Tennessee linebacker Will Ignont, left, and defensive lineman Shy Tuttle sandwich Florida running back Jordan Scarlett during the SEC East rivals' Sept. 22 matchup at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. Tuttle is among the 13 seniors who will he honored Saturday at the Vols' home finale as Missouri visits.KNOXVILLE - At any point in his Tennessee football career, Shy Tuttle could have gotten down about his situation.
Tuttle is attempting to play his first full season for the Volunteers since arriving in 2015 as a five-star prospect from Midway, North Carolina. Injuries deprived him of time each of his first three college seasons, including a seven-game chunk as a freshman due to a broken fibula.
Down about it? That's not Tuttle. And he's got a good reason.
His uncle, Tyson Tuttle.
"He's paralyzed from the waist down," the 6-foot-3, 300-pound defensive lineman said. "I talk to him, and he always has a smile on his face, he's always positive, so I can't get down about being injured for a couple of months when he can't walk for the rest of his life."
Perspective is something this Tennessee football senior class will have plenty of, with 13 of them running through the "T" for the final time Saturday afternoon when the Vols (5-5, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) look to gain bowl eligibility with a win over Missouri (6-4, 2-4) on senior day at Neyland Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3:30, with CBS televising the game.
The group's fifth-year members have been through the promising seven-win season in 2014 and the back-to-back nine-win campaigns in 2015 and 2016. They also endured last year, when the Vols won just four games and lost eight for the first time in program history, which helped lead to the firing of coach Butch Jones.
This senior class also has seen the promise the future holds beyond this season, thanks to two conference wins against top-20 competition.
"I just talked to our team about it - we have 13 seniors on our football team that, really since we've been here, have tried to do everything that we've asked them to do," first-year Vols coach Jeremy Pruitt said after Wednesday's practice. "They've been really good leaders. A lot of them have sacrificed, they've moved around different positions, but they really bought in to the team."
By record, this class will finish with 28 wins and was part of bowl victories in the 2015 (45-7 over Northwestern in the Outback Bowl) and 2016 (38-24 over Nebraska in the Music City Bowl) seasons. How the seniors finish their college playing careers will depend on how they do against the Tigers on Saturday and next week at Vanderbilt.
Win one and they're guaranteed a bowl. Win both and they'll likely land in a slightly better one.
"I'd just like people to know this was a hard-working class," defensive back Micah Abernathy said. "We've been through a lot of adversity, but it's molded who we are as men and as football players.
"Growing up you have the dream of playing at a SEC school, and it's been a cool experience playing in Neyland. It was one of a kind, and I'll never forget it."
Said Tuttle: "I want to be remembered as the guy who always did the right thing. Any time I stepped on the field, I was a competitor, a hard worker and someone that little kids could look up to."
Phillips, Johnson honored
Senior defensive lineman Kyle Phillips and sophomore center Ryan Johnson were named to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District team. In addition, Phillips is one of 20 semifinalists for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year award.
Phillips graduated from Tennessee in 2017 with a degree in recreation and sport management and is currently pursuing a master's in sport management. Johnson is a redshirt sophomore in football eligibility but is a senior in the classroom. He has a 3.88 GPA and is studying civil engineering.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.