VolQuest is reporting that Tennessee safety Todd Kelly, Jr. is out indefinitely with continuing knee problems. Mike Griffith of SEC Country cites a source in saying that Kelly won’t play tomorrow “on account of a potential-season-ending knee injury.” From that statement, it’s hard to tell whether Kelly’s already had surgery or whether the surgery itself is merely a possibility. The remainder of the article makes it sound like they’re still trying to figure out whether surgery is the best course of action. Either way, Kelly is out for some extended period of time.
Kelly has only played sparingly in the first two games, as Nigel Warrior and Micah Abernathy have gotten the bulk of the work at safety.
Kelly was fourth on our early-August list of the defensive players the team could least afford to lose to injury. He was behind Kahlil McKenzie, Kendal Vickers, Cortez McDowell, and Darrin Kirkland Jr., the latter of whom has already been lost for the season. The emergence of Daniel Bituli at linebacker has eased the dependence on Cortez McDowell a bit, but losing Kelly for an extended period of time is a blow, as it means that the defense will be without two of its five most important players.