On Monday morning, multiple reports revealed that Tennessee football sophomore wide receiver Joakim Dodson will miss the remainder of the season due to a lower-body injury. Austin Price of Volquest (On3) reported first.
“Yeah, you just hate it for him,” Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel said in Monday’s press conference. “You know, one really good kickoff return, just unique in how he gets tackled, how the leg plants. But from year one, finishing the season into January, just how he prepared, practiced, trained. I saw great strides in him as a player. And it’s disappointing. You put all that work in and you get one game of football. So that’s always hard for anybody that goes through that.”
Saturday against Furman, he was injured on a fourth-quarter kick return and helped off the field. Dodson, in his second season out of Baylor School in Chattanooga, has appeared in six career games. He has returned three kicks for 134 yards and a touchdown. That touchdown came on a 94-yard return during the Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl against Illinois, to conclude the 2025 season. In that season, he also caught two balls for 38 yards.
Coming out of Baylor, Dodson was considered a four-star prospect by On3 and a three-star by 247Sports and ESPN. In his only season at Baylor, Dodson was a key player in its run to a state championship appearance.
Before Baylor, he played for Collierville High School for the first three years and earned 6A First Team All-Region and TSWA All-State honors as a junior. He earned these awards after bringing in 52 receptions for 1,012 yards and 10 touchdowns.
