Report: Vols Likely Without LB Juwan Mitchell Against Pitt

Tennessee will likely be without veteran linebacker Juwan Mitchell, according to a report from WBIR. Mitchell was once again listed as a co-starter coming into this week’s game despite not being available last week against Ball State for undisclosed reasons.

Mitchell did not go through initial stretch for Ball State  and came out in street clothes as the team continued pregame warmups.

Mitchell was listed as a co-starter with Aaron Beasley heading into the contest. One source, at the time believed Mitchell’s absence to be unrelated to injury and thought there was potential for a possible return this week’s game. Throughout the week, there has been less optimism around Mitchell’s return. Based on the report from WBIR, it sounds like next week’s game against Akron is the safer bet for his return.

Tennessee will turn to Aaron Beasley, Solon Page IJ and Elijah Herring as the next men up. 

On Monday afternoon, Josh Heupel reiterated that he was pleased with Tennessee’s linebacker play against Ball State.

"I thought the backers as a whole, in particular the first string of guys that got action, played fast, played physical, had their eyes in the right place and tackled well,” Heupel said of this. “Beasley played extremely well. I thought you could see him, just his growth from a year ago to who he was on the football field on Thursday night. Really liked a lot of what we saw from him.” 

Tenneseee and Pitt will play at 3:30 pm ET on ABC on Saturday.