Tennessee Football: Why Future Star Darrin Kirkland Needs to Keep Shining Now

Tennessee freshman middle linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. isn't the Volunteers' most valuable defensive player. That honor would go to the man standing directly to his right, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, or potentially sophomore end Derek Barnett.

But Kirkland is the Vols' MVP of sorts; he's their most vital player. How he goes, the defense goes.

Early in the year, UT's defense suffered drastically when Kirkland wasn't ready and walk-on Colton Jumper was forced into a starting role. When Kirkland finally took over against Western Carolina, he wasn't ready. But as he's grown, so has coordinator John Jancek's defense.

Tennessee is getting ready for two difficult tests to close the regular season against offenses that—on paper—look like the Vols defense should handle. But this weekend's road opponent, Missouri, looked better moving the ball in a win last week against BYU.

The Tigers have a senior running back in Russell Hansbrough who has gashed the Vols before and is finally healthy after an injury-riddled season. 

In the regular-season finale, Vanderbilt will be playing its biggest rival in what may be a bowl atmosphere for the Commodores. If they lose to Texas A&M this week, they won't be going to the postseason. If they win, the game against UT will be for a bowl berth, and VU always plays the Vols tough, anyway.

They, too, have a quality running back in Ralph Webb with whom Tennessee must contend.

So, playing slogging offenses with strong running games means UT needs a big effort from Kirkland. Yes, he looks like a future all-conference player, but Kirkland needs to play like it immediately if the Vols are going to win eight games.

It's a challenge UT coach Butch Jones believes Kirkland is ready to meet head-on like a runner in the A-gap:

Kirkland went from getting one or two tackles a game, being a step late and struggling with the pre-snap nuances of getting players lined up and making the right calls in his first couple of starts, to being all over the field.

Lately, the game is coming naturally to the defender.

In the four games since a forgettable showing against Georgia, Kirkland is averaging more than seven stops per game and has 2.5 tackles for a loss. He's gotten better every single game since then, too.

After getting a career-high nine tackles against South Carolina, he reached a milestone of sorts against North Texas, eclipsing Reeves-Maybin's tackles total to lead the team with eight. Lately, it appears a friendly rivalry is developing between him and his fellow linebacker.

Why not? Now, Kirkland can hold his own on the stat sheet.

The performance against the Gamecocks garnered him SEC Freshman of the Week honors, and it probably won't be the last hardware the Indianapolis native brings home in his career.

He's emerging as a star, and the Vols need him to keep growing and progressing. Fox Sports' blurb about his award proves that even national sites are beginning to take notice of Kirkland's development.

"The middle linebacker has really emerged for Tennessee since being inserted into the starting lineup and looks to have secured his place with the starter for years to come," the article says. "With players like Kirkland shining in conference play, the future of Rocky Top looks very bright indeed."

Kirkland is third on the Vols with 52 tackles, and he also has five tackles for a loss, a couple of sacks and an interception. On the pick, he displayed his immense athleticism, jumping a route and intercepting a Patrick Towles pass before racing 26 yards inside the five-yard line to set up a touchdown.

This weekend against Missouri's motion-based offense and Hansbrough's veteran vision, it's essential that Kirkland plays his best game yet.

Mizzou has been awful this year on offense, but Hansbrough's health and the improvement of true freshman quarterback Drew Lock makes the Tigers potentially dangerous. That's not lost on Kirkland and the Vols.

"He was their leading rusher (so having him back) helps them in their scheme," Kirkland told the Daily Times' Austin Bornheim this week. "They can make some plays running inside and outside, really helps them a lot."

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Everybody who watches him play has something to say. Jancek, especially, is impressed with the progression of the man in the middle. UT's defensive coordinator told GoVols247's Ryan Callahan:

"

He takes great pride in his work, and that’s what you need to have. You need to have guys that are grinders. The thing that I’ll say about Darrin is that he shows up to work every day. You know what you’re getting. He’s not up-and-down. He’s very consistent in his approach. And all his hard work is starting to pay off. He’s really starting to elevate his game.

"

It wasn't an overnight development, either. Kirkland may be coming on quickly now, but after being a mid-term enrollee, many expected he may be the answer to UT's issue in the middle. Instead, he didn't get the opportunity this spring after tearing a pectoral muscle lifting weights.

There were fewer more dismal positions in spring practice than UT's middle linebacker. No Vol could take the job and run with it.

Jumper wasn't much of a factor, junior Kenny Bynum was nowhere near athletic enough to be an every-down stalwart and the redshirt freshman duo of Dillon Bates and Gavin Bryant wasn't ready, either.

Tennessee needed to replace All-SEC star A.J. Johnson's production. 

Enter Kirkland. He's not the same kind of player Johnson is, but once the light began to flicker, Kirkland shone. Now, it looks like his ceiling is much higher for UT's new man in the middle than the former Vols tackle-gobbler.

Johnson didn't have anywhere near the sideline-to-sideline speed of Kirkland, and though Johnson was as good as anybody in the country against the run, he didn't become a good pass defender until his senior season in 2014. Kirkland already is showing signs of being a strong all-around player.

Rather than looking up for a player such as Johnson who wasn't around when Kirkland came to Knoxville, the Midwestern product told WBIR's Nick Carboni he instead tries to emulate a player from closer to home: Notre Dame star Jaylon Smith (whose name is misspelled in the tweet):

Jones has recruited extremely well for the Vols since coming on as head coach, but he lucked into Kirkland a little bit when Michigan fired Brady Hoke. When that happened, Kirkland decommitted from the Wolverines and pledged to UT, which finished second on his list the first go-around.

Once that happened, the Vols severed ties with linebacker Cecil Cherry (who wound up at Texas) because Kirkland was their top pick for the position all along.

As it turns out, the first choice was the right one.

Kirkland is a star in the making. With two run-oriented, grind-it-out teams that try to win on ball control and defense coming up, these are the kinds of games where middle linebackers' names are made. 

The Tennessee freshman linebacker has a prime opportunity to cement his status as one of the league's top first-year defenders between now and the end of the season. If he does, he and the Vols will have a chance to shine on a bigger bowl stage in January.

All stats gathered from UTSports.com unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information gathered from the 247Sports, unless otherwise noted.

Brad Shepard covers SEC football and is the Tennessee lead writer for Bleacher Report. Follow Brad on Twitter @Brad_Shepard.