Josh Heupel offers positive update on one of the Tennessee Vols' biggest concerns ahead of the 2024 season

Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel offered a positive update on Tuesday regarding one of his program's biggest concerns heading into the 2024 season.

The Vols lost two of their top running backs, Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small, to the NFL this past offseason, leaving the team with very little experience behind junior Dylan Sampson, who will serve as the program's starting running back this fall.

Cam Seldon, Peyton Lewis, DeSean Bishop, and Khalifa Keith are the options to serve as the top backups to Sampson in 2024.

Of that group, Seldon has the most experience (which isn't much...Seldon had just 25 carries as a true freshman in 2023).

Seldon, however, suffered an injury during spring practice that put his availability for the start of the 2024 season in doubt.

On Tuesday, Heupel suggested that Seldon's recovery is going well and that he's on pace to be healthy early in the 2024 season.

"Cam's done a great job during the rehab process," said Heupel. "He works extremely hard. He's on pace right now, as we go throughout training camp, his ability to be a part of everything that we're doing will increase from the beginning to the end of training camp. And hope to have him healthy early in the season."

It sounds like Seldon isn't quite 100 percent yet, but he's inching closer to getting healthy. And that's big for the Vols.

While it would be nice for Tennessee to have Seldon fully healthy for the start of the season, what's more important is having him healthy for the second half of the season. Despite all the hype that Tennessee's passing game receives, it's the running game that makes Heupel's offense so dangerous. And there's just no way the running game can be effective late in the season without quality depth.

Sampson could easily be a star in the SEC this fall, but it would be unwise to think he can handle 30 rushing attempts a game and still be fresh for a potential playoff run.

Seldon is a player with lot of upside that can be utilized in several unique ways (he can line up as a receiver if needed). Seldon missing the first couple of games of the season won't be a big deal for the Vols as long as he's ready to go for the last 10 games or so of the season. And it sounds like he should be.

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