Tennessee football is suffering potentially its biggest loss yet in the transfer portal this cycle. On Tuesday night, Matt Zenitz reported that former five-star recruit and projected starting edge rusher Jordan Ross will enter the transfer portal.
Outside of the talent that Ross has, this absolutely guts the Vols’ LEO room for next season. With Joshua Josephs out of eligibility and off to the NFL and Caleb Herring already in the portal, Tennessee returns none of the trio it rotated a year ago. Even multiple reserves are off to the portal.
This leaves a projected room of just redshirt freshman Christian Gass, true freshmen Zach Groves, Hezekiah Harris and CJ Edwards and reserve redshirt senior Mike Bethea II.
Tennessee has hosted some top edge rushing prospects in the portal already, including Chaz Coleman from Penn State, but is yet to land any.
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Ross just completed his second season in Knoxville. He played in 11 games while posting 23 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, a forced fumble and fumble recovery. He earned a PFF grade of 78.2 in this sophomore season.
As a freshman, Ross played in 11 games, mostly on special teams. He was fourth in the LEO rotation with James Pearce Jr. leading the pack and Josephs and Herring behind him. He recorded three tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss that year. Ross also scored a touchdown on a blocked punt. He was named to the 2024 Freshman All-SEC Team.
Out of high school, both On3 and 247Sports ranked Ross as the No. 1 edge rusher in the entire class. On3 had the five-star as high as the No. 7 player in the country, as well.
While Ross hadn’t reached that potential just yet, he showed flashes of what type of player he could become. With so many departures, the expectation was for him to be a premier piece of the defense in 2026.
