The Tennessee Vols are far from the only college football team that’s dealt with NIL drama over the last few years, but it seems like it’s becoming the norm for Josh Heupel’s program.

Tennessee has regularly had small NIL fires to put out under Heupel — such as Tyler Baron and Rickey Gibson threatening to transfer before getting new deals (both eventually transferred in later seasons).

And lately, the Vols have had quite a few big NIL/roster fires.

Roster drama is becoming normal at Tennessee

A year ago, the Vols’ depth chart got turned upside down when quarterback Nico Iamaleava transferred to UCLA in the midst of NIL negotiations gone wrong.

Just as the Iamaleava situation got settled — which led to Joey Aguilar landing on Rocky Top — the Vols had another tough situation pop up.

Defensive back Boo Carter missed numerous team activities last summer, which eventually led to his dismissal from the team last November.

The situation with Carter last summer wasn’t an NIL dispute, but he nearly left Tennessee following the 2024 season while negotiating a new NIL deal (so there was an NIL element involved).

Despite Carter’s NIL drama, the Vols chose to keep him last winter instead of safety Jakobe Thomas, who transferred to Miami.

Thomas proved to be the far more productive player last season, earning Second-Team All-ACC honors while helping the Hurricanes reach the national championship game (Thomas set career highs in 2025 with 75 tackles, 3.5 sacks, and five interceptions).

Carter, meanwhile, saw his snaps diminish throughout the 2025 season as he often appeared checked out during games.

It’s easy to say that Tennessee should’ve kept Thomas in retrospect. I thought keeping the extremely talented Carter was the right move at the time last winter. But I’m not on the coaching staff interacting with the players every day. The signs were clearly there that Thomas was a better option for the Vols last season.

Carter’s dad, after all, admitted this offseason that Colorado is where his son always wanted to be (and that’s where Carter landed after entering the transfer portal).

Thomas, on the other hand, grew up rooting for the Vols. He said last fall that he “loves that place” while talking about Tennessee, but he transferred because he was locked into a backup role with the Vols (betting on himself was the right move — Thomas was a third round draft pick in April).

Tennessee made the classic mistake of picking the more talented player on paper over the player who actually wanted to wear the Power T because it meant something personally.

Is Tennessee about to repeat the Jakobe Thomas mistake?

Tennessee is once again in the middle of some roster drama this summer.

The Vols are currently waiting to find out if Penn State EDGE transfer Chaz Coleman is going to be part of the team.

Coleman was one of Tennessee’s most high-profile offseason additions, but he missed time during spring while dealing with some personal issues.

The sophomore pass rusher hasn’t reported to Tennessee yet this week for voluntary summer workouts.

And until he reports, his status with the program is up in the air.

“He wasn’t supposed to be back until [Wednesday],” said VolQuest’s Austin Price on WNML’s Josh and Swain on Wednesday. “The staff knew that, but he’s yet to make it to town. And at this point, until he does, then it kind of is what it is. I mean, there’s not a lot of optimism until he makes it back to town that he’s going to make it back to town. I think he talked to (Vols DL coach) Rodney Garner earlier this week. I don’t think he’s had a lot of conversations otherwise.

“They’re trying to tightrope the Grand Canyon with this deal, because you want to be there for the kid because he does have some stuff going on off the field. But at the same time, you don’t want another situation like you had last summer (with Boo Carter) where a kid no-shows for a stretch, and the team struggles with that… [Tennessee] can monitor (the situation) all they want, but at some point [Heupel will] have to rip the band-aid off of this situation and probably move on if [Coleman] doesn’t come back.”

It’s still possible that Coleman shows up and contributes for the Vols this fall. No one knows how this situation is going to play out. But there’s certainly cause for concern until there’s some clarity.

The tough part for Vols fans is that Tennessee let a talented EDGE in Jordan Ross, a former five-star recruit, leave for LSU in favor of Coleman. Ross is projected to be a starter for the Tigers this fall. And he seems to be adjusting well to life in Baton Rouge.

Again, we don’t know how any of this will play out, but I don’t think it’s crazy to think that Tennessee could be dealing with another Jakobe Thomas situation where they chose to go after the wrong fit.

If Coleman never suits up for the Vols and if Ross has a big season at LSU, there’s going to be a lot of questions about roster management coming at Heupel. And for good reason — making the same mistake two offseasons in a row is something the Vols can’t do if they want to be a championship-caliber program. The margins are simply too thin in college football these days (depth doesn’t exist) to continue making mistakes with players who are expected to start at key positions.