{"id":213545,"date":"2025-10-10T05:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T05:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/213545\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T05:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T05:38:09","slug":"arkansas-tennessee-reveal-status-of-key-players-on-thursday-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/213545\/","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas, Tennessee reveal status of key players on Thursday report"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, No. 12\u00a0Tennessee<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Arkansas<\/a>\u00a0will square off at 4:15 p.m. ET in Knoxville. It will mark the Volunteers\u2019 third conference game of the season, while this will mark SEC game No. 2 for the Razorbacks. It is however\u00a0Arkansas\u2018 first game with\u00a0Bobby Petrino<\/a>\u00a0as its head coach since its 29-16 win over\u00a0Kansas State<\/a>\u00a0in the 2012 Cotton Bowl Classic (Jan. 6, 2012).<\/p>\n

Former head coach\u00a0Sam Pittman<\/a>\u00a0was relieved of his duties following\u00a0Arkansas\u2018 embarrassing 56-13 loss to\u00a0Notre Dame<\/a>\u00a0prior to last weekend\u2019s bye. This elevated Petrino, who was in the midst of his second season as\u00a0Arkansas\u2018 Offensive Coordinator, to interim head coach. During his first stint in Fayetteville (2008-2011), Petrino was 1-0 against\u00a0Tennessee\u00a0with a 49-7 victory on Nov. 12, 2011.<\/p>\n

Heading into that matchup, both teams are dealing with injuries. For both teams\u2019\u00a0updated\u00a0availability reports, look below.<\/p>\n

No. 12 Tennessee Volunteers (4-1, 1-1)<\/p>\n

Arkansas Razorbacks (2-3, 0-1)<\/p>\n

Tennessee\u00a0head coach\u00a0Josh Heupel<\/a>\u00a0said Monday that All-American cornerback\u00a0Jermod McCoy\u00a0\u201ccontinues to do a great job in his rehab\u201d, but did not offer up a timeline for his return. Sources tell On3\u2019s Chris Low and Pete Nakos that McCoy is unlikely to play against\u00a0Arkansas, and his \u2018OUT\u2019 designation on Thursday\u2019s availability report further confirms that.<\/p>\n

On3 previously reported that this week\u2019s Arkansas game was a target date for a possible return. But McCoy has not gone through a full practice and has not taken any contact yet, as\u00a0Volquest\u2019s Brent Hubbs previously reported<\/a>. The projected First Round pick in the upcoming NFL Draft is still recovering from a January ACL tear.<\/p>\n

Both\u00a0Arkansas\u00a0and No. 12\u00a0Tennessee\u00a0are coming off bye weeks. The Volunteers held off\u00a0Mississippi State<\/a>\u00a041-34 in overtime on the road in Starkville prior to their bye, while the Hogs fell to\u00a0Notre Dame\u00a0in that aforementioned bloodbath in Fayetteville.\u00a0Tennessee\u00a0improved to 1-1 in conference play with its win over the Bulldogs, as it fell to No. 6\u00a0Georgia<\/a>\u00a044-41 in overtime on Sept. 13 in its first SEC game of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If kicker\u00a0Max Gilbert<\/a>\u00a0was able to drill the game-winning 43-yard field goal, the \u2018Vols would likely be ranked inside the top-six heading into this game. Instead, they sit ranked No. 12 in the nation but could continue their rise up the polls with a convincing win over the Hogs this weekend.<\/p>\n

Tennessee boasts one of best offenses in SEC, Arkansas boasts worst offense in SEC<\/p>\n

Tennessee\u00a0boasts (statistically) the second best offense in the SEC (536.4 YPG).\u00a0Arkansas meanwhile, by a wide margin, is the worst defense (statistically) in the SEC (425.0 YPG).\u00a0Josh Heupel\u2018s team has scored at least 40 points in all five of its games this season (averaging 51.0 PPG), while the Hogs have allowed at least 30 points in all three of its games against Power-Four competition this season (41.0 PPG average).<\/p>\n

Unless the Razorback defense is sparked by the firing of defensive coordinator\u00a0Travis Williams<\/a>, Saturday\u2019s game could see yet another big performance from\u00a0Tennessee\u2018s offense. Williams was replaced by\u00a0Chris Wilson<\/a>, who was in the midst of his first season as\u00a0Arkansas\u2018 assistant defensive line coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all got to learn that there\u2019s change and things that happen,\u201d Petrino said about Williams\u2019 firing. \u201cI think in football you have to always talk about courage and being courageous. That\u2019s part of what we have to do now as a team is understand that\u00a0we all have to take the arrow in the forehead.\u201d<\/p>\n

These two programs have met 20 times previously.\u00a0Tennessee\u00a0leads the all-time series 13-7, but\u00a0Arkansas\u00a0has won four consecutive games against the Volunteers dating back to 2011. The Razorbacks won last season\u2019s meeting 19-14 over the then No. 4 ranked \u2018Vols and rushed the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, No. 12\u00a0Tennessee\u00a0and\u00a0Arkansas\u00a0will square off at 4:15 p.m. ET in Knoxville. It will mark the Volunteers\u2019 third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-213545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}