Former Tennessee Vols assistant coach Doug Matthews created quite a stir last week when he said on Big Orange Sunday that EDGE Chaz Coleman had been dismissed from the UT football program.

Coleman, who transferred from Penn State to Tennessee in January, missed most of spring practice and hasn’t really been around the team the last couple of months. His status with the program has been up in the air as a result.

“Chaz Coleman, a young man who came in out of the transfer portal from Penn State,” said Matthews on May 31. “A talented player, but young and inexperienced. But he really was being counted on probably to be a starter at EDGE rusher, I would think. [He’s] no longer with the program. I think it’s probably pretty mutual, but he was dismissed this past week after I think about as good an effort as Coach (Josh) Heupel and this staff could have [made] to keep him there. It didn’t work out. Those things happen.”

Coleman and Tennessee, however, haven’t actually parted ways yet. VolQuest’s Austin Price and Brent Hubbs reported after Matthews’ comments that Coleman is still technically part of the program.

“He’s still around, he’s still part of the program,” said Price on June 1. “He arrived back in town on Friday. They started summer workouts last Monday, and he did not show back up until Friday. I think it’s probably heading in a certain direction, it’s just not there yet. Chaz Coleman’s got to want to put forth the effort, and to this point, he just has not shown a willingness to do that.

“It’s probably heading towards a separation — a permanent separation — sooner rather than later. But it’s not to that point yet. Just because with certain things — it’s not as simple as just ‘You’re off the team’ — because of some other stuff. It’s just not as simple as that.”

Doug Matthews addresses his Chaz Coleman comments

Matthews, who served as an assistant at Tennessee under legendary head coach Johnny Majors, vaguely addressed his comments about Coleman on the June 7 edition of Big Orange Sunday.

The former Tennessee assistant didn’t say Coleman’s name, but he acknowledged that he made a mistake by “getting ahead of the head coach (Josh Heupel)”.

“Last Sunday, I did not do my job,” said Matthews. “My job on this show is to use my background and experience — and my experiences as a coach at the University of Tennessee, my relationships with the leaders of the football program up there and other programs for the last 45 years — to explain and give information and analysis on Volunteer football. That’s it. Last Sunday, I got ahead of the head football coach at the University of Tennessee. That’s bad on my part.

“If you’ve listened to my shows over the years, another thing I learned from John Majors was we always used to do lessons after the ball game, or after a recruiting visit, on what did we do well [and] what we could do better. That’s a big part of what this show is all about — my in-season analysis of Big Orange football. I failed in that last week. I got out ahead of the head football coach. And that, again, is bad on my part. I’ll leave it at that.”

It’s unclear if Matthews misinterpreted information he received, or if he revealed some news before it’s actually official.

Either way, Matthews took accountability for the premature report, and that’s all you can do in a situation like this. Everyone makes mistakes. This situation with Coleman, in particular, has been difficult to understand — even for those directly involved.

And to be fair to Matthews, it still appears that Coleman and Tennessee are heading toward a breakup — we just don’t know when that will become official.