Vols Freshman DB Making An Impact Since Return From Surgery

"One thing that I want to update everybody on is with Tamarion McDonald. He had shoulder surgery this summer and we elected to do that so he would be ready when we started in the winter time, so went ahead and got that done for him. With the uncertainty at that point in time during the pandemic, we felt like that that was the best thing to do, so we went ahead and done that, so he’s a guy that we’ll definitely be redshirted this season," Jeremy Pruitt told reporters falling the first fall practice of fall camp.

Now, McDonald has appeared in the last two games, and he continues to make strides for Tennessee's secondary after being able to bounce back from a torn shoulder labrum repair earlier than expected.

On Wednesday, Pruitt told reporters, "He is a guy that came here and we found a labrum tear. We decided, because we didn't know if we were going to have football or not, we thought it would be the best thing to go ahead and let him have surgery. He had it in June. We knew that he would miss the first five games or four games. Dr. Repay has done a really nice job. He healed pretty fast. They released him. One night we scrimmaged, he kind of started doing some backpedaling drills for a couple of weeks for us, we scrimmaged when they released him, and he showed up."

Pruitt went on to say, "When I say he showed up, I mean he is hitting people, and he is all over the field. He is a guy we have started to bring along. Right there, one of those over routes they caught right there at the end of the game, it was good for him. He was supposed to be doubling the guy coming over. Alabama got in a formation into the boundary, motioned back to the field, and made us go through a check there. It is something he will learn from. Didn't make that play right there, but it will pay off down the road."

Tennessee's secondary has had their fair share of miscues to the halfway point of this season, and they are not forcing turnovers. It is unclear if McDonald will see increased playing time, but there is certainly a possibility.

Tennessee will travel to Arkansas for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Saturday.

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