Former Tennessee Vols standout who transferred to an SEC rival suffers injury during spring practice with new team

Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

Former Tennessee Vols offensive lineman Lance Heard transferred to Kentucky earlier this offseason. Heard, who started his college career at LSU, is playing for his third SEC school in four years.

Former Tennessee Vols offensive tackle Lance Heard will suit up for the Kentucky Wildcats this fall.

Heard, who started his career with the LSU Tigers, spent the last two seasons at Tennessee before transferring to Kentucky.

Unfortunately for Heard, he suffered an injury that kept him out of Kentucky’s spring game last weekend and will keep him sidelined for the next four weeks.

The injury was described as minor, but it required surgery.

The Vols would’ve welcomed Heard back in 2026, but his agent reportedly asked for a “gargantuan” amount of money.

Heard also likely would’ve been asked to move to right tackle in 2026 so Vols sophomore offensive lineman David Sanders Jr could move to left tackle.

"Lance Heard had a really good solid year," said VolQuest’s Austin Price in January. "His agent asked for a gargantuan amount of money, and Tennessee was not willing to do that. They liked the growth that David Sanders had over the last month and a half of the season, and how he played in the bowl game. And they liked what Jesse Perry brought them at right tackle early in the year. And so Tennessee felt good enough to where they were like, ‘Okay, Lance, we like you at this [price], but we don't like you at this amount of money.' And so they decided to part ways. That's part of the new business model that is college athletics."

Lance Heard does not want to talk about his time at Tennessee

Heard was a productive player for the Vols — especially in 2025 (he battled injuries in 2024) — but he’s not interested in talking publicly about his time at Tennessee.

"I don't really want to talk about Tennessee," said Heard in March when asked to compare the tempo of practice at UT and UK. "That's like the second Tennessee question. I don't want to talk about Tennessee."