Tennessee is set to take on Texas in just a matter of days in what is one of the most anticipated matchups of the season. The Vols come into the game ranked 14th in the country, while Texas comes in as the top-ranked team in the country.

On top of that, ESPN College GameDay will be in Knoxville for the game, which will be just one of many pregame festivities that fans can enjoy before the game kickoff.

Both teams have electric offenses that could make Saturday’s game all the more fun to watch.

Between potential first overall pick Arch Manning, five-star true freshman Faizon Brandon, Cam Coleman, DeSean Bishop, and more, this game has no shortage of offensive stars. However, the Longhorns might be without one of their best offensive weapons.

Hollywood Smothers Questionable to Play Saturday

Both teams have released their midweek injury reports ahead of Saturday’s game. One of the most notable names for either side on the injury report is the Longhorns’ Hollywood Smothers, who was listed as questionable.

Smothers is one of the best running backs in the country and has provided a huge spark to the Longhorns’ offense. The N.C. State transfer has totaled 198 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 41 carries through three games into this season. He also has a receiving touchdown.

Smothers was huge in helping Texas come back from down 20 in the fourth quarter against Ohio State, which was ranked first in the country at the time, scoring two touchdowns in the win.

On3 reports that Smothers is dealing with a lower-body injury, and Vols on SI will keep you updated throughout the week as to whether Smothers can play or not.

If he cannot go, Texas will have a few options at running back. The two who will likely take the majority of carries would be Arizona State transfer Raleek Brown, who has totaled 129 rushing yards and two touchdowns so far this season, and true freshman Derek Cooper, who has 50 rushing yards and a touchdown this season.

Send your questions, comments, and hot takes to our email tennesseeonsi@gmail.com for the chance to be featured in an article!

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AUSTIN, Texas – A Democratic congressman said Wednesday that a Venezuelan man shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas and then taken to a detention center has been told by a specialist he needs surgery to remove the bullet still lodged near his spine.

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar visited a federal detention center in south Texas where Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was taken into custody after being shot Sunday in Austin by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Casar said Garces Perez was in a wheelchair and still in pain, but did not say whether the family had decided that he should undergo surgery. The Department of Homeland Security has said Garces Perez, who has been taken to a hospital twice since the shooting, is receiving around-the-clock medical care and pain medication.

“If they want to say it’s great medical care, they should start providing great medical care today by having him leave the detention center, go to a hospital or to a doctor, and do not delay his surgery if that’s what his family chooses to do,” Casar said.

Garces Perez remains in Texas detention center

Casar, whose district includes Austin, was the first member of Congress to visit Garces Perez in person since the shooting. He said the wound in Garces Perez’s back remains bloody and medical staff change his gauze two or three times daily.

Following Casar’s visit and a press conference, DHS issued a previous statement denying claims that Garces Perez was forced to sleep on a floor or that he was prevented from having the bullet removed, saying ICE would not advise on a medical procedure for a detainee.

Garces Perez was making a DoorDash delivery when ICE officers in an unmarked truck sideswiped his car twice, his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said. He was shot and taken to a hospital, then released into ICE custody with a bullet still in his back, she said.

ICE and DHS haven’t said what led to the shooting beyond that Garces Perez was “the subject of a targeted vehicle stop.”

ICE has not said if the agent who fired was wearing a body camera. At the beginning of September, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he expected all field agents to have them by the end of the month.

Austin police released body camera footage from its officers who arrived just after the shooting. Garces Perez is seen hunched over in the front seat of his car and grabbing his shoulder and rocking back and forth. An officer later cut off Garces Perez’s shirt, and a wound can be seen in his upper back.

Garces Perez entered the U.S. in 2024 using CBP One, a program begun under President Joe Biden that allowed migrants to make appointments with U.S. authorities to be considered for asylum, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. President Donald Trump ended the program on his first day in office.

Garces Perez was an asylum seeker and had a valid work permit, according to Lincoln-Goldfinch. She said a judge issued a deportation order after Garces Perez missed an immigration court hearing because the notice was sent to a former address.

ICE crackdown in Austin sees more than 1,000 arrests

Garces Perez’s shooting came at the end of a summer in which ICE notably ramped up enforcement operations in Austin and surrounding suburbs and increasingly targeted immigrants without criminal records in public places.

In all, ICE made more than 1,000 arrests in Austin, Pflugerville and other nearby cities during June and July, more than an 80% increase from a year earlier, which had been the previous peak, according to ICE data provided to the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles, and analyzed by The Associated Press.

Unlike some other places, the increases in Austin were not driven by partnerships with local law enforcement agencies or by picking up jail inmates. Instead, the data shows that ICE officers made the vast majority of arrests in the community through traffic stops and other enforcement methods.

Nearly 2 out of 3 people who were arrested in the Austin area had no criminal convictions and no pending criminal charges, the data shows.

___

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa. Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Wilder is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Three days after a Venezuelan man was shot and wounded by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Austin while making a food delivery for DoorDash, many of the details of what happened remain unclear.

The revelation that the as-yet-unnamed ICE agent who shot 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez on Sunday was not wearing the body camera issued to him removes an immediate source of clarity from the case.

The incident took place just before 1 p.m. local time near Anderson Square and Research Boulevard, in the city’s north side. Footage shared on social media shows an unmarked vehicle driven by ICE agents ramming Garcés Pérez’s car and an ICE agent firing at least three shots in its direction, one of which appears to have hit the man.

During a news conference on Sunday, Chief of Austin-Travis County EMS Robert Luckritz said he believes the man was shot once in the torso. Garcés Pérez’s attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said the man was shot in the back of the neck.

Garcés Pérez was initially brought to Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas and released into ICE custody on Sunday night in “stable” conditions, as reported by Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. But during a press conference on Monday, Garcés Pérez said, with the help of a translator, that doctors did not remove the bullet inside him because it was close to his spine.

After speaking publicly about the lack of medical treatment he needed, Garcés Pérez was taken back to a hospital on Monday night, according to Lincoln-Goldfinch. After being given morphine for the pain, he was released again to the detention center with the bullet still lodged in his body, the attorney said.

Democratic leaders and immigration advocates in the city and Texas have questioned what prompted an ICE agent to shoot Garcés Pérez and whether the man has received proper medical treatment after the incident, calling for a transparent investigation into what happened. But many questions linked to the incident still remain unanswered, as Lincoln-Goldfinch and the federal government give contradictory accounts of Garcés Pérez’s immigration status and what happened on Sunday.

What Happened Before the Shooting?

Lincoln-Goldfinch said that Garcés Pérez entered the U.S. lawfully in 2024 as an asylum seeker through a parole program and had a valid work permit. DHS has described him in a statement shared with Newsweek as an “illegal alien” who “illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal.”

The program, which started under the Biden administration, was ended by President Donald Trump on his first day in office.

On Tuesday, DHS said that Garcés Pérez’s work permit had expired last year and a judge had ordered his deportation after the man missed a hearing in immigration court. According to Lincoln-Goldfinch, Garcés Pérez did not attend the hearing because notice was sent to a former address.

In its statement to Newsweek on Sunday, DHS said that the shooting in Austin occurred “during a law enforcement operation today in Austin, TX.” DoorDash confirmed that Garcés Pérez was out on a food delivery for the company. It told Newsweek that the company is actively investigating the incident but has no additional details to share. DoorDash also said all Dashers are independent contractors, not employees.

Why Were Shots Fired?

It is unclear why the ICE agent opened fire against Garcés Pérez’s vehicle. Footage taken by Austin resident Heidi Ann Clark, who was driving by the scene and livestreaming around 12:50 p.m. local time, shows a fast-moving vehicle slamming on its brakes on the other side of the road and stopping near a blue Toyota Corolla belonging to Garcés Pérez.

In the video, an ICE agent can be seen coming out of the unmarked black SUV and running toward the Toyota Corolla while holding a firearm. While a siren is blasting in the background, the sounds of three shots being fired can be heard shortly after the officer leaves the vehicle. The blue car is still slowly rolling but stops when the officer approaches.

The DHS, which oversees ICE, has not said what led up to the ICE agent opening fire, and footage available does not show whether there was an exchange with Garcés Pérez before the shots were fired. Garcés Pérez said ICE agents sideswiped his car without warning and shot him as he was turning around and trying to park, as reported by The Associated Press.

According to Austin Police Department (APD) Chief Lisa Davis, the shooting was preceded by a pursuit that went through some side neighborhoods and ended on a side street about 200 yards from where the man was shot by an ICE agent.

While APD was not involved in the shooting, body camera footage released by the department after officers arrived at the scene revealed what unfolded right after the incident. In one of the videos, an APD officer can be seen leaving a vehicle and approaching two ICE agents, one of whom is wearing a face covering and a cap and talking to the officer while the other agent talks on the phone. Garcés Pérez, still sitting in his blue Toyota Corolla, can be seen holding his left shoulder with his right hand and grimacing in apparent pain.

The APD officer can then be seen wearing gloves and helping Garcés Pérez stand up. “Is he under arrest?” the APD officer asks the ICE agents. “Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah,” they respond, and Garcés Pérez is then cuffed and told to sit down in Spanish. His shirt is then cut to expose a bleeding gunshot wound in the back of his left shoulder.

DHS is leading an investigation into the incident, while Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, the top state prosecutor in the Texas capital, said that local authorities are conducting their own investigation into the shooting.

Will ICE Release Bodycam Footage?

Officials said it is not clear why the ICE agent who shot Garcés Pérez was not wearing a body camera. But the other ICE agent on the scene was wearing and using one, according to NBC News, though this only captured partial footage of the incident. Officials told the news company that the footage captured by the other agent did not include the moment of the shooting.

This footage has not yet been released to the public, and it is unclear whether it ever will be. Newsweek contacted DHS and ICE for comment by email on Wednesday. There might be pressure, however, for DHS to release any footage of the incident it might have.

Texas Congressman Greg Casar, a Democrat who represents Texas’ 35th Congressional District, which includes East Austin, has demanded a full and immediate independent investigation into the shooting and the release of body camera footage. Casar also asked for full “accountability for any ICE officer who broke the law.”

Will Garcés Pérez Be Deported?

Garcés Pérez is likely to remain in the country as the incident is investigated. On Tuesday, a federal judge granted an emergency order temporarily blocking deportation proceedings against him, Lincoln-Goldfinch wrote on social media.

The Travis County District Attorney’s Office also sent a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and ICE Director David J. Venturella requesting that removal proceedings against Garcés Pérez be halted while the investigation continues, as he is “a material witness in the ongoing investigation or any future prosecution of this incident will be severely hindered if he is removed from the United States.”

Newsweek contacted Lincoln-Goldfinch for comment by email on Wednesday and is awaiting a response.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and James Debens