Tennessee's Peyton Lewis ruled out vs. Florida, Wendell Moe available

Tennessee’s Friday SEC availability report brought a change in the status of running back Peyton Lewis. Lewis, who was listed as questionable on Wednesday and Thursday’s availability reports, is now listed as out and will not play.

The biggest question mark for the Vols has been Wendell Moe, who was removed from the report released Friday night. Tennessee (7-3, 3-3 SEC) and Florida (3-7, 2-5) on Saturday night are scheduled for a 7:30 Eastern Time start on ABC at Bill Hill Griffin Stadium.

Moe was injured in the third quarter in the 42-9 win over New Mexico State on Saturday. After a lengthy stay in the injury tent, he left for the locker room under his own power to have his knee further examined.

The availability report will be updated one final time 90 minutes before Saturday night’s kickoff. 

Player	Position	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Wendell Moe	Offensive guard	Questionable	Questionable	Not listed
Peyton Lewis	Running back	Questionable	Questionable	Out
Miles Kitselman	Tight end	Out	Out	Out
Joakim Dodson	Wide receiver	Out	Out	Out
Sidney Walton	Safety	Out	Out	Out
Rickey Gibson	Cornerback	Out	Out	Out
Jermod McCoy	Cornerback	Out	Out	Out

If Moe is limited, Sham Umarov would start at left guard and redshirt freshman Jesse Perry, who only played in an emergency role last week as he battles through an ankle injury, would start at right guard. Head coach Josh Heupel said Perry has gotten more comfortable there the back half of the season. 

“I think, in general, Jesse feels good about playing inside. He’s felt that way. When David was gone, all of his work came out at the tackle position. I think, a week or two of work back on the inside has let him get back to the true comfort that he has there,” head coach Josh Heupel said.

At the running back position without Peyton Lewis, Tennessee’s rotation will shrink to a two man rotation with DeSean Bishop and Star Thomas. Daune Morris and Justin Baker will serve as the back up tailbacks.

At the tight end position Tennessee announced on Wednesday in the first availability report that Miles Kitselman is out. Kitselman injured his knee in the third quarter of last weeks 42-9 win over New Mexico State and had to be helped into the Tennessee locker room for further evaluation. Kitselman was emotional as he left the sideline.

Tennessee will turn to Ethan Davis and freshman Jack Van Dorselaer who has played in every game this season. Davis who missed nearly a month of the season has been a bigger part of Tennessee’s passing game since his return against Kentucky. 

“I like the development of that room. Ethan was gone in the middle part of the season for four weeks, I think it was. I feel good about where he’s at and our young tight ends have continued to develop. I feel good about those guys,” Heupel said.

“(Ethan) Playing well in the pass game, but been physical assignment sound in the run game. The other night I thought he played extremely well in the run game.”

Running back Peyton Lewis who was injured on the same play, a touchdown, as Kitselman has been limited all week and is listed as questionable with a left ankle injury. If Lewis can’t go, then Tennessee’s running back rotation gets paired down to two with DeSean Bishop and Star Thomas.

Tennessee LB Arion Carter dealing with turf toe injuries

Carter, who did not play at Kentucky and played just a handful of snaps against Oklahoma has had two weeks to heal the turf toe injuries he has battled much of the season. Carter is good to go this week and is not on Tennessee’s availability report however, it’s he’s likely not 100%.

Carter, the 6-foot-1, 235-pound junior, is second on the team in tackles with 63 stops. He has 2.5 tackles for loss, 1.0 sacks, a forced fumble and fumble recovery and two passes broken up. 

“The one thing about Arion is from a preparation standpoint, he’s been awesome and been elite when it comes to that because he’s still the first person in the building,” linebackers coach William Inge said. “You would not have known that he was not preparing to play a whole football game. There were just some things that needed to be done to take care of him with respect to his body. The one thing that we trust and know is he’s doing everything he can to get back as fast as he can. And we’re trusting the process from our athletic trainers and all the things that they have in play for him. And when he comes back, we’ll be ready to play him. And the thing that it has allowed us to be able to do is some of the other individuals put them in some limelight scenarios where they have to be able to go play and really get some intensity through repetition during these times.”