Butch Jones addressed the hit that ended Tennessee freshman defensive tackle Shy Tuttle’s season against Georgia on Saturday on an interview Wednesday on WNML-FM radio in Knoxville.
Tuttle broke his fibula and tore a ligament in his ankle against the Bulldogs on this hit by junior center Brandon Kublanow during the second half of Saturday’s game:
Offered without comment. pic.twitter.com/wDp4yR0ej7
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) October 13, 2015
Jones confirmed that UT did turn this play into the SEC league office and did get a response, but he couldn’t go into detail on what the SEC said in response.
“I’m not allowed to comment on the responses, but let’s just say, you know where I’m going and we’ll leave it at that,” Jones said on WNML-FM. “It was very unfortunate. It took the season of that young man, and you know, the young man from Georgia was trying to play hard, I get that. It’s just very unfortunate. It’s football. But you know, Shy Tuttle means so much to our football team and he’s a great young man. We’ll get him back and he’ll be better for it, but it just very unfortunate.”
Tennessee’s defensive tackle rotation will shrink to four – Kahlil McKenzie, Danny O’Brien, Owen Williams and Kendal Vickers – with Tuttle confirmed out for the season.
