Tennessee football’s star Penn State transfer gets concerning update amid mysterious absence

Tennessee football stamped itself as a contender in 2024 when it made a run all the way to the College Football Playoff. In 2025, the Vols fell short of expectations, finishing 8-5 and far away from the CFP conversation.

As a result, Josh Heupel and the Vols had a lot of work to do this offseason to rebuild their roster and get ready to compete near the top of the SEC again next season. One of the biggest additions that Tennessee made was the signing of EDGE Chaz Coleman, who came over from Penn State.

Coleman started the offseason program with Tennessee, but now he is away from the team. He missed the second half of spring practice with the team and is not present for voluntary for the first week of summer workouts this week, according to On3 Sports.

Heupel released a statement about Coleman’s absence.

“Chaz has been dealing with some things, and we’re here to support him,” Heupel said, via On3 Sports. “We’ll continue to go through that process.”

Coleman was one of the top EDGE recruits in the class of 2025, but he had inconsistent production in his first season of college football with Penn State. In nine games, he recorded eight tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack.

While that on-field production isn’t going to get anybody super excited about adding Coleman to their defense, his physical traits and lack of experience means that he still has plenty of room to develop into an elite pass-rusher in the coming years. For a Tennessee team that desperately needs some juice off the edge, that would be a welcome development.

The biggest question in Knoxville isn going to be at quarterback after losing Joey Aguilar. George MacIntyre and Faizon Brandon are competing for the starting job, and who wins it and his performance could very well dictate the ceiling for this Tennessee team. Having a great defense would be a major boost to that as well, and getting Coleman back is crucial in that equation.

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