Report: Tennessee loses key member of linebacking corps to injury
Tennessee’s depth at linebacker took a hit Saturday.
And it wasn’t even a literal hit that caused the injury to Darrin Kirkland Jr.
According to VolQuest.com, Kirkland, a middle linebacker, suffered a non-contact knee injury during Friday’s practice. VolQuest.com reports that the injury will prevent Kirkland from playing in next week’s opener versus Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta. Even worse for the Volunteers, VolQuest.com reports that there is no timetable for Kirkland’s return, since the extent of his injury “is unknown at this time.”
It’s the latest setback for Kirkland, who battled a nagging high ankle sprain last season which caused him to miss five games. He returned to lead the team in tackles in a Music City Bowl victory over Nebraska.
The injury bug bit him again this spring, as a tweaked hamstring forced him to miss the start of camp.
With Kirkland out, Colton Jumper is expected to slide into the starting lineup to replace Kirkland at middle linebacker. His injury might also mean underclassmen Daniel Bituli and Will Ignont could see more reps come their way early in the season.
This is a major hit for this defense. Especially with the triple option coming at us. Hopefully the backup can keep up what he was showing last season.
I think you’ll be just fine against Georgia Tech since they dismissed Mills. The cut blocks will aggravate the hell out of you though.
Here we go. Whats this the 3rd or 4th injury since practice started? So much for new s&c coach. Maybe its not the strength coach. Oh well, just more excuses Jones and company will use. Clock is getting shorter for Jones…tick,tick, tick.
It’s probably not, the same thing happened to UF under Muschamp. I’m no Coach but this is not just bad luck.
There really haven’t been that many injuries during camp, and injuries happen to every team. Almost like it’s a contact sport or something ;)
While he may not have gone down during contact, rarely ever are injuries, especially tears in the knee or anywhere else, just something that randomly happens. Usually a tiny tear that is barely noticeable gets worse over time, eventually you’re running along and it’ll go out, tearing the to the point of recognition (complete or partial).
Josh Smith turns out has an AC joint sprain from the latest thing I saw, shouldn’t be out too terribly long. The freshman OL that is out had a preexisting injury from HS and was going to redshirt anyway. Chance Hall has been dealing with the same injuries for a while and is finally having surgery and sitting out the season so nothing during camp that happened, and outside of some guys just bruised or tweaked here and there as happens on every team in the nation, I may be missing one other but nothing earth shaking.
Kirkland is turning out to be someone who is simply prone to injury and even with that said, we don’t know if this is one of those ‘be back in 2-3 weeks’ moments or ‘see you in November’ cases, here’s hoping for the best. Next man up.
This is a tough injury. Hopes were very high for him to have a healthy season. He is injury prone. It happens. This is nothing like last year….hopefully it doesn’t get anywhere near that bad. Every team gets injuries. Camp is over. Now it’s game week preparations. Next man up. No excuses.
You have to be one of the most miserable people on earth. I would make fun of you but you do it for me.
Not sure why they put that under you Fuzzy. That was meant for bryanchip.
DKj is a good one, but fortunately Jumper has a LOT of experience.
Yeah I like jumper he is good but he is not the caliber of Kirkland. We will be ok with jumper vs tech but need Kirkland for the sec teams with studs at RB and SEC play. Anybody hear how bad the injury is. Must be pretty serious to call him out for tech before an MRI or anything.
My dad’s in Knoxville and whispers are 6 weeks at least. Hoping he recovers fully by the UGA game, we could use him.
I wouldn’t worry about jumper, he played an incredible game against Florida if i remember correctly.
Supposedly, he’s one of the fastest LB’s on the roster as well… That’s what i was told.
This is a huge problem. He was the one guy we couldn’t afford to lose. Smfh
It sucks, but it’s not the end of the world. Next man up!! I like Jumper to kick it up a notch.