Four of Tennessee’s five starting defensive backs from last season are back this year, and a fifth-year senior with plenty of experience appears to be in line to fill the lone vacancy in the back end of the Vols’ defense. But an important piece of their veteran secondary is missing this spring.
All-SEC cornerback Jermod McCoy is sitting out Tennessee’s spring practice after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in early January while training at home in Texas. His recovery is expected to extend through the offseason — and potentially into the first weeks of the Vols’ season — leaving them to practice this spring without the star of their secondary.
Junior cornerback Rickey Gibson III, who started opposite McCoy last year, is still practicing this spring after indicating last month that he was planning to enter the NCAA transfer portal next month. But even with Gibson and senior cornerback Jalen McMurray leading Tennessee’s group of cornerbacks, the Vols have felt McCoy’s absence.
“Playing in big moments with somebody like that, knowing that you have a great corner to the left or to the right of you, it’s hard not seeing him out there,” Tennessee senior safety Andre Turrentine said Thursday. “But I know he’s working to get back, so just focusing on (how) I can help other guys in other areas get better in their game, and how is that going to help us in times where we might need them?”
The exact timeline for the 6-foot, 193-pound McCoy’s return remains unclear. But the timing of his injury and the typical recovery time for players with torn ACLs suggest his availability for the start of the 2025 season might be in question.
Regardless of how long McCoy might be sidelined, defensive backs coach Willie Martinez said the Vols are trying to make the best of the situation in the meantime. Without McCoy, some of their younger cornerbacks are getting more opportunities to work with Tennessee’s first- and second-team defenses this spring.
“I mean, we all know, at whatever time the injuries happen, that you’re going to have to be able to adapt and adjust,” Martinez said. “Everybody says it all the time: ‘Next man up.’ We know that Jermod’s going to be back. We know he’s a great player. We know he’s a great leader.
“He’s doing an unbelievable job. … He’s engaged. He’s actually growing as a player even though he’s not physically going through it. He’s setting the example. He’s leading it.”
That’s why Martinez said he’s “not frustrated” by McCoy’s injury.
“Here’s an opportunity for some of these new and young guys — or even some of the older guys, right? — to get quality reps of getting better, making us better,” Martinez said. “We’re not going to be elite unless we’ve got enough depth where we can play the three or four corners in a game, the four to five safeties in a game, at the Star position the two or three guys.
“The more depth we have, especially the way this is set up right now in college football, man, you’re going to need everybody. So it gives everybody else an opportunity to give us a chance where we can build and become a better defense.”
Martinez said McCoy, a former Oregon State transfer who’s now in his second year at Tennessee, “has been outstanding” in his mindset and work ethic since suffering the injury. And while McCoy hasn’t been able to participate on the practice field this spring, he’s still involved on a daily basis and trying to help his teammates wherever possible.
“The first day I met Jermod, man, I was kind of like, ‘Man, is this guy for real?'” Martinez said. “I’m talking about the personality. We already knew about him as a player. But, man, he’s the same dude every day, and he’s just growing as a leader. He’s out there every day. He’s actually coaching guys in the room.
“I told him, ‘That’s how you’re going to stay involved in this thing and become an elite corner, is that you don’t really have to physically do it. You can do it mentally’ — not that he’s not taking care of business, man, because he is in his rehab.
“He’s been outstanding, and I know it sounds like the same guy, but it’s just the culture of the group. I mean, they’re competing every single day in that meeting room and making good decisions off the field.”
McMurray, a former Temple transfer, said McCoy’s involvement over the past couple months despite his injury has made an impact on Tennessee’s other cornerbacks.
“It’s been huge, especially for the young guys, having that kind of other coach, being able to kind of help the young guys with their technique, help me with my technique sometimes and really kind of tell us what we need to do, what he saw on that specific play,” McMurray said of McCoy. “He’s having a good conversation of what happened on certain plays, so it’s been huge.”
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