KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The defense of the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers has suffered another personnel loss as the school has learned that junior linebacker Kevin Barnett is done for the 2002 season because of a knee injury.
The extent of the damage was to be determined by an MRI on Tuesday. The initial diagnosis was a torn ACL. There was worry about the condition of the knee in the preseason. Burnett missed two of the three fall scrimmages and wore a brace on the knee for part of the preseason.
"Right now the plan, if everything is correct, is he'll have the surgery in about three weeks," Coach Phillip Fulmer told the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
Burnett, a 6-3, 236-pounder from Carson, Calif., said he knew his season was over the instant he was injured. Some 30 family members watched on television in Los Angeles in horror during Saturday afternoon's game against Wyoming.
The first person he called was his mother, Rhonda Hickman.
"I didn't know the extent of it until five minutes after he had left the field when he called me," Hickman told the paper. "He said, 'Momma, I tore my ACL,' and then he told me he was out for the season."
It was the latest in a series of negative incidents for Burnett, whose father was killed in a car accident when he was five years old.
"It was a devastating loss, something that can't be overcome with personnel shifts," said Fulmer. "Kevin Burnett had a great work ethic. Losing him and Constantin Ritzmann has been a staggering blow to our defense."
Burnett, who was crying hard after the injury, was consoled by defensive end Constatin Ritzmann, who tore an ACL in the preseason.
"I told him we'd work to come back together," Ritzmann said. "I knew exactly how he was feeling."
Burnett will be replaced by Kevin Simon, a 5-11, 225-pound freshman from Walnut Creek, Calif. The Volunteers host in-state rival Middle Tennessee State this Saturday.
