The Tennessee Volunteers’ defense enters fall camp, which begins on Wednesday, with a big hole in its defense with Jermod McCoy still recovering from a torn ACL from January.
One of the biggest questions entering the season is how quickly McCoy can get back on the field for the Big Orange. As Josh Heupel noted on Tuesday at his press conference, there’s not a defined timetable, but they’re gradually working him back and making sure he can hit particular physical marks before he can get back onto the field.
“No timetables on him. There’s benchmarks, things that he’s got to accomplish within our training room to move on to the next phase of it. He’s handled it really well from the very beginning. Just his mindset, how he’s approached every single day. He’s done a really good job throughout the course of the summer. Periodically, you can see his drills, movement, explosive-type drills that he’s doing. Change, based on his rehab protocol, and he’s handled it extremely well. As we go through training camp, there will be a progression. How his body responds to some of those things will kind of dictate the time period of when he’s available for us.”
Thus, it doesn’t sound like you’re going to see McCoy on the field to start camp, and if you do, it’s likely individual work with a trainer or otherwise in a rehab situation. But given the timetable for an ACL tear for many players, which can be 8-9 months or longer in some cases, that’s not a surprise.
McCoy was tremendous in 2024 for the Vols, earning AP First Team All-SEC and Second Team All-American honors for the Vols, as well as making it to the semifinal round of the Jim Thorpe Award. He earned a Pro Football Focus defensive grade of 87.0 last year, with a sterling mark of 89.6 in coverage.