Tennessee head coach Butch Jones and Derek Barnett (9) check on a injured Kendal Vickers (39). The top-ranked University of Alabama Crimson Tide visited the University of Tennessee Volunteers in SEC football action on October 15, 2016KNOXVILLE -- The busiest place in Tennessee's football complex this week certainly will be the training room.
The Volunteers have more than a dozen players dealing with injuries varying from season-ending to typical midseason bumps and bruises, but this week's open date provides those players some extra time to heal up for the stretch run.
Tennessee head coach Butch Jones confirmed defensive tackle Kahlil McKenzie will miss the remainder of the season after tearing a pectoral tendon in the loss at Alabama, but Tennessee's injury woes coming out of the 49-10 loss to Alabama don't stop there.
"In terms of other injuries that's all I'm going to comment," Jones said, "and the last comment I'll make -- and I say it every week -- respect our players and our program. These are young adults that have families. There's too much out there, some inaccurate, some accurate. I'm asking you that you start respecting our players.
"I've spent an hour on the phone this morning dealing with families and players of inaccurate information and things that are out there. These are kids. I'm here to protect our program and our players, and that's what it's all about. You're the adults. I ask that you have responsibility to that.
"I'll say it again: You'll have children of your own one day. I'll leave at that. I know y'all have a job to do, and I respect it, but there's times I have to stand up and protect our football program and protect and protest our organization, and it starts with protecting our players.
"I ask that you give them the privacy and let us prepare to win football games."
Starting right guard Jack Jones underwent surgery on his thumb on Monday, but he's expected to return for the Vols' trip to South Carolina on Oct. 29.
Tennessee's Alvin Kamara gets a big Tennessee gain before being knocked out-of-bounds by Alabama's Ryan Anderson (22). The top-ranked University of Alabama Crimson Tide visited the University of Tennessee Volunteers in SEC football action on October 15, 2016The major concern, though, is running back Alvin Kamara, who's dealing with a left knee injury that requires further evaluation and makes his status for the rest of the season unclear.
Rumors swirled Kamara had torn his ACL, but that is not the case.
Reports from 247sports.com and ESPN indicated the concern with Kamara centers on his lateral collateral ligament and possibly his meniscus.
"Everything is wait and see," Jones said. "Is he banged up? Obviously everything's banged up. But I just got off the phone with him, and some of that (speculation) was news to him.
"We have a lot of guys that are injured and banged up. It's been a long, long season. There comes a point in time where some things, let it take its course and let's not be too premature to judge and get it out there."
During the offseason the Vols made a change atop their strength and conditioning program, replacing Dave Lawson with Michael Szerszen, his right-hand man.
Jones disputed any notion some of the changes Szerszen made this offseason have led to Tennessee's incredible rash of injuries.
"We research and do our due diligence on every single thing in our football program," he said. "If you have a particularly problem in one area, it'll show in terms of the volume of injuries in one specific area. The crazy thing this year is it's not been one specific area.
"We did a five-year study on offensive line injuries. By far the most prevalent offensive line injury is a high ankle sprain. What did we do? We invested in customized ankle braces for practice. Those customized ankle braces have probably saved us on two-to-three players ever since August.
"(Head athletic trainer) Jason McVeigh and our sports science and our coaches have done a great job with that. The unusual thing this year is it's been different. We've studied body positions. We've studied the grass. Have they occurred in practice? We've had very minimal injuries in practice.
"We've studied why they've occurred, and it's been one of those years. I've never been through a year of this in coaching ever. A lot of my colleagues are calling, and it's just one of those years. It's a great opportunity for your program to show their resolve and their resiliency."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.