KNOXVILLE - As Tennessee's football program waded through a flood of devastating injuries last season, coach Butch Jones noted "it's been one of those years."
The Volunteers are having another one in 2017.
Jones announced Tuesday that offensive lineman Brett Kendrick will be out Saturday as Tennessee (3-5) hosts Southern Mississippi (5-3) for homecoming. Kendrick exhibited concussion-like symptoms during the Volunteers' 29-26 loss at Kentucky last week, according to at least one media report.
Kendrick will become the sixth Tennessee offensive lineman to miss a game because of injury this season, and left tackle Drew Richmond could become the seventh after Jones listed him as questionable for Saturday.
Another offensive lineman, sophomore guard Venzell Boulware, left the program earlier this season.
Of Tennessee's seven remaining healthy scholarship offensive linemen, five are true or redshirt freshmen. A position group many believed would anchor an offense in transition this season has turned into the team's biggest enigma.
"We felt like that was probably the most complete depth we had in our football program," Jones said Wednesday. "You know what? It's one of those years where (injuries) have greatly affected that position group."
Mounting injuries have become a trend for the Vols. Last season, Tennessee's defense lost stars and eventual NFL draft picks Cameron Sutton and Jalen Reeves-Maybin to injuries early in the season. The Vols were later forced to move players from defensive end to defensive tackle after several were either injured or suspended.
In the secondary, a combination of injuries and suspensions forced Tennessee to start 11 combinations of players last season, and the group buckled down the stretch. After a 49-10 loss to Alabama that dropped the Vols to 6-2 after a 6-0 start last year, Jones told reporters even the grass had been studied in the program's quest to determine what was causing the rash of injuries.
"We research and do our due diligence on every single thing in our football program," he said at the time. "If you have a particular 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."
By the time a 9-4 season ended, Tennessee led the country in number of starts missed due to injury, according to a calculation done by the Phil Steele College Football Preview Magazine
After Saturday's game kicks off, Tennessee will have had at last 12 would-be starters miss a game with injury this season. Again, the lack of a trend within the persistent injury woes is puzzling Jones this season.
"Usually, it runs in patterns. The last two years, the bizarre thing is that it hasn't," he said Wednesday. "It's been all different kinds of injuries. The one thing though is it's hit a couple of position groups this year, and obviously the offensive line has been one of them."
Jones has said he once conducted a five-year study of injuries to offensive linemen and found high ankle sprains to be the most common injury. The ailments to this year's linemen have varied.
Starting right tackle Chance Hall and freshman offensive lineman K'Rojhn Calbert were lost before the season because of knee injuries. Junior offensive guard Jack Jones was forced to quit football last month due to recurring neck and shoulder problems. Kendrick is reportedly dealing with a concussion, as was Jashon Robertson, who missed the Massachusetts game earlier this season before returning to the lineup.
The nature of the injuries to Marcus Tatum and Richmond have not been revealed.
If Richmond is unable to play Saturday, three freshmen will start on the offensive line with seniors Coleman Thomas and Robertson. With Kendrick absent, freshman Trey Smith will become the only Tennessee offensive linemen to start every game this season.
Smith will likely be joined by redshirt freshman Ryan Johnson, who has played as a reserve the past two weeks, and either Davante Brooks or Nathan Niehaus. The last scholarship lineman is Riley Locklear, a freshman coaches had planned to redshirt.
"It's obviously been a great challenge, and I've been proud of our players, I think, the way they've responded," Jones said "It kind of comes in to next man up, next individual in. We've had some players step up in those roles, and we're going to obviously need that for the rest of the season.
"We're going to need that big-time Saturday night in Neyland."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com.