Tennessee Vols football game vs. Ole Miss featured 18 injury stoppages, including 11 in 4th quarter

Some were legitimate and necessary injury stoppages. Some were not.

But it all combined in a lot of stopping and starting in Tennessee Vols football's loss to Ole Miss on Saturday in Neyland Stadium.

According to Tennessee's stats and play-by- at the end of the game, there were 18 recorded stoppages for injuries in Saturday's game, including 11 in the fourth quarter.

Some injuries were cause for concern, like Tennessee offensive lineman Cade Mays and quarterback Hendon Hooker, who both did not return. Some appeared to be cramps, or what required some sort of stretching, from defenders, mostly on the Ole Miss defensive side of the ball.

There were few quite like Vols offensive lineman Javontez Spraggins, who was jogging off with an equipment issue and was told by a Vols assistant to fall to the ground. Spraggins did, crumbling to the ground and holding his leg in his best audition for a role in Hollywood. SEC Network cameras confirmed that Spraggins was indeed OK.

The SEC Network broadcast, with Tom Hart, former Vanderbilt quarterback Jordan Rodgers and former Auburn offensive lineman Cole Cubelic, discussed the issue and came up with a potential solution to limit unnecessary or non-injury injury stoppages: a player who comes off in an injury timeout would not be able to return in that possession.

Solution or not, it was clear that there were some injury timeouts on Saturday where, at best, players returned quickly thereafter. And it drew the ire of the Neyland Stadium crowd, who grew irritated with every curious injury timeout via an Ole Miss defender in the fourth quarter.

SOURCE: Gray, Nick. "Tennessee Vols football game vs. Ole Miss featured 18 injury stoppages, including 11 in 4th quarter." Knoxville News Sentinel, 17 Oct 2021, https://www.knoxnews.com/story/sports/college/university-of-tennessee/football/2021/10/17/tennessee-vols-football-game-vs-ole-miss-featured-18-injury-stoppages/8499242002/