Two UK linebackers will keep playing with casts. Will they keep playing together?

Before the Georgia game, Mark Stoops jokingly called inside linebackers Kash Daniel and Jordan Jones “the Q-Tip brothers” with both wearing bulky protective coverings on their broken hands.

They get to wear that moniker — and those clunky casts — for at least another week against Tennessee, the UK coach confirmed at his news conference Monday.

“I wish we could cut them down some,” Stoops said of the casts, “but it doesn’t look like that.”

Going back and looking at the tape of the Georgia game, there’s no doubt that not having the use of one hand affected Daniel and Jones, Stoops said.

“It’s not comfortable for them,” the coach said of Daniel, who had four tackles versus the Bulldogs, and Jones, who recorded nine, including half of one for a loss.

“I will say this, they did both do some very good things with those on and it kind of surprised me at times some of the plays they made,” Stoops continued. “And there were times you could tell that not having the grip really hurts them.”

Has Stoops pondered switching up the rotation so Daniel and Jones are not playing together in the middle of the defense with the injuries? Yes, he said.

“We may have to mix it up a little bit,” the coach said.

The change-up happened a bit late against the Bulldogs when they were running the ball and running down the clock. Stoops saw good things from both true freshmen Chris Oats and DeAndre Square, but he also saw Square struggle a bit playing that spot at 208 pounds.

After the loss to Georgia, Daniel acknowledged that playing with the cast was a struggle, but that he and Jones wanted to do everything they could to help their teammates.

“Some people don’t understand how hard this stuff is and what you’ve got to go through,” said Daniel, who has played two games with the cast on his hand. “It’s hard to tackle, especially if you’re a linebacker. Like I said, we’ve got to learn to play with our cast or whatever we’ve got on our arm. We’ve got to learn how to adapt and tackle.”

Kentucky will be facing a Tennessee team that is last in the Southeastern Conference and No. 111 out of 130 teams nationally at running the ball. The Vols are averaging 127.7 yards per game and 3.4 yards per carry.

They had just 20 rushing yards last week in a 14-7 victory over Charlotte.

“We’ve struggled to run the football all year, so I don’t know why this game would be much different,” Coach Jeremy Pruitt said on Saturday.