Tennessee football made its biggest splash in the transfer portal to date Saturday afternoon when Penn State edge rusher Chaz Coleman committed to the Vols over LSU, Ohio State and South Carolina. Coleman played just 150 snaps while battling injury during his true freshman season at Penn State, but was impressive enough in it for 247sports to rank him as the No. 5 player in the portal.
Coleman totaled eight tackles, one sack and 15 total quarterback pressures as a freshman last season. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound edge rusher’s best game came against Ohio State when he totaled three quarterback hurries in just 15 snaps played.
The Ohio native fills a major void on Tennessee’s roster. Edge rusher is one of Tennessee’s biggest needs in the portal. But the Vols can’t be done after landing Coleman. They still need to add more quality players who they can count on to play 20-plus snaps every game.
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Josh Josephs, Jordan Ross and Caleb Herring combined to play 983 snaps for Tennessee last season. All three are gone. Josephs is off to the NFL after playing four seasons in Knoxville. Both Ross and Herring entered the transfer portal. Ross landed at LSU while Herring is still int he portal.
But behind Coleman, Tennessee still has a ton of questions. Rising redshirt freshman Christian Gass played just 12 snaps. The only other LEOs currently on the roster are incoming freshmen Hezekiah Harris, Zach Groves and CJ Edwards.
As Tennessee looks to add one or two more edge rushers in the portal, what are its options? The Vols hosted Tulane edge rusher Jordan Norman on a visit last week while Alabama edge rusher Qua Russaw also has scheduled a visit to Tennessee.
Despite a big last handful of days, Tennessee still has a number of serious needs in the portal. But edge rusher remains one of the biggest despite landing a big fish Saturday.
