College football coaches continually preach the “next man up” mentality throughout the course of a season.
That was not the case at Tennessee during the NCAA transfer portal’s two-week window in early January.
“Next man up” became “next man out” at the edge rusher position for the Volunteers, with Jordan Ross transferring to LSU and Caleb Herring to South Carolina. Ross and Herring were expected to fill the void left by Joshua Josephs, who was Tennessee’s senior starter last year, but that chore now falls on the incoming duo of Chaz Coleman and Jordan Norman.
Coleman arrived from Penn State, where he played last season under new Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, while Norman came in from Tulane.
“Chaz is explosive, and he is difficult to block,” Knowles said last week in a news conference. “He has a little bit of an invisible cloak, where he can twist and turn and beat guys one-on-one. He has great initial quickness off the ball.