A little more than four weeks after it began, Dillon Bates’ freshman season is abruptly finished.
At Monday’s press luncheon, Tennessee head coach Butch Jones announced that the 6-foot-3, 222-pound linebacker had suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder and will not return to the field in 2014.
“He will undergo surgery, and he will miss the rest of the season,” Jones said. “We will apply for a redshirt, which should go through. Then we will have him back for spring football.”
While Bates had been mainly used as a special teams contributor — he’s made just six tackles in four games — this season, his primary defensive role was to spell starting linebackers A.J. Johnson and Jalen Reeves-Maybin — two players that Jones unhappily reported are still “playing in the 80-to-90 snap range.”
With Bates now absent from that role, Jones offered up some potential replacements in that department, specifically noting one individual who’s following in Reeves-Maybin’s footsteps of special teams star-turned-impactful linebacker.
“Cortez McDowell is a young man who continues to progress,” Jones said. “He is kind of following the progression of Jalen last year, where he continues to get better and better and better in his football intelligence.
“Every special teams play, he’d come up to me and tell me exactly what he saw and what was going on … (McDowell) is able to tell you everything. He’s an individual that needs to step up now at linebacker.”
Jones added that German freshman Jakob Johnson is “going to more demanded from him” at linebacker, while Reeves-Maybin added Elliot Berry to the list of potential candidates.
Still, with the magnitude of a season-ending injury so early in his career, veteran teammates have reached out to the freshman Bates, offering up alternative ways to stay connected without being on the field.
“My advice to him was everything happens for a reason, embrace the process,” said redshirt junior Curt Maggitt, who missed the final two games of 2012 and all of 2013 with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. “He’s got a lot of time left. He’s still a freshman. So, don’t look down on himself and figure out a way he can still be a positive influence to the team.”
Legitimate Maggitt: On Monday, Jones’ heavily praised Maggitt’s performance versus Georgia, stating that the redshirt junior “matched up exceptionally well” and “gained great confidence.”
In the loss, Maggitt racked up a season-high five tackles, sacked quarterback Hutson Mason twice and forced a fumble late in the third quarter.
“He played more Sam linebacker,” Jones said. “He was a nine technique. I thought he really did some great things, was extremely productive. When we talk about impactful plays, he had a lot of those. It was really the first game where we could really feel his presence on the football field.”
In an off-season headlined by a position switch to defensive end and his impending return after a nearly two-year hiatus, Maggitt’s 2014 campaign began a bit slower than the build-up originally indicated. The West Palm Beach, Florida, native started only one of UT’s first two home games and racked up just six combined tackles in wins over Utah State and Arkansas State.
But back starting at his traditional linebacker spot for the second consecutive game, Maggitt provided a constantly disruptive presence throughout Saturday’s three-point loss to the Bulldogs.
“I had a job to, and I did my job,” Maggitt said. “Previous games, there wasn’t as many opportunities to play in base personnel. If I’m out on the field, I’m going to do my best no matter what position I’m at.”
An unhappy A.J.: Despite having a team-high 17 tackles against the Bulldogs, senior linebacker A.J. Johnson pegged Saturday’s loss as “probably one of my worst games” in his UT career.
His justification was simple.
“I just need to play inside the system,” Johnson said. “I feel like this last game, I was playing with more emotion instead of playing inside a system and playing with my keys and reads and stuff like that. I got away from my technique and stuff like that.
“Seventeen tackles really don’t mean anything. It’s about production. I can get that many tackles, but I played outside the system. So, it’s probably one of my worst games. I’m going to correct that and have that right this week for Florida.”
