Starting QB, unavailable players revealed for Missouri Flights

COLUMBIA, Missouri – Hendon hooker will again be Tennessee’s starting quarterback for Saturday’s SEC East shock in Missouri, but Flights will be without a starting center Cooper Mays in attack and starting safety Flowers of Trévon and linebacker Juwan mitchell on defense against the Tigers (noon, SEC network).

This will be Hooker’s third straight start since taking over for Joe milton iii, who was injured in the first half of the loss to Pittsburgh on September 11. Mays missed both Pittsburgh and Tennessee Tech games after injuring his ankle, but came back against the Gators last week before leaving the game late in the third quarter. Flowers will miss his first game of the season and his first year Christian charles should get the nod in his absence, as this is the second time in three games that the Vols have played without Mitchell, the transfer from Texas.

Tennessee’s official roster of unavailable players included only Flowers, Mays, Mitchell and the offensive lineman Kingston harris.

With Mays sidelined again, Tennessee will go with Jerome carvin, normally the left starting goalkeeper, in the center, and Ollie Lane is likely to start his second game of the season at left guard with Harris after injuring his knee against Tennessee Tech.

Hooker had 13 of 21 passes for 221 yards with two touchdowns in addition to three quarters when he left the game in Florida last week. The Vols tried to throw a flea flicker early in the fourth quarter, but didn’t get the time or location of the pitch to Hooker from the running back, so when he didn’t catch the ball cleanly and is fetched he was awkwardly hunched over when he was hit by a Florida defender. Hooker left the field on his own, but was clearly stunned.

Milton, who started the first two games of the season, came off the bench and got the last two snaps of that disc and the entire end-of-game disc in the final moments of the game, connecting with Hairy Jones Jr. for a gain of 37 yards before throwing a few incomplete passes into the end zone at the end of the time limit.

Since replacing Milton against Pittsburgh, Hooker has totaled 608 yards with 8.8 yards per attempt with seven touchdowns and a single interception, and he has added 136 rushing yards with another touchdown in the last two games and more. .

Mitchell played the first two games of the season and was on the field for the final defensive streak against Pittsburgh, but missed the Tennessee Tech game. He returned to play about 20 snaps against Florida last week, but has been slowed down by a few minor injuries this season after being transferred from Texas. Mitchell started the first game, but Jérémy Banks and Aaron Beasley have been the starting linebackers for the last two games, although the first tandem in Saturday’s warm-ups was Banks and Solon Page III.

With Mitchell absent, freshman Aaron Willis was elevated to the list of travelers after he failed to make the trip to Florida last week.

Defensive starting tackle Elijah Simmons was warming up with the defensive line after being shaken up at the end of last week’s loss to Florida, but Omari thomas was with the first team’s defensive line during warm-ups.

Tennessee will also have three players in new numbers: Defensive back Doneiko Slaughter will wear n ° 0 (instead of n ° 3), running Jaylen wright will wear # 20 (instead of # 23) and the long snapper Matthew Salanski will wear n ° 47 (instead of n ° 52).