Tennessee Football: Why Darrin Kirkland Is Crucial to Vols Defense

One by one, the candidates to replace departed A.J. Johnson as Tennessee's starting middle linebacker took their turns this spring. One by one, they failed to impress the coaching staff with any consistency.

But one hopeful didn't get a shot. Instead, Darrin Kirkland Jr. split his time between the training room and the sideline, rehabbing a torn pectoral muscle suffered during workouts after he arrived in Knoxville in January.

The 6'2", 235-pound middle linebacker's audition for the starting gig never got off the ground this spring. But he's expected to be healthy in time for fall drills, and the Indianapolis product may be exactly what the Vols need to man the middle of their defense.

Shoring up the center triangle of the front seven is crucial to a UT defense expected to have enough star power to carry the team. There are few questions about edge-rushers or the secondary, but defensive tackles and middle linebacker were huge voids entering the spring.

The emergence of Shy Tuttle and Kendal Vickers on the D-line interior helped ease some of those worries, and former 5-star stud Kahlil McKenzie arrives this summer to solidify it even further.

But what about the man in the middle?

One thing's for certain after this spring: The job is Kirkland's for the taking.

Redshirt freshman Dillon Bates hoped to seize it, but he was never fully healthy from surgery to repair a torn labrum a season ago. When he gets back to 100 percent, he'll be a force with which to contend.

Fellow redshirt freshman Gavin Bryant wasn't ready, either.

Though junior Kenny Bynum overtook an overmatched Jakob Johnson as the starter in time for the TaxSlayer Bowl following the 2014 season, he's far from dynamic. He knows the defense and how to get everybody lined up, but he's not an explosive athlete by any stretch.

Bynum is a fourth-year Vol who is great to have around for depth purposes, but is he a starting SEC middle linebacker? That's where he currently stands on the depth chart, and he needs contenders to step up and battle him for the job.

Name	Ht./Wt.	Year	Career Stats
Kenny Bynum	6'1", 250	RS Jr.	7 tackles, 1 PBU
Jakob Johnson	6'4", 240	So.	14 tackles, 1 QBH
Dillon Bates	6'3", 225	RS Fr.	6 tackles
Gavin Bryant	6'0", 236	RS Fr.	N/A
Darrin Kirkland Jr.	6'2", 235	Fr.	N/A

UT defensive coordinator John Jancek told GoVols247's Wes Rucker back in late April that the position group had a rough spring session. And that was toward the end of spring, too, so it didn't get a lot better.

"

Those guys have struggled at times. They've been very inconsistent, those guys at the Mike linebacker position. There's a lot of food on their plate. I mean, you know how it is at the middle linebacker position: You're the quarterback of the defense, you're setting the fronts, you're giving the blitz directionals, you're checking things, you're making backfield calls. It's not something that just happens for guys overnight.

"

In Kirkland's case, it just may.

The former U.S. Army All-American stood out in the high school all-star game, and he certainly looks the part of a big, bruising second-level run-stuffer with the ability to sprint to the edges and cover the field with his speed.

Perhaps the most overlooked part of his toolbox is his football acumen.

Kirkland displayed intelligence on the field and in the classroom throughout his high school days, but the brains go farther than that, according to Vols coach Butch Jones.

Credit: 247Sports

Sure, there will be a learning curve that most everybody experiences, and, yes, a torn pectoral muscle undoubtedly set back Kirkland's strength-and-conditioning progress in the weight room, but he already was a physically imposing figure.

With extra time to study the playbook and a photographic memory, Kirkland may thrive at the characteristics Jancek discussed that were lacking this spring.

Kirkland hit the ground running in January, and there was nothing but time to recuperate and study this spring, too.

The Vols coveted Kirkland from the beginning of the recruiting process, and they were prime candidates to land him until Michigan offered with Brady Hoke at the helm. Kirkland committed to the Wolverines and seemed destined to land there.

When Hoke and his staff were fired, however, Kirkland reopened his recruitment and pledged to UT shortly thereafter.

Though new Big Blue coach Jim Harbaugh desperately tried to get him to reconsider the Wolverines once he took over in Ann Arbor, Kirkland was set on the Vols.

No matter how they got him, the Vols are content he's in Knoxville. They parted ways with longtime middle linebacker commit Cecil Cherry (who signed with Texas) and rolled with Kirkland as their "Mike" of the future.

Credit: 247Sports

Now, he has to get healthy enough to battle for that job in the present. UT needs him—or another talented athlete such as Bates or Bryant—to step up.

If none of them do, UT may be forced to move star outside linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin to the interior. Jones did after all make it a point to say, following the Orange and White Game, that JRM knows all three linebacker positions.

Ideally, however, Reeves-Maybin would stay in his playmaking position on the weak side, and a young middle linebacker will emerge.

Linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen already has hammered into Kirkland's brain what kind of mentality it takes to play the position. He's being groomed.

Stepping in and taking over such a demanding position is heaping way too much pressure on Kirkland right away, but if he can do it, it'll mean huge things. In essence, it would indicate that a big, physical, talented athlete did enough to get the nod to start in the center of the unit.

When A.J. Johnson was dismissed following an ongoing sexual assault investigation, the Vols struggled without him in the middle against Missouri and Vanderbilt. Jakob Johnson registered just six total tackles in those games, and Bynum wound up with only two in his bowl start.

The Vols must get more production than that.

Playing middle linebacker in the SEC is physically demanding, and while size and intelligence are important, speed is, too. That's why A.J. Johnson became such a next-level player in 2014 when he spent the offseason working on his lateral quickness.

Kirkland has all three of those skills in one complete package.

He won't be handed the Vols job, but he may just be talented enough to seize it. If he proves he has that ability, UT's defense will be a whole lot more athletic and dynamic because of it.

Observations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information obtained from 247Sports. All stats were gathered from UTSports.com unless otherwise noted.

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