KNOXVILLE - Tennessee's latest significant injury leaves the Volunteers with two positions in need of replacements.
In what's been an unfortunate and unreal weekly event, coach Butch Jones announced Monday another season-ending injury, this one to starting safety and All-America kickoff returner Evan Berry, who will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.
With Micah Abernathy dealing with nagging injuries, Berry started three of the past four games on defense and as a return man ranked first in the SEC and second nationally in kick-return average (32.9 yards per return). He recorded the fourth kick-return touchdown of his college career against South Carolina.
"All season long we've had a next-man up mentality," defensive coordinator Bob Shoop said Monday, "whether it's been at D-tackle, whether it's been at linebacker, whether it's been in the secondary. And the guys have gone out and given everything they've got. It's disappointing.
"I thought Evan played fairly well against South Carolina and started off against Tennessee Tech pretty well."
Jones said the players in the mix to replace Berry returning kickoffs include safety Abernathy, freshman wide receiver Tyler Byrd, running back John Kelly and freshman cornerback Marquill Osborne.
Abernathy has five returns this season, though recently Byrd has handled his job as the up man directly ahead of Berry, and Osborne had a nice return against South Carolina when Berry was out after being kicked making a tackle and needing stitches put in above his eye.
"We've repped a lot of individuals at that position, but as we know Evan has a tremendous skill set and feel for it," Jones said. "We'll start working on it today. We'll put the best individual out there, and our kickoff return team needs to step up now. All the other 10 individuals, they've done a great job all year of owning and mastering their technique.
"We're going to have to do an even better job in moving forward. We have some very capable individuals that we have a lot of confidence in back there that we see it every day in practice."
Berry's departure in the first half of the Tennessee Tech game coupled with Stephen Griffin's absence meant Tennessee rolled with Todd Kelly Jr., who Shoop said has been a "steady rock" in the secondary, alongside either Abernathy or freshman Nigel Warrior.
Abernathy got off to an excellent start this season by leading the Vols in tackles against Appalachian State and recovering three fumbles against Virginia Tech, but he hasn't been the same since the Georgia game and sat out the loss at South Carolina after hurting his hamstring against Alabama.
"He's really kind of struggled for the last month getting healthy," Shoop said. "Whatever the injuries may have been, they've been nagging, which have prevented him from practicing. When you don't practice you don't play well, and that's been his biggest problem. He's a great kid and he's working hard; it's just been a struggle for him."
In Warrior the Vols know they're getting an elite athlete capable of flying around and making plays while also risking a mistake due to his inexperience.
At South Carolina in the second half, Warrior, the son of former Vol Dale Carter, made two impressive open-field tackles before the Gamecocks fooled him by faking the same tunnel screen they'd run four or five times and throwing the ball over his head to the receiver he was supposed to cover and didn't.
Warrior led the Vols with seven tackles, including a couple for fourth-down stops, against Tennessee Tech.
More experience will expedite his development, and Shoop, who called Warrior a "work in progress," after the South Carolina game spoke to the rookie about "upping his investment" in terms of preparation during the week.
"To play high-level defense at this level, I think you need a certain amount of attention to detail, precision and all those things," Shoop said. "Right now he's still learning those things. He certainly has a good skill set. I've said that since camp, and his level of investment has improved each week. I'm excited and I saw great progress over the past two weeks.
"He didn't do everything well. He got a pass-interference call this week, didn't cover a guy one time. There's some things he made mistakes on, and he's aware of it. I think that's the first step. Four weeks ago he made a mistake and didn't know he made a mistake. Now he makes a mistake and comes to the sideline and says, 'I should have done this.'
"We're making progress, and we're going to need him to play really well these last three weeks."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.