Does Tuesday’s news that Tennessee junior linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. apparently will remain a Volunteer say more about the player, the persuasive power of his parents, the recruiting prowess of first-year coach Jeremy Pruitt or perhaps all three?
It was just last week that Kirkland announced via Twitter – and doesn’t everyone from President Trump on down announce their every move on Twitter these days? – that he was going to exit UT as a graduate transfer and play his final two seasons of college football elsewhere.
Given the number of injuries he’s had since arriving in Knoxville from Indianapolis with a large amount of both brains and talent, the reasons for such a move seemed to center on two theories that were not necessarily mutually exclusive.
No. 1: After missing so many games, Kirkland just needed a fresh start.
No. 2: Not sure if Kirkland – who sat out most of the spring and missed all of last season with a knee injury – would be at full strength by the fall, Pruitt might have gently nudged him out the door, further ridding the program of someone who might not completely buy into the new coach’s strategies or might never be healthy enough to fully implement those strategies.