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Tennessee football linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. gets hurt at the worst time

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 7: Jerell Adams #89 of the South Carolina Gamecocks scores a touchdown on a 7-yard reception against Darrin Kirkland Jr. #34 of the Tennessee Volunteers in the third quarter of a game at Neyland Stadium on November 7, 2015 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 7: Jerell Adams #89 of the South Carolina Gamecocks scores a touchdown on a 7-yard reception against Darrin Kirkland Jr. #34 of the Tennessee Volunteers in the third quarter of a game at Neyland Stadium on November 7, 2015 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee football linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. suffered an injury a week and a half before the Volunteers’ season-opener. It came at the worst time.

If this were ahead of last year, we would have said no time would be good for Darrin Kirkland Jr. to be hurt. However, Colton Jumper proved to be a valuable backup as a Tennessee football inside linebacker.

So for the most part, an injury to Kirkland this year would not have been a problem. The only scare would have been if it happened early in the season. And that’s exactly what did happen.

Dan Fleser of the Knoxville News Sentinel noted that the junior inside linebacker’s status for the opener against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is in doubt due to a knee injury.

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At any other point in the season, this injury would not have been a huge deal. Jumper, as one of the great development stories for the team, showed his abilities last year.

The guy clearly has enough talent to fill in for Kirkland.

However, in this game, we figured that Bob Shoop would want to use more of a 4-3 set and perhaps even a 4-4 set. After all, Georgia Tech’s triple-option calls for that.

But without Kirkland, Tennessee football doesn’t have that.

This is the worst type of injury Butch Jones’s team could suffer. The Vols are already a bit thin on the inside with Shy Tuttle still trying to get healthy.

They need all their linebackers healthy. Georgia Tech has a veteran offensive line that uses lots of cut blocks and figured to give Tennessee football hell.

On top of that, the Vols have to guess which quarterback Paul Johnson is going to go with since Justin Thomas has gone.

So this team’s triple-option system is tougher to defend than ever going into the year. And the Vols face them at the worst time.

Simply put, this injury is among the worst that the Vols could have suffered. While Kirkland’s status is still in question, it clearly isn’t a good situation for the Vols. He figured to have a breakout year into a star for the team.

That could still happen, but it was more important Tennessee had him for the Georgia Tech game.

Tennessee already has major questions surrounding the outside linebacker spot. Even with Jumper in there on the inside, they needed Kirkland to make up for that in this game. Losing him could end up being a catastrophe.

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