Jones confirms Chance Hall out for season, several other OL dinged up
Junior offensive tackle Chance Hall will undergo season-ending surgery on his right knee, Tennessee coach Butch Jones confirmed Friday night.
As VolQuest.com first reported Thursday night, the 6-foot-4 315-pound Virginia native spent the week in Chicago getting a second opinion on the injury that cost him the last four games of the 2016 season and all of spring practice. Upon further evaluation, it was determined Hall needed another surgery.
"He will be out this season. He's going to have surgery and will have a redshirt year," Jones said.
Hall started 13 games at right tackle for Tennessee the last two seasons, including six in 2016. He missed the first three games of last year after undergoing a minor knee procedure in August.
"He'll come back stronger than ever," Jones said.
"Chance is a competitor. It's very, very important to him. It's very unfortunate, but he'll bounce back. He'll be better for it"
Jones also noted that a trio of offensive lineman — freshman Trey Smith, sophomore Marcus Tatum and Brett Kendrick — are dinged up and will miss Tennessee’s next few practices.
"They'll all be back," Jones said. "It's nothing significant. Some are kind of precautionary holding them out. But we need to get them back."
The Vols did get some good news on the injury front Friday, though, as both linebackers Darrin Kirkland Jr. and Daniel Bituli returned to practice as full-participants. Also, Jones noted that it was good to see defensive tackle Shy Tuttle out there again doing some light drills.
"He's maybe a little bit ahead of schedule," Tennessee's fifth-year coach said.
"He's doing the individual, he's doing some movements. You can see him getting better and better each day with his movements and that's encouraging."
Jones followed up by saying, "It's real encouraging when he's out here in full-pads, and he's doing individual drills with his teammates. ... He's worked very, very hard and also you can see the excitement in his demeanor."