State's Lebby, Vols' Heupel tight-lipped until SEC availability reports drop

Bulldogs' and Volunteers' coaches declined to provide any injury updates at their Monday press conferences

Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel talks with secondary coach Willie Martinez after the win over UAB in an NCAA college football game on September 20, 2025, in Knoxville, Tennessee. | Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

STARKVILLE, Miss. — There’ll be plenty of debate about the SEC’s decision-making Tuesday night when each team’s annual opponents are officially announced.

That debate has already started, plus there’s more than one or two Auburn fans questioning the SEC right now, too.

But there is one thing the SEC decided to do that’s a home run decision: requiring teams to issue Player Availability Reports.

That’s what the SEC calls injury reports and requires each team to issue them for all conference games. That starts this week for Mississippi State and its opponent, Tennessee.

It’s great timing because teams have injured players with uncertain statuses. And neither coach is giving anything away before Wednesday’s initial reports.

“From an injury standpoint, really just be as we get into SEC play, with Wednesday being our report date, that's when everything will come out,” Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby said Monday.

“Wednesday will be the official first, whatever, injury report of the week and you can stay tuned from there,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said at his Monday press conference.

Those statements would be Lebby and Heupel’s nice way of letting us scribes know to not even bother asking about players’ statuses.

But injuries will play a key role in Saturday’s game at Davis Wade Stadium.

We already know the Bulldogs are without offensive lineman Blake Steen and the team’s leader in sacks and tackles for a loss Will Whitson.

But there have been other players who have been hurt and missed games. Cornerback Jett Jefferson missed the first three games with an injury, but debuted Saturday against Northern Illinois.

Offensive lineman Albert Reese IV missed the Alcorn State game with an undisclosed injury and fellow lineman Luke Work missed the season-opener against Southern Miss.

Last Saturday against the Huskies, Jahron Manning left the game and didn’t return with a lower leg injury. Also, Brylan Lanier left part of the game with an arm injury.

Those are some key players for Mississippi State who will be hard to replace against what’s easily the best team the Bulldogs have faced this season.

Fortunately for the Bulldogs, Tennessee is dealing with even more injuries.

pic.twitter.com/hUmyzyTNSo

— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) September 20, 2025

For their game against Georgia two weeks ago, the Volunteers listed seven players on its game day availability report, six of whom were listed as out.

That included two of Tennessee’s best defensive backs, Rickey Gibson III and Jermod McCoy, defensive linemen Daevin Hobbs and Jaxson Moi and running back Hunter Barnes.

That’s five of Tennessee’s best players that missed the game against the red-colored Bulldogs.

Reports are hopeful that Tennessee will get some of those players back, but both Gibson and McCoy aren’t expected to be available.

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said he doesn’t have a timetable on the 2025 debut for star cornerback Jermod McCoy (ACL). McCoy has been back on the grass for a while, but medical staff hasn’t cleared him for full-go, 11-on-11 yet.

(And McCoy will be back before Rickey Gibson III.)

— Wes Rucker (@wesruckerTBA) September 15, 2025

That should put a smile on the faces of Brenen Thompson, Jordan Mosley and Anthony Evans III.

We’ll learn more about the status of both Mississippi State and Tennessee’s injured players when the initial Student-Athlete Availability Report is released at 7:10 p.m. Wednesday.