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Staff Photo by Patrick Smith Former McCallie standout and Tennessee quarterback B.J. Coleman looks across the field during a pre-game warm up before their game against Northern Illinois.
In a decision that has been widely expected for several days, former McCallie School quarterback B.J. Coleman made it official Wednesday night by confirming to the Times Free Press that he will sign scholarship papers with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga today.
Coleman, who left the University of Tennessee program two weeks ago, had spoken with several other teams before deciding to return home. He was in Knoxville on Wednesday but planned to return to Chattanooga Thursday morning to sign the paperwork and there is a 2:30 news conference scheduled today at McCallie.
“I’m excited,” Coleman said. “I think there are big things coming for the UTC program with this new staff, and I can’t wait to be a part of it and just get back to concentrating on football.”
Coleman will play for new Mocs coach Russ Huesman, who was also a college teammate of Coleman’s father, Bryon.
He will also be reunited with former Blue Tornado receiver Joel Bradford, a redshirt sophomore for the Mocs. Those two combined to lead McCallie to the 2006 Division II-AA state title game, a season in which Coleman rewrote the city’s passing records and claimed his second TSSAA Mr. Football award.
Coleman left UT because he said he believed he was not getting a fair chance to compete for the starting quarterback job. He had been impressive throughout the spring but was still taking most of the second-team snaps, behind rising senior Jonathan Crompton.
Coleman will begin competing for the Mocs’ starting job this fall and has three years of eligibility remaining.
Stephen has covered high school sports in the tri-state area since the early 1990s, starting at the News-Free Press as a 19-year-old reporter. He has been with the Times Free Press since its inception and has been an assistant sports editor for more than seven years. Stephen is among the most decorated writers in the TFP’s newsroom, winning numerous state and regional awards for his writing on high school athletics. He has two children, Riley ...
Good luck to BJ Coleman!
With as much publicity as the Chattanooga Times gave the kid you would have thought he would be signing with USC or Oklahoma.
He was a 3rd string QB with the Fulmer regime and the new coaching staff agreed.
Things worked out well for BJ Coleman who will now be playing at UTC rather than sitting the bench for two more years at Tennessee.
Welcome home BJ.
Now you don't have to waste three years with lame kiffin and the legions of creamsicle lemmings.
Prove em' all wrong...B.J.! Someday when you are a first round pick...could you send me a 50 yard line ticket for the first game? :0)
If BJ Coleman is a first round pick...Then they need to disband the NFL. Hopefully for UTC he doesnt quit after the first game of getting his rear-end spoon fed to him.
Good luck to Coleman and hopefully good riddance to this overblown story. "He had been impressive throughout the spring but was still taking most of the second-team snaps" - maybe that should read he had been improving through the spring while working with the second team. I'm all for the guy doing well after he quit at UT, but let's try to maintain some perspective and balance.
Great news! The Mocs are now poised to go 3-9 instead of the customary 1-11. Words I'll never hear in my lifetime..."With the first pick of the 2012 NFL draft, the Oakland Raiders select BJ Coleman, Quarterback--Tennessee-Chattanooga".
Let's see - he left UTK b/c he believes he deserved more playing time and reps at the major SEC school. His behavior and comments since leaving lead many to believe that he is a spoiled brat who got so much attention in Chattanooga that he developed an over-sized ego that requires constant stroking. (TO, anyone? oh yeah, TO is actually a great athlete...)
Signed with one of the worst FCS (1-AA) teams, instead of an FCS powerhouse program that should clearly want him based on how unbelievably great he is, because it is his hometown team and they'll do things like have a press conference to stroke his ego upon signing, and b/c his daddy has influence with the coach so he can be treated as the next Johnny B Good.
Sounds to me like a guy who wasn't good enough for either of two coaching staffs to make him #1 is now settling down to the level where his combination of talent, work ethic, attitude, etc, actually belongs.
If Beej (as he calls himself) was the great future #1 draft pick that he thinks he is (and some posters think too) then he would've had better FCS or D2 options than the pathetic UTc program.
Wow folks, lets quit worrying about BJ Coleman's past and get excited that the Mocs have a very good quarterback on their team that should help improve their record as well as recruiting over the next three years for the rest of the team. Its good for the city for the Mocs to do well. I'm rooting for the 'nooga, GO MOCS!
Oh yeah, "Lyin" Lane thinks Crompton and Stephens are better QB's ? No wonder he went 5-15 with Oakland.....
Mr. Shoalcreek, you obviously don't know BJ or his family, or anything that went on with him at UT or your comments would not have been so shallow and mean spirited. I would love to have seen BJ stay at UT, but he felt it was better for him to leave. I wish him all the luck.
Help me understand why UTK fans are so upset about the publicity for BJ coming to the MOCS ? This has nothing to do with UTK....they need to be worried about the drilling that Florida is going to give them this fall....i just don't get why the VOL fans are so vocal about this ?
What a step down. When Crompton left or sat out bj would have been in there. Crybaby took his ball and went home.
"Spoken to several other teams" my azz!! What a croch of crap! Little BJ thought he should be the starter because he was so good. If Little BJ was so good why didn't any top schools fight to get him??? I will tell you why....because he is a spoiled brat who will never be heard from again! You will be kicking yourself for years to come on this one Cry Baby!!! GOOOOOOOOO Vols!!!!
It doesn't matter who the quarterback is, B.J. Coleman or Brett Favre. Chattanooga will continue to stink (and I only say stink because this is a family newspaper) at football.
End UTC football now and put the students, who are forking over big bucks in athletics fees to support a moribund program, out of their collective misery. UTC is a great basketball, softball, tennis, golf, wrestling school ... but football is a complete waste of $2 million a year. Get over it!
Speaking of Farve who will he retire from next year?
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