Not surprisingly, No. 9 Tennessee will be down a pair of starting linebackers a second consecutive week.
Earlier Wednesday, Butch Jones labeled Darrin Kirkland Jr. as day-to-day with an ongoing high-ankle sprain. Later on that night, on his weekly radio call-in show, the Tennessee head coach ruled the linebacker out for Saturday’s game against No. 8 Texas A&M in College Station.
Kirkland originally suffered the injury in the Week 2 win over Virginia Tech. He has since missed games against Ohio, Florida and Georgia.
Last season, Kirkland started 10 of the 13 games in which he played as a true freshman. His 66 tackles were second amongst all SEC freshmen.
This season, Kirkland had been credited with 16 tackles through two games before going down with the injury.
Fellow linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin had already been ruled out of the A&M game by Jones. Reeves-Maybin missed the Georgia game last weekend, and also sat out significant time against Florida and Ohio even as he started both of those contests.