whether Seldon would be healthy for the start of the season.
Seldon is an obvious candidate to step into the larger role this season after impressing in limited opportunities last 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.
Outside of Seldon, Tennessee’s running back room has had an impressive fall practice with a couple players stepping up including redshirt freshman DeSean Bishop. But you can never have too many healthy and capable bodies and Heupel’s update on Seldon is a positive one less than two weeks away from the season opener.
