Tennessee hoped it might get some good news after Darrin Kirkland Jr.‘s knee surgery this week, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
“We did get the results back with Darrin Kirkland, and unfortunately it wasn’t the news we wanted to hear,” Butch Jones said on Friday. “He will be out the entire season. It’s a situation we’re going in, obviously you never want to jump to conclusions until you get all the medical evidence that you need.”
“We were hoping and we had a positive outlook that it could three-to-four-to-five weeks, but unfortunately that’s not the news that came about, so he’ll miss the entire season. I know Darrin is extremely disappointed. His family’s extremely disappointed, but just like anything in life, he’ll be better for it and he’ll work exceptionally hard and we look forward to getting him back.”
Colton Jumper will step into the starting middle linebacker role against Georgia Tech. He started seven games for the Vols last season, and finished with 41 tackles (fourth on the team), four tackles for a loss, one interception and one forced fumble. He recorded a career-high 11 tackles against Georgia.
- Forum discussion: Kirkland Out for the Season.
4 responses to “Darrin Kirkland Jr. out for the year”
What a bummer!! Not a good omen to start the year. Maybe we have some depth at linebacker ?
Unfortunately we don’t have much experience at middle linebacker behind Kirkland. There’s some talent though, it’s just inexperienced.
Thanks for the comment.
Due to current situation as well as the injuries last year, it would seem that we would be recruiting this position hard for 2018. Looking at our commits at this point, the linebacker position is obvious by its absence.
The thing is, if you look at the roster, we have a lot of bodies at linebacker.
Thanks for the comment UTwick.