The Tennessee Volunteers are in the midst of a stellar season in the NCAAF, emerging as one of the top contenders for the playoffs. However, following a resounding victory over Florida, their star QB Nico Iamaleava will lose a key piece of the team for the remainder of the season due to a serious injury.
The player in question is none other than LB and team captain Keenan Pili, who suffered a serious knee injury during the first half against the Gators. It has been confirmed through the HC Josh Heupel, that he will not be able to play for the remainder of the 2024 season.
After the game on Saturday night and once the injury was confirmed, the coach stated: “I’m not sure there’s a better representative of what a Volunteer is than Keenan Pili,” Heupel said. “You talk about a selfless guy that cares about the people around him way more than he cares about himself, that’s an elite competitor, great leader, tough as nails, athletic, explosive – everything that you want. Just … he’s a dude, man. Special dude.”
Now the Vols are left without one of their most important pieces at a critical moment in the season, as they go all out to secure the much-desired playoff berth.
Keenan Pili 11 Tennessee linebacker celebrates following a defensive stop. Arkansas defeated Tennessee 19-14
The challenge of replacing Keenan
With the news of Keenan Pili’s season-ending injury, the responsibility now falls on the linebackers coach to find a way to replace the captain. The number set to step up is Jeremiah Telander, who will join Arion Carter to form the new duo.
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“Obviously, having a great leader and a great teammate like that go down, praying he’s healthy and he comes back stronger than ever for the next game, because we have a good one (against Alabama), a task at hand. But as far as next man up, felt like Jeremiah came in and he was able to play sound football, and we were able to go get it done at the end of the day.” William Inge stated.
Justin Joly #17 of the Connecticut Huskies runs the ball with Jeremiah Telander #22 of the Tennessee Volunteers and Jourdan Thomas #25 of the Tennessee Volunteers defending at Neyland Stadium on November 04, 2023 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won the game 59-3.
A key showdown against Alabama
Next Saturday, October 19, the Vols will face one of the most significant matchups of the NCAAF season when they host Jalen Milroe and the Alabama Crimson Tide at Neyland Stadium. Before this, Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer delivered a clear message to his players about QB Nico Iamaleava.
“I think he’s extremely talented. I think a big part of it is trying to disrupt him to where the continuity and the flow is just not consistent,” DeBoer said, via On3. “That’s gonna be any quarterback any week, that’s the goal is to try to really cause some chaos and change things up on them. They get into their tempo off of positive plays.”
