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Vol Report: Battle for Starting Tennessee Vols Middle Linebacker Down to a Freshman and a Walk-On

By Caleb Calhoun

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The battle for starting Tennessee Vols Middle Linebacker is down to two unlikely players: freshman Darrin Kirkland Jr. and walk-on sophomore Colton Jumper.

Going into Fall camp, the battle for the starting middle linebacker was wide open, and there were lots of strong possibilities.

The consensus was that the most likely scenarios for starter at the position included Dillon Bates taking over, Kenny Bynum resuming his role, Jalen Reeves-Maybin moving over to that position, or maybe even Chris Weatherd stepping in due to his experience.

None of those scenarios are in play now.

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The starting Tennessee Vols Middle Linebacker is now down to freshman Darrin Kirkland Jr., who was another long-shot candidate to start, and walk-on sophomore Colton Jumper, who was on nobody’s radar screen at the start of Fall camp.

That’s a major shock from what we expected when Butch Jones said the field was wide open with six competitors back at the beginning of August.

This was all announced by defensive coordinator John Jancek after practice Wednesday, according to a report from GoVolsXtra online.

"Jancek had said last week that it was a three-man race, which included redshirt junior Kenny Bynum, who got most of the first-team reps during the spring. Jancek and the other defensive coaches had said earlier in the preseason they had been pleased with Bynum’s work and the fact that he had dropped about 20 pounds to add speed. He did not say why Bynum dropped out of the competition, but said that Jumper and Kirkland had played well.“They’ve done a good job,” Jancek said. “They’ve won the opportunity to compete for the starting position.”"

If Jumper and Kirkland were just that good to take the spot from Bynum, then that is impressive. It is also still shocking that Bates completely fell out of the competition. Perhaps he has not fully recovered from last year’s injury yet.

But it is clear that experience at that position will definitely be an issue now, which means Reeves-Maybin needs to make sure he steps up.

The good news is that it appears that Jancek and Jones are picking players who truly stand out for their talent and are not stuck having to find somebody to just fill the position by default.

Next: Top 10 Ways to Define Success for 2015 Tennessee Vols Football Season

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