One of Tennessee’s most talked-about offseason storylines came to a close on Friday morning. According to a report from On3’s Chris Low and Pete Nakos, former Penn State transfer EDGE rusher Chaz Coleman is no longer with the Volunteers’ team. The report indicates that Coleman has been medically disqualified from the Tennessee roster and that the Vols have parted ways with their top-ranked portal addition.
Coleman was considered the No. 17 overall player and the No. 3 EDGE rusher in the portal this offseason. He eventually transferred to Tennessee, reuniting with defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and multiple of his former defensive teammates from his freshman season at Penn State.
Coleman was expected to give Tennessee’s pass-rushing unit a big boost this fall, but that obviously won’t be the case anymore. So what’s next for that position group and Jim Knowles’ defense as a whole?
The most important name for that group is Tulane transfer Jordan Norman. Out of the remaining players in that room, Norman has the most quality experience at the position. The rising redshirt junior had 28 tackles and six sacks for the Green Wave last season in 14 games. As the veteran in the room, he’ll need to step up to the plate as a top guy rather than a solid rotational guy.
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Josh Heupel often says that young players don’t have time to be young, and that’ll certainly be the case with Tennessee’s EDGE rusher position. Behind Norman, you’ve got players such as redshirt-freshman Christian Gass, freshman Kedric Golston, freshman Zach Groves, freshman Carter Gooden, freshman CJ Edwards, redshirt-junior Tyree Weathersby, and others.
There have been different levels of progress and optimism between the bunch, but having Derek Owings and his strength team come in this offseason is undoubtedly a great situation for a pivot such as this. Tennessee will need to rely on players stepping up to the challenge this season, and Owings and his staff have been preparing their bodies to be able to do so.
It won’t take long for Josh Heupel and his staff to be asked about that position during SEC Media Days next month and training camp in August, so there should be some clarity on which players will be the best viable options over the next few weeks.
Knowles has more than 35 years of experience under his belt, including 15 years as a defensive coordinator at the Power Five level. This isn’t his first rodeo, and his experience should help him move the pieces around the board to figure out how to best generate a pass rush this fall without Coleman. It’s also not necessarily a blindside situation, as Tennessee has seemingly been dealing with this possibility for months now.
Chaz Coleman wasn’t coming to Tennessee as the best pass rusher in the nation, but he did have significant potential after what he did during his lone season with the Nittany Lions. There was hope that Coleman could grow into one of the best pass rushers in the nation, with the help of having multiple former PSU coaches and teammates around him as he transitioned to Tennessee. Make no mistake about it, this is definitely a production loss for Tennessee. There will forever be a “What If?” about Coleman’s potential if things had gone the right way. But it’s also not the end of the world for Tennessee. The big thing now is to figure out which of Tennessee’s young players have it in them to step up to the plate and swing for the fences.
This will be an important developing story throughout fall camp in August.
