Speaking during the open date, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel expressed optimism that the Vols would get offensive tackles Lance Heard and John Campbell back from injury against Arkansas.
One week later and that looks to be the case as Tennessee didn’t include either Heard or Campbell on its initial availability report for this weekend’s matchup at Arkansas. The availability report is effectively an injury report with players on it listed as either out, doubtful, questionable or probable.
While Tennessee could add players to the report later in the week, the fact that neither Heard nor Campbell were on the Wednesday report is a very good sign about their availability for the SEC matchup Saturday night in Fayetteville.
Heard missed each of Tennessee’s last two games with an ankle injury. There was optimism that the LSU transfer would return against Oklahoma after missing the Kent State game. But the Vols’ starting left tackle wasn’t able to go. After another week of rest with the open date, Heard is making his return in Fayetteville.
Campbell is a more interesting case. A lingering knee injury has plagued Tennessee’s starting right tackle all season and he hasn’t played more than 37 snaps in a game all season with the Vols rotating Dayne Davis in at his spot for much of the season.
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The super senior offensive lineman played the first 34 snaps of the Oklahoma game before suffering an injury in the second quarter that sidelined him the rest of the game.
Davis and Larry Johnson are Tennessee’s third and fourth offensive tackles and are shaky. Davis has more experience but his performance has been up-and-down. He particularly struggled against Oklahoma while Johnson performed well in one of his first games with meaningful experience.
With both of Tennessee’s offensive tackles injured against Oklahoma, Josh Heupel called a conservative game offensively. Tennessee stuck to the run game and didn’t take many offensive risks after building a two-score lead t halftime.
Facing an Arkansas pass defense that’s been susceptible this season and both of Tennessee’s starting offensive tackles healthy, the Vols could be more aggressive in the passing game than they have at any point this season.
Kickoff between Tennessee and Arkansas is at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night at D.W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe are on the call for ABC.
