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Injuries have haunted the Tennessee Volunteers all spring, and now they’re impacting the team’s annual spring game, to be played Saturday afternoon inside Neyland Stadium beginning at 4 p.m. ET.
Because the Vols are battling so many injuries throughout their roster, they will ditch the usual format that entails the team to split into two sides to play an intrasquad scrimmage, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Instead, they’ll split up the offense and the defense and allow those two sides to scrimmage one another for a period of Saturday’s festivities, with points to be awarded for various achievements in the live-game setting.
Head coach Butch Jones, who referred to Saturday as a “spring event” to the AP, also hinted that the Vols will hold a quarterback competition of some sort in addition to one-on-one matchups between linemen as well as receivers and defensive backs. The event will be limited to two 15-minute quarters and two 12-minute quarters, all to be operated with a running clock.
“We’re still going to go out there and compete just like every other day,” offensive tackle Kyler Kerbyson told the AP. “It’s going to be more like a practice than a scrimmage. We compete every day during that, too. The one-on-one drills, the situational stuff we’re going to do is going to be very competitive.”
Tennessee is especially thin along the defensive line, where it should receive reinforcements this summer in the form of signees from the last recruiting cycle. The Vols are also thin at tailback, as junior college transfer and early enrollee Alvin Kamara is the only healthy scholarship back on the roster at this time. It’s these types of injuries that inspired a format change for Saturday.
Saturday’s action will be open to the public, and it has been estimated that as many as 100 former Vols will be in attendance, including legendary quarterback Peyton Manning, who donated $3 million to the university earlier this week.
Tennessee’s “spring event” will be televised on the SEC Network’s alternate channel.
Update (April 25, 3:23 p.m. ET): The Volunteers announced their amended scoring system for Saturday’s spring festivities, per Steve Megargee of the Associated Press.
Offensive scoring for Orange & White Game: TD: 6, PAT: 1, FG: 3, 2-pt conversion: 2. Pass plays of 25-plus yds: 2. Runs of 20-plus yds: 2
— Steve Megargee (@stevemegargee) April 25, 2015
Defense scoring for O&W Game: TD: 8. Safety: 2. Takeaway: 4. Defensive stop before midfield: 2. Defensive stop beyond midfield: 1. Sack: 1
— Steve Megargee (@stevemegargee) April 25, 2015
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
