Tennessee’s splashiest transfer addition of the offseason is no longer part of the program.
Chaz Coleman, the high-profile Penn State transfer edge rusher who arrived in Knoxville as one of the most coveted defensive players in the portal, has been removed from the Tennessee football roster, sources verified to CBS Sports on Friday. The decision ends a months-long saga that began with Coleman missing most of spring practice and closes the book on what quickly became one of the more complicated NIL-era roster situations in college football.
It represents a significant blow for Tennessee on the field and a costly miss off it. The Vols made Coleman one of their top priorities in the winter portal window, beating out programs such as Ohio State and LSU for a player viewed as a potential cornerstone piece in Jim Knowles’ first defense at Tennessee. Sources indicated earlier this spring that Tennessee paid Coleman in the ballpark of $2 million, perhaps the Vols’ biggest investment of the offseason.
That investment never came close to paying off.
How Coleman situation unraveled at Tennessee
Coleman went through winter workouts and participated in a few spring practices after arriving from Penn State, but he missed the majority of the spring, including Tennessee’s spring game. He did not return in a meaningful way after that, and what once looked like an uncertain absence has now become a final separation.
The outcome will invite easy comparisons to the recent exits of Nico Iamaleava and Boo Carter, two former Tennessee standouts whose departures became national stories tied to NIL, discipline and team dynamics. Coleman’s situation, sources have maintained, was different — not as simple as a player unhappy with money, a staff fed up with behavior or a locker room that rejected a newcomer.
When CBS Sports first revealed on Coleman’s status in late April, sources around the program described a more complicated picture: physical symptoms, personal strain, homesickness and the pressure that came with Coleman’s rapid rise from a fringe four-star recruit to a top-10 transfer and overnight millionaire. Sources also pointed to lingering vertigo symptoms connected to a head injury suffered at an unknown point during his time at Penn State.
At the same time, there were concerns inside the program about Coleman’s tardiness, engagement level and ability to consistently meet team responsibilities early in his Tennessee tenure. Those concerns never fully went away.
“The kid is not a bad kid,” a Tennessee source told CBS Sports this spring. “He’s just got personal issues right now.”
That was the feeling around Coleman in April, when some inside the program still held out hope that he could eventually work through his situation and become part of Tennessee’s 2026 team. Coleman remained in Knoxville around that time and had even gone to church with Vols defensive line coach Rodney Garner, a detail that reflected the program’s continued attempt to support him.
But the optimism that existed in the spring did not turn into a return.
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel addressed Coleman’s status following the Vols’ spring game, framing the matter as something Coleman needed to handle away from the field.
“Ultimately, Chaz is dealing with some things off the field, and he’s got to handle that and go through that process,” Heupel mentioned. “We’re here to help and support him in all of those ways and will continue to do that. But that’s ultimately the beginning part of his journey right now, that some things that he’s got to work through.”
Two months later, that process has ended with Coleman off the roster.
Why Tennessee wanted Coleman badly
A splash addition in Tennessee’s transfer class, Coleman ranked as the No. 7 overall player of the 2026 cycle, according to Cooper Petagna’s 247Sports Big Board. Coleman had just one sack in 2025 at Penn State, but finished the year with a 90.3 PFF pass-rush grade, making him one of the most coveted players on the open market with three years of eligibility remaining.
The Vols pursued him aggressively because of both talent and need. Tennessee had to replenish its edge-rusher room and believed Coleman could be an instant-impact piece in Knowles’ defense. The Vols also had the advantage of familiarity in the portal process, with Coleman’s former Penn State defensive coordinator, Knowles, and several other former Nittany Lions coaches helping lead the recruiting effort.
At one point early in the process, Ohio State was viewed by some as the favorite for Coleman, a native of Warren, Ohio. LSU was also involved. But sources indicated Coleman’s connection to the Tennessee staff and the size of the Vols’ offer helped lure him to Knoxville.
Industry sources who recruited Coleman speculated that his family pushed him toward the highest bidder. But Coleman was likely getting $2 million-plus from any school he signed with, including Ohio State, and sources mentioned LSU would have paid him more, while Penn State could have probably paid him equal had he stayed.
Coleman was one of four former Penn State defensive players who signed with Tennessee this offseason, joining Knowles and several other former Nittany Lions coaches in Knoxville. His addition was supposed to be the headliner of that defensive migration.
Instead, it became another high-profile Tennessee absence that spilled into public view.
In May 2025, the Vols were at the center of one of the most prominent NIL disputes in the sport when Iamaleava left the team and eventually ended up at UCLA in what effectively became a quarterback swap after Joey Aguilar transferred from the Bruins to Knoxville. In July, Carter’s status with the team fell into serious doubt after a locker room altercation. Carter, at the time arguably Tennessee’s most heralded returning defensive player, left the team midseason and eventually transferred to Colorado.
Coleman’s circumstances were not identical to either of those situations, but the result is eerily familiar in that Tennessee will enter the season without a marquee player it expected to build around.
Tennessee’s win total was set at 7.5 earlier in the offseason. CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford picked the Vols to go 8-4 before Coleman’s removal from the roster.
What’s next for Coleman?
Though Coleman has been medically disqualified from the football program, the Vols have kept Coleman on scholarship, per a source. That makes his immediate future as a football player somewhat murky. The transfer portal is closed, and the NCAA recently addressed the ghost transfer loophole that those like Xavier Lucas (from Wisconsin to Miami) took advantage of to transfer outside the portal structure, which means Coleman has few options to leave and play football elsewhere in 2026.
NCAA bylaws do make an exception to the transfer portal windows for athletes who have had an aid reduction, cancellation or nonrenewal. However, with Coleman remaining on scholarship, it doesn’t seem like that exception could be used for Coleman to enter the portal before it’s expected to open again in January, 2027.
It’s also unclear whether Coleman wants to play football in 2026, after speaking with several sources. If he does, the conversation about Coleman’s scholarship status with Tennessee would have to be reopened.
