Tennessee football: Vols DL Darel Middleton arrested for overnight incident

Rising Tennessee football senior Darel Middleton was arrested overnight. The Volunteers defensive lineman was a reliable contributor in 2019.

Darel Middleton, who started in six games and played in all 13 of them for Tennessee football back in 2019 as a defensive tackle, was arrested overnight. The arrest stemmed from an altercation involving his girlfriend.

A rising senior, Middleton was charged with domestic assault and public intoxication. According to Brent Hubbs on Rivals, the incident occurred behind Walgreen’s on Cumberland Avenue. Middleton was found there after police responded to a report of a simple assault.

Hubbs reported the altercation involved his girlfriend and one of his own friends. Trey Wallace of The Read Option initially tweeted out what happened, and he also provided an attachment to the police report.

This is very early so we have to see how it all plays out. However, it does not look good for Middleton. Given the Bryce Thompson situation last year, it will be interesting to see how Jeremy Pruitt will handle the issue.

Of course, Thompson’s arrest happened a week before Tennessee football’s opener. Middleton’s arrest happened in February. That might change how he responds to this. We’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out.

What’s clear, though, is Middleton could be a huge loss. A junior college transfer, he emerged as a very effective defensive tackle in the middle at 6’7″ 311 pounds. With the return of Emmit Gooden this year, everybody was looking forward to how loaded that line could be.

After all, Middleton, Gooden and Aubrey Solomon will all be seniors, and Greg Emerson emerged as a redshirt freshman last year. That rotation was about to be a dream for Pruitt and the whole defensive staff, and now that is in jeopardy.

For the year, Middleton had 28 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and two tackles for a loss. The big thing for him, though, was how he always got such a great push up front and his incredible size. If he doesn’t play this year, Tennessee football will still be loaded at defensive line, but they will have suffered a big loss up front.