Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel adressed the departure of quarterback Nico Iamaleava on multiple occasions during last July’s Southeastern Conference media days event in Atlanta.
On Monday, Heupel had to discuss the absence of edge rusher Chaz Coleman.
Coleman was the highest-rated arrival that the Volunteers acquired through the NCAA transfer portal back in January, with the 6-foot-4, 250-pounder having shown an abundance of potential as a Penn State freshman last season. He went through several spring practices before taking some time away, and his status was uncertain until late last month, when Tennessee revealed that he had been medically disqualified.
“At the end of the day, we’re here to help our guys inside of the building, with Chaz being one of those guys,” Heupel said during a Zoom call before taking the media days stage in Tampa. “As young men deal with so many different things in today’s landscape of college football and the pressures that they feel, see, hear or whatever it might be, we are here to help them. There was a good portion of, while he was here with us on our roster, when he wasn’t necessarily integrated into the locker room because of some of the things that he was dealing with.
“I always want to do right by kids, and we have certainly done that as a program. I probably feel like it was a bigger story outside of the building than it necessarily was inside of the building, and we’re ready to move forward.”