Vanderbilt Football Initial Injury Report Ahead of Game Against Arkansas

Vanderbilt football is looking to get its season back on a winning track. The Commodores were 3-0, but have lost their last three weeks.

This week presents a matchup in Nashville against Arkansas, the only other winless team in the SEC. Vanderbilt is coming off an embarrassing 52-17 loss to Ole Miss where it looked broken and lost. Now, the Commodores are trying to find their identity and confidence again.

But before the game kicks off a little under 72 hours from now, the SEC released its initial player availability reports for all conference games this week. For Vanderbilt, it has a few players on the first injury report of the week.

To start, defensive lineman Aaron Bryant will of course not play due to his season-ending ACL injury he suffered a few weeks ago. Linebacker Jamison Curtis and cornerback Jaylin Lackey are also still out with soft tissue injuries. Wide receiver Kahden Smith is still out this week.

In addition to that, there are two new players that will not be available this weekend. Tuesday, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea announced that offensive lineman Gunner Givens will be out for the season with a hip injury and offensive lineman Mitchell Smith will be out until after the bye week due to a knee issue he has been dealing with. Smith missed last week’s game against Ole Miss.

“Obviously disappointed for him [Givens]. Really was pleased with his progress as a player. I think he was elevating himself in his role and this is going to be a setback. It’ll be about a six month recovery. The good news there is he did have his waiver cleared for an additional season,” Lea said. “Mitchell Smith, who was out for Saturday, was going to go through procedures to clean his knee up and we expect him to be back hopefully after the bye week.”

Another player Vanderbilt will be missing Saturday is backup quarterback Blaze Berlowitz. Berlowitz’ parents announced in a post on Facebook that he injured his collarbone toward the end of the Ole Miss game. Lea confirmed that Tuesday, saying Berlowitz did have surgery to repair his collarbone that was broken on a sideline tackle.

Lea does expect Berlowitz to be back after about a month of recovery.

“I do want to say this on Blaze. Just the toughness to have a broken collarbone and finish, taking three snaps including a pass is pretty remarkable and just a testament to his character and what that kid’s about,” Lea said.

There are more players on Vanderbilt’s Wednesday night injury report, though. Vanderbilt safety Dontae Carter, EDGE Brian Allen Jr. and defensive lineman Hayden Bray. Starting cornerback Martel Hight is listed as probable for this weekend.

Lea is likely going to go more in detail Thursday about his guys that are listed as questionable. But for now, the Commodores will continue to prepare for this weekend.

Vanderbilt and Arkansas are scheduled to kickoff at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

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